Washington National Opera Sues Kennedy Center Over $17 Million in Gifts
Five months after leaving its home of more than five decades, the opera company is suing for the donor money it says the Kennedy Center kept.
The Washington National Opera sued the Kennedy Center on Thursday, June 11, demanding more than $17 million in endowment funds, donor gifts and other contributions the company says the center has refused to release since the two institutions split in January.
The money, the complaint argues, was given by donors for the opera's benefit and is "critical" to its operations now that the company performs on its own. "W.N.O. reluctantly files this case to preserve its future and to protect its donors and artists," the opera's lawyers wrote in court papers.
The Kennedy Center is not conceding an inch. Spokesperson Roma Daravi called the claims meritless, said the center had acted transparently and confirmed it plans to pursue a countersuit. By the center's arithmetic the debt runs the other way: an external accounting firm calculated that the opera "accumulated a $72 million deficit to the center between 2011 and 2026," Daravi said, describing a relationship that "financially burdened" the institution for over a decade.
The most pointed allegation in the filing concerns collateral. According to the complaint, the day before the separation was announced, Kennedy Center chief financial officer Donna Arduin told opera leaders by email that money in a fund holding bequests and contributions designated for the opera was being used as collateral for a line of credit benefiting the center itself. Arduin maintained the funds belonged to the center; the opera contends they were expressly reserved for its benefit. The suit does not specify how much was pledged.
The opera says litigation came only after quieter routes failed.
"For months, W.N.O. repeatedly tried to address these issues with the Kennedy Center, including through written requests, requests for meetings, and meetings with Kennedy Center leadership. Those efforts were met with indifference."
From the Washington National Opera's complaint
The dispute caps a year of upheaval at the institution. How it got here:
- 1971: The company begins performing at the Kennedy Center, which becomes its home for more than five decades.
- Early 2025: President Donald Trump assumes the center's chairmanship at the start of his second term and installs allies in its leadership.
- December 2025: The board of trustees votes to rename the building "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts."
- January 2026: The opera departs after more than 15 years as a formal affiliate, with the center citing "a financially challenging relationship."
- June 11, 2026: The opera files suit. The same day, the center and administration lawyers appeal a federal court order that required Trump's name to be removed from the building and temporarily blocked his plan to close it for two years of renovations.
For the company, the stakes are operational rather than symbolic: donor gifts received over years are the cushion it needs to stage seasons without the center's infrastructure. For the center, already fighting in court over its name and its renovation plans, the suit opens a second front. The countersuit Daravi promised would make it a third.
