at the Factory with
Most Wanted Men in the background, 1964. Government officials quickly objected to the images, and on April 16, 1964—less than a week before the fair was due to open—
Philip Johnson, the pavilion architect, told Warhol that he must remove or replace the work within 24 hours. The stated reason was that the
Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller was concerned that the images—mostly depicting men of Italian descent—would be insulting to an important segment of his electorate. In an attempt to save face, Warhol and Johnson told reporters that Warhol himself had been dissatisfied with the work. In his book
Popism (1980), Warhol stated:Philip gave me the assignment, but because of some political thing I never understood, the officials had it whitewashed out. A bunch of us went out to Flushing Meadow to have a look at it, but by the time we got there, you could only see the images faintly coming through the paint they'd just put over them. In one way I was glad the mural was gone: now I wouldn't have to feel responsible if one of the criminals ever got turned in to the
FBI because someone had recognized him from my pictures. So then I did a picture of
Robert Moses instead, who was running the fair—a few dozen four-foot squares of
Masonite panels—but that got rejected, too. Later commentators have also suggested that the title "wanted" bears a double meaning, referring to homosexual desire, with the mugshots rearranged so many of the men were looking at each other. ==Aftermath==