Kehinde Wiley asks Trump to let him buy back embassy painting
Kehinde Wiley wants to buy back his own painting from the United States government.
The artist sent a letter to Donald Trump asking to repurchase the work, ARTnews reported on 29 September 2026. The letter was addressed directly to the president. It asks for the chance to take the painting back into his own hands.
The work at the centre of the request was made for diplomacy. It was commissioned, meaning ordered and made for a particular place, for the US Embassy in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, according to The Art Newspaper. The embassy is one of Washington's diplomatic posts abroad. The painting was created to hang there, in front of staff, local visitors and official guests.
That hang did not last. The US State Department in Washington removed the Wiley painting from the embassy in the Dominican Republic, as reported by The New York Times. The removal was first reported in August 2026. The story returned to the headlines in late September, when new details emerged about the response inside the administration.
The painting depicts Dominicans. That subject was tied to its setting in Santo Domingo. It was a portrait of local people, made for a building that represents the United States in their country.
Officials in the Trump administration mocked Wiley's work, the Times reported on 28 September. Some officials also suggested selling the removed painting at auction, meaning a public sale where the work goes to the highest bidder. No sale has been confirmed. The remarks turned an internal decision about embassy decoration into a public dispute about the fate of the canvas.
For anyone new to this kind of row, the twist is simple. The painter now wants to become the buyer. Wiley's letter asks Trump to allow a repurchase, which would return a government-commissioned work to the studio that made it.
What happens next rests with the White House and the State Department. They hold the painting. They decide whether it stays in storage, returns to view, is sold, or is offered back to the artist.
