Officials with the U.S. State Department have removed a painting by out artist Kehinde Wiley from the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic, which they have variously described as “very woke” and as depicting a lesbian picnic.

The painting, Young Artists After Siamesas 1960, was commissioned by the U.S. government under former President Barack Obama in 2013 and has hung in the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo since 2015.

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In an August 21 interview with former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer, Erin Scavino, the director of the State Department’s Art in Embassies program, said that Leah Campos, the US ambassador to the Dominican Republic, “had a piece of art hanging in her embassy that we worked very hard to get taken down.”

“It was very woke. It was by the gentlemen who did Obama’s portrait, and it was aesthetically terrifying,” Scavino said.

It remains unclear what Scavino found “terrifying” about the image, which is based on works by two Dominican artists and depicts four Dominican art students against a backdrop of flowers. (For his part, Wiley has begun selling t-shirts featuring the phrase “aesthetically terrifying” on his website.) 

In an August 24 statement to the New York Times, a State Department spokesperson referenced a different Wiley painting based on the biblical story of Judith beheading Holofernes, depicting a Black woman holding the severed head of a white person, as well as sexual assault allegations made against the artist, which Wiley has denied.

“The work of an individual with such violent and racist words and depictions has no place in the America First State Department,” the spokesperson told the Times.

Prior to its removal last month, the painting had been covered by a tarp depicting an American flag. On August 11, Campos — the sister-in-law of Transportation Secretary and former reality TV star Sean Duffy — posted a video to Instagram showing workmen removing the painting.

“In the Trump Administration and under my leadership we are turning away from globalist and woke ideologies and instead embracing American patriotism and the beauty of our great country!” the post’s caption read.

In an August 28 statement, Campos told Vanity Fair it is her intention “that everything we project from US Embassy Santo Domingo, including the art and decor, reflect the beauty, strength, and commitment to liberty of the United States of America and its people.”

Several months earlier, during an April radio interview, Campos gave more insight into her first impression of Wiley’s painting and what she found objectionable about it.

“I saw a huge painting of a picnic in a park with flowers and some lesbians,” she said. “It was total evidence of the indoctrination the Biden administration wanted to do by bringing that ideology here to the Dominican people.” (As the Timesnotes, the 2015 painting predates the Biden administration, and the Dominican Republic decriminalized homosexuality in 1822.)

In an interview with Vanity Fair late last month, Scavino defended the painting’s removal.

“The painting depicts four Dominican artists whom Wiley selected after immersing himself in the local art community,” she said. “In my view, the mission of an America First State Department is not simply to use American diplomatic facilities to promote the people and culture of another nation. Cultural exchange and works that meaningfully connect American and host-country history and culture would be a more appropriate expression of cultural diplomacy.”

Scavino also confirmed that the State Department is consulting with its legal team to determine whether it can legally sell Young Artists After Siamesas 1960 and “other works of art for which similar concerns arise.”

“I would surmise that an auction would be the most appropriate, but that is very far in the future at this point, and there is no point in conjecture,” she said.

A source told Vanity Fair that while the sale of a work of art commissioned specifically to be a permanent part of the Art in Embassies collection and paid for with taxpayer dollars would be technically legal, it would be unprecedented. However, former State Department official told the Times that Scavino may be exceeding her authority, noting that the role of Art in Embassies director is to build the collection, not dismantle it.