Madonna wearing Kahlo’s items faces controversy over special treatment

Superstar Madonna stood at the center of controversy over the dress and items she wore in a post, which were mistakenly considered part of the Frida Kahlo Museum collection. Only after the museum clarified that the objects were not part of its collection did the controversy calm down.

The controversy began with Madonna's Instagram post on Tuesday (local time), in which she said, “For me, it was magical to try on her clothes and jewelry.” She did not mention which costumes and objects in the pictures came from Kahlo’s collection.

Right after she posted the pictures in Mexico City, La Casa Azul, Kahlo’s birthplace that turned into a museum, was met with controversy because it lent individual visitors items from its collection, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). The museum dismissed the controversy, explaining that it never lends any individual its collection and none of her items has anything to do with it. It also clarified that she did not make a visit to the venue on this trip to Mexico. Mexican City-based newspaper Reforma reported on Monday that the U.S. super singer visited the house of Kahlo’s great-granddaughter on April 20.

Some pointed out that Madonna should have paid more respect to Mexican culture, saying that this non-Mexican singer seemed to carelessly treat Kahlo’s relics, the symbol of 20th-century Mexican art. Madonna was born to an Italian father and a French-Canadian mother in Michigan and raised in Detroit.


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