Marylou Whitney, an heiress to the Vanderbilt fortune, withdrew her financial support from New York's Whitney Museum over a politically inspired piece planned for its prestigious 2000 Biennial exhibit. "Sanitation," by German-born New York artist Hans Haacke, consists of a wall of garbage cans with speakers blaring the sound of marching jackboots, a reproduction of the First Amendment and, set in an old German typeface favored by the Nazis, quotations from Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and other Republicans. (Giuliani had recently angered many in the art world after he attempted to withdraw city funds from the Brooklyn Museum over its controversial "Sensation" exhibit.)

The Whitney received harsh criticism from the Anti-Defamation League, which charged that the work trivialized the Holocaust. Objecting to the politicization of art Haacke's piece represents, Mrs. Whitney said she was aware that her withdrawal of a planned $1 million endowment might "turn him into a martyr," and "cause people to line up for six blocks to see this trash," but that "you have to stand up for what you believe."

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