A portrait of tech billionaire Elon Musk was removed from a space and technology exhibition at a German museum following backlash over a controversial gesture Musk made Monday at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.
Many interpreted Musk’s gesture at the inauguration as a Nazi salute, though Musk called the controversy “dirty tricks” from critics.
As the founder and CEO of SpaceX, Musk was prominently featured in a portrait among “visionaries from the past and future” in the astronautics gallery at the Deutsches Museum of Science and Technology. However, the artwork was temporarily covered in November, amid Musk’s increasing political involvement, and has now been removed.
“It can always be problematic to honor people who are still alive in such a prominent place in an exhibition because it can be understood as an uncritical tribute,” a museum spokesperson told Fortune Wednesday. “A person’s lifetime achievements can often only be correctly assessed in retrospect.”
The founder and CEO of both SpaceX and electric car company Tesla, Musk is currently the richest man in the world with a net worth of over $430 billion. In last year’s election alone, he spent approximately $277 million to support Trump and other congressional Republican candidates. In November, Trump appointed Musk to head up newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
At an event for the presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C. on January 20, Musk thanked attendees on the stage and then raised his right arm upwards in a diagonal gesture with his fingers together and palm facing downward. He then subsequently repeated this gesture to audience members sitting behind him.
The gesture is most commonly associated with Adolf Hitler and is illegal in Germany and Austria. It is also classified as hate speech if it is used to spread Nazi ideology in other European countries. The Roman salute, used by Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and his supporters, was adapted by the Nazis but with a lower arm angle.
Though the intention of Musk’s gesture has been widely contested online, Musk responded on X to say, “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
