Workers have begun dismantling one of the Kennedy Center’s most beloved sculptures, tearing apart the towering artwork as the Trump administration presses ahead with its bid to remake the national performing arts center.
Photos showed the startling scene on Wednesday, as the artwork “Blue,” the 2019 sculpture by acclaimed American artist Joel Shapiro, began being wrapped, cut apart, and hauled away from the grounds of the D.C. institution.
The images capture in brutal detail what has happened to one of Washington’s most recognizable cultural landmarks since Trump seized control of the Kennedy Center last year.
The Kennedy Center says the sculpture is being “deinstalled” and that Shapiro’s representatives will determine where it goes next.
But the New York Times reported that internal documents showed it was targeted for elimination after Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center.
Many Washingtonians learned about the operation through a National Park Service notice warning of road closures to accommodate the work.
“I have friends who’ve driven great distances just to see the statue,” Kennedy Center volunteer Joanne Martin told Fox5 on Wednesday morning as workers began taking down the artwork.
“It’s happy and wonderful and artistic. The Kennedy Center belongs to all of us. No one ever asked me what I thought about removing the statue, and I don’t know why and under whose authority it’s being removed, nor do I know where it’s going.”
In an Instagram post, advocacy group Hands Off the Arts told fans of the piece to “say your final goodbyes to Blue, Joel Shapiro’s beloved figure.”
“Wednesday, September 2, 2026 will forever be known as the day the United States government tore down a piece of public art at the behest of a petulant crybaby,” the group wrote.
“But it won’t be the last.”
“Blue” was installed outside the REACH, the Kennedy Center’s $250 million expansion, in 2019.
The sculpture had become a prominent part of the site and was visible from the surrounding roads and the Potomac River.
Its removal comes days after the Trump-led Kennedy Center board raised the extraordinary prospect of demolishing the venue if the president isn’t allowed to shut it down for renovations—including putting his name back on the building.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper had earlier ruled that only Congress had the authority to change the Kennedy Center’s name, forcing Trump’s own name and branding to be removed in June.
Undeterred, the MAGA-filled board voted this month on a new push to keep the venue as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, but also add the words “Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump” on the building.
The grounds would also become “President Donald J. Trump Plaza,” with another Trump reference potentially added if a proposed fund reaches $100 million.
After a hearing before last week, the administration agreed not to put Trump’s name on the building until October 8.
But Justice Department attorneys warned in a court filing that the current facility was “structurally unsound, fundamentally unsafe, and embarrassing to the Nation’s Capital.”
What’s more, the administration’s lawyers argued, blocking Trump’s plan to close the center for two years while he rebuilds it could cause donors to flee and contributions to dry up.
“Without those efforts, the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site,” wrote Justice Department attorney Brantley T. Mayer.
