Erin Elmore, director of the State Department’s “Art in Embassies” program, has vowed to “Make Art Great Again,” and taxpayers will be footing the bill.

The Art in Embassies program has spent at least $6.4 million on grants and contracts since 2008, according to OpenTheBooks’ review of federal spending data.

Art in Embassies was created in 1964 with guidance from first lady Jackie Kennedy to display U.S. artwork in diplomatic buildings around the world.

Since then, its spending has arguably gotten out of hand. There is artwork displayed in 189 countries including Suriname, Malta and Tajikistan. Since 2008, taxpayers have spent $361,805 to display artwork in Beijing and $8,000 on artwork in Moscow.

Insurance for the artwork has cost at least $416,000 since 2008, including $111,382 in the past year. Shipping has cost $202,370.

During the government shutdown in 2019, the State Department spent $84,375 to install a sculpture of Bob Dylan in Mozambique.

In 2021, the program bought a “brass Art in Embassies medal with 4.25 rosewood presentation box” for $799. The program also spent $24,909 for a “catering event” in May 2023.

This year the State Department planned to spend $2 million on seven sculptures, including a $650,000 “triple-height suspended sculpture” in Brazil and a $105,000 “textile work” in Malawi, but the purchases were canceled, according to PBS.

According to its X account, Art in Embassies has been “cultivating diplomacy thru art in U.S. embassies since 1963” as the “Department of State’s heart of art.” The program has stuck around despite a planned 15% reduction to the Department of State’s staff headcount.

OpenTheBooks has not yet obtained Elmore’s salary data, but her predecessor Megan Beyer earned $191,900 in 2024 under the Biden administration.

Former U.S. diplomat Brett Bruen told Foreign Policy in 2019, “The State Department needs more money, but it also has to be a better steward of taxpayer money for these types of expenditures. The [department] has spent lavishly on these new embassies even as the core functions of American diplomacy have faced significant reductions.”

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., tried to include language in the fiscal year 2024 budget that would ban funds from being used on embassy artwork.

He said at the time, “This program is a huge waste of our taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. Our country’s credit rating was recently downgraded because of the government’s out-of-control spending, and this is a prime example of what that looks like. We’re spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on art for embassies when our country is $33 trillion in debt, and that needs to end today.” The debt has since increased to $36.2 trillion.

The State Department and other agencies have begun to downsize under the Trump administration, but there is still more spending to consider cutting.

(The #WasteOfTheDay is from forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com via RealClearWire.)