Kim Sajet, the director of the National Portrait Gallery whom President Trump announced he was firing last month, is stepping down, explaining in a statement that she thought her decision was in the best interests of the institution.
This week the Smithsonian, which oversees the museum and has long operated as independent of the executive branch, reiterated that it retains the legal authority over personnel including Ms. Sajet, whom the president had criticized as partisan. But the institution also said it was committed to presenting its scholarship “free from political or partisan influence.”
Ms. Sajet did not discuss the president or his remarks in her statement, which was included in an email sent to the staff by Lonnie G. Bunch III, the Smithsonian’s secretary.
“This was not an easy decision, but I believe it is the right one,” she said. “From the very beginning, my guiding principle has been to put the museum first. Today, I believe that stepping aside is the best way to serve the institution I hold so deeply in my heart.”
In his email, Mr. Bunch said: “We thank Kim for her service. She put the needs of the Institution above her own, and for that we thank her.”
He added that Kevin Gover, the Smithsonian’s under secretary for museums and culture, will serve as the National Portrait Gallery’s acting director.
The White House had created a list of grievances that it suggested made Ms. Sajet an inappropriate choice to lead a national museum, including public comments about racial and gender inequality in America.
The Smithsonian’s Board of Regents, which governs the institution’s 21 museums as well as libraries, research centers and the National Zoo, appears to have taken the issues raised by the president seriously even as it challenged his authority to fire Ms. Sajet.
In an email to staff this week, Mr. Bunch agreed to evaluate “the need for any changes to policies, procedures or personnel.”
“While the vast majority of our content is rooted in meticulous research and thoughtful analysis of history and facts,” he wrote, “we recognize that, on occasion, some of our work has not aligned with our institutional values of scholarship, even-handedness and nonpartisanship. For that, we must all work to do better.”
Private cultural institutions do not typically have litmus tests for the political leanings of their directors. But Mr. Trump’s announcement prompted questions of whether national museums, funded largely by the federal government, needed to be conspicuously neutral in their handling of hot-button political issues.
The Smithsonian receives two-thirds of its $1 billion in annual funding from the federal government.
Leaders of cultural organizations have been watching the Portrait Gallery situation closely, as the Trump administration displays a pronounced interest in influencing the arts in Washington in ways that were rarely apparent during Mr. Trump’s first term in office.
In a recent executive order, the president called on Vice President JD Vance to overhaul the Smithsonian with the help of Congress (whomever is the vice president serves on the Board of Regents). In his order, the president described a “revisionist movement” across the country that “seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.”
And at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — where the president was greeted with cheers and boos at a performance of “Les Miserables” this week — Mr. Trump took over as chairman of the board, with one of his allies appointed as the institution’s interim president.
In the case of Ms. Sajet, Mr. Trump had called her “a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position.”
The White House’s list of grievances describes Ms. Sajet as partisan, citing examples such as her remarks at a 2018 “race and justice summit” that “the ‘portrait of America’ has never been only about meritocracy but also social access, racial inequality, gender difference, religious preference and political power.”
With Ms. Sajet’s departure, Mr. Bunch will likely need to manage some fallout from those who object to the president’s intrusion into the Smithsonian’s affairs while working to move the institution forward after a bruising chapter. Mr. Bunch himself has spoken about the importance of diversity and inclusion, particularly during his tenure as the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, whose exhibits explore both the struggle and triumphs of Black people throughout history.
Ms. Sajet, 60, was the first woman to run the portrait gallery. Born in Nigeria, raised in Australia and a citizen of the Netherlands, she earned a master’s degree in art history at Bryn Mawr College; a master’s degree in business administration at Melbourne University Business School in Australia; a bachelor’s degree, also in art history, at Melbourne University; and a degree in museum studies from Deakin University in Australia. She also completed arts leadership training at the Harvard Business School, the Getty and National Arts Strategies.
She served first as curator and then the director of two Australian art museums from 1989 until 1995. From 1998 until 2001, Ms. Sajet was the director of corporate relations at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and then spent seven years as senior vice president and deputy director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. There she became more widely known in the museum world for helping arrange the joint $68 million purchase of Thomas Eakins’s painting “The Gross Clinic.”
She then served for six years as president and chief executive at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania before taking on the Smithsonian role in 2013.
The Smithsonian’s 17-member Board of Regents includes six congressional appointees. Nine “citizen” members are nominated by the board and appointed for a six-year term by a joint resolution signed by the president. The vice president and chief justice of the United States are also on the board by virtue of their positions.
The president has proposed to Congress a 12 percent cut to the Smithsonian’s budget, which would affect other museums under its umbrella, such as the planned National Museum of the American Latino and the Anacostia Community Museum.
Zachary Small contributed reporting.
Robin Pogrebin, who has been a reporter for The Times for nearly 30 years, covers arts and culture.
Graham Bowley is an investigative reporter covering the world of culture for The Times.
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