A Museum Held a Show of Protest Art. Then the Artists Protested the Museum.

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Just after 11 a.m. on Thursday, a group of about 20 artists, many wearing black despite the searing sun, arrived at the Design Museum in London with an unusual aim: to remove their art from an exhibition.

Their works appeared in “Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008-18,” a show that traces the recent history of activist art and design, starting with Shepard Fairey’s “Hope” poster from Barack Obama’s first presidential election campaign, through to a “Make America Great Again” baseball cap.

The artists were upset that the Design Museum had rented its atrium to Leonardo, one of the world’s largest aerospace and defense companies, for a drinks reception in July. Many of the artists in “Hope to Nope,” including Mr. Fairey and Milton Glaser, the designer behind the “I ♥ NY” logo, expressed shock when they learned about the reception, and asked for their works to be removed from the museum. On Thursday, the group arrived to check that this had happened, or to do it themselves if necessary.

Charlie Waterhouse, creative director of This Ain’t Rock ’n’ Roll, a design agency with work in the show, said, “It’s a quite wonderful irony that it’s blown up with an exhibition like this.” The museum had criticized the activists for making a fuss, he added. “That’s also ironic,” he said, “criticizing us for being the very thing we were only a minute ago being celebrated for.”

When the artists entered the museum, their works were already neatly packed and waiting for them. They spent several minutes unwrapping them to hold them up for waiting photographers.

The museum said it had removed 29 works, a third of those on display. They were replaced with signs reading, “This artwork was removed at the request of the lender who has objected to a private event by an aerospace and defense company that was held at the Design Museum.”

Cultural institutions are regularly the target of protests in Britain if they accept sponsorship or funding from companies seen as unethical. Tate and the British Museum have been targeted for exhibitions sponsored by the oil company BP. In March, the defense contractor BAE Systems withdrew its sponsorship from an arts festival, the Great Exhibition of the North, after several musicians pulled out. In the United States, protests have been seen recently at museums that have taken money from members of the Sackler family whom protesters link to the opioid crisis.

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