Collector withdraws loan from Serralves Foundation amid censorship dispute

Luiz Teixeira de Freitas, a Portuguese collector, will remove his loan of hundreds of drawings from Porto's Serralves Foundation, supporting creative director João Ribas, who resigned on 20 September. Ribas alleged censorship by the museum's board over a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition, claiming works were withdrawn. The Serralves Foundation, which operates the Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto, denies censorship, stating Ribas chose not to include twenty photographs. The Mapplethorpe Foundation backs the museum, citing the 'dramatic timing' of Ribas's resignation and asserting no censorship occurred. Teixeira de Freitas's collection was on a ten-year loan to the museum, intensifying the conflict over artistic freedom and institutional governance.