Around 20 protesters assembled outside the Museum of Modern Art in New York on the evening of 12 November, hours before the museum's annual benefit for its Debra and Leon Black Family Film Center, at which the filmmaker Steven Spielberg was to be honoured. The demonstrators called on Spielberg to turn down the recognition while the venue still carries the name of Leon Black, a MoMA trustee whose financial relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has fuelled a long-running campaign for his removal from the board.

The feminist campaign group We Are UltraViolet sent Spielberg a letter, reviewed by Hyperallergic, urging him to boycott the museum until it severs ties with Black and renames the film centre. The letter notes the museum has channelled the proceeds of the last four benefits into the centre, created in 2019 after a 40 million dollar gift from the private equity billionaire, and refers to three sexual assault and misconduct accusations against Black, all of which he denies.

Black stepped down as chief executive of Apollo Global Management in 2021, when it emerged that he had paid Epstein 158 million dollars for financial advice between 2012 and 2017, after Epstein's first conviction. He also stepped down as MoMA's board chairman that year, following an open letter signed by more than 150 artists, but he remains a trustee. Scrutiny intensified in September, when the US House of Representatives voted unanimously to hold him in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas in an Epstein investigation. This month he sued Representative Robert Garcia for defamation.

Playwright Gracie Gardner, who first posted an open letter to Spielberg on Instagram, told Hyperallergic she was struck by the public response, noting Spielberg had built a career telling stories about the dignity of women and children. Other protesters carried signs criticising Black's support for pro-Israel organisations. MoMA did not reply to a request for comment.