In what appears to be a guerrilla action by an unknown group, the windows of the New York gallery Lévy Gorvy Dayan were adorned with a fictional letter from the owners expressing distress over “the death toll in Gaza and the ongoing occupation of Palestinian land.”
The black posters, visible earlier this morning at the gallery’s location on the Upper East Side, displayed a text signed by joint gallerists Dominique Lévy, Brett Gorvy, and Amalia Dayan titled “We Were Wrong: An Apology for the Open Letter of October 20,” a reference to a real statement published in Artforum by the dealers.
“Throughout history, artists and the arts community have been able to demonstrate what change looks like in public. With some sadness but much conviction, we would like to do the same,” the fictional letter read, apologizing for an October 20 statement written by Lévy, Gorvy, and Dayan that criticized an October 19 open letter calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The incident was reported at 10:20am this morning, the New York Police Department (NYPD) told Hyperallergic. A police investigation is underway.
“Further conversations and consideration — as well as the horrifying death toll in Gaza and the ongoing censorship of pro-Palestinian voices — have convinced us that our letter on October 20th expressing our ‘distress’ at artists and art workers calling for an end to Zionist crimes against the Palestinian people was deeply, tragically misguided,” the fabricated apology continued.
The gallery clarified on social media that it did not author the letter and that the views expressed in the text “do not reflect those of the gallery,” attributing the work to “an unknown group.”
“These individuals targeted Lévy Gorvy Dayan — doctoring and decontextualizing the original language of a letter written on October 20,” the gallery wrote. Hyperallergic has contacted the gallery for additional information on the incident.
In their October 20 statement, the art dealer trio protested a pro-ceasefire open letter signed by thousands of artists and cultural workers because it did not “acknowledge the ongoing mass hostage emergency, the historical context, and the atrocities committed in Israel on October 7.”
More backlash followed, leading to the firing of the publication’s Editor-in-Chief David Velasco days later. Several counterletters penned by Israeli artists and others were also circulated. The original letter was later amended to include a condemnation of Hamas’s “horrific massacres” on October 7, with its authors acknowledging that they were not able to share the update with all 8,000 signatories.
In response to the storm over the open letter and Velasco’s termination, about 700 arts and cultural workers joined a boycott of Artforum and the sister art publications Artnews and Art in America — all owned by Penske Media.
“We want independent forums for art,” they wrote.
