Staff at the University of Leiden took down a painting of former administrators of the university because (1) they were depicted smoking and (2) they were all male.

The university president said that some people "do not feel represented" by the painting. So what? It doesn't represent me, either. It doesn't represent present-day people at all, and it wasn't meant to.

It's right to call for changing the past sexism which is visible in the painting. Evidently the university has already started doing so, since its current president is a woman.

It is sometimes necessary to break with past errors; to erase references to the past because of past errors is outrageous. The people of today have no right to demand that the art of the past be replaced to represent them.