Photo by yospyn.

It’s been a few weeks since the National Portrait Gallery chose to take down David Wojnarowicz’s “A Fire in My Belly” after conservative writers and Congressional Republicans complained. A few protests followed, various galleries are now showing the piece, the Andy Warhol Foundation threatened to withdraw its funding to the Smithsonian. Now the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation is threatening to do the same, if the Portrait Gallery does not reinstate the piece in its gallery.

Maura Judkis points out that this is a pretty small drop in the bucket compared to the Warhol Foundation withdrawing funding: Mapplethorpe donated about $10,000, approximately 2.5 percent of what the Warhol Foundation has given in the past three years. However, this symbolic move could cause other foundations to withdraw their financial support of the Smithsonian.

There will be a protest against the one Smithsonian museum in New York on Sunday to stand against the removal of the Wojnarowicz’s piece. Protesters will be meet at the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and march to the Cooper-Hewitt.

It still seems unlikely that the National Portrait Gallery will back down from its removal of the piece, but if major foundations continue to withdraw their support, maybe that will change.