Jorge M. Pérez—the Miami real-estate magnate, mega-collector and namesake of the Pérez Art Museum Miami (Pamm)—recently denounced Florida governor Ron DeSantis for cutting almost all of the arts funding ($32m) from the state’s budget last month, a move that caught many by surprise.

At a press conference , DeSantis attempted to explain the cuts by citing funds earmarked for a festival that he deemed to have too much sexual content. “When I see money being spent that way, I have to be the one to stand up for taxpayers and say, ‘You know what, that is an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars,’” he said.

“This is just a horrible message to send,” Pérez told Bloomberg’s Michael Smith and Anna J. Kaiser. “A lot of the people who are coming from New York are involved in the arts, participate in the arts. We want to be a serious city, and serious means that we have great education and we have great exposure to culture.” (In contrast, New York’s approved state budget includes $82m for the arts and cultural organisations.) Pérez also noted that “we were long a society of fun and sun, but we’re no longer that—we don’t want that”.

In fact, Miami Beach has been hard at work trying to distance itself from its debaucherous spring-break reputation, veering its local economy instead toward attracting cultural tourism through the support of arts programming around the city. Last summer, it started selling almost $100m in municipal bonds to fund cultural projects like museums and the Miami City Ballet—one of the institutions highlighted by Bloomberg as having lost its state funding.

In response to Pérez’s comments, DeSantis’s senior analyst Christina Pushaw posted to X (formerly Twitter): “A literal BILLIONAIRE complaining that Governor DeSantis vetoed $32m in state (taxpayer) funding for arts. If it’s so important to Mr. Pérez, he has every right to open his wallet and provide that $32m himself. Reminder: HE IS A BILLIONAIRE.” [Emphasis in original.]

Pérez has already donated hundreds of millions to arts organisations around Miami, including $80m to the Pamm. He recently gave a $10m condo to the Miami Foundation, a non-profit that works in the arts, culture and economic development; in 2021, Pérez donated the proceeds from the sale of his $33m mansion to the same foundation.