A portrait of the billionaire entrepreneur Igor Tulchinsky has gone on public view in the British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, amid scrutiny over his ties to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The Belarus-born, United States-based Tulchinksy is the lead sponsor of the exhibition, having reportedly donated £5m towards production costs.
The portrait is by the British artist Jonathan Yeo, known for his depictions of King Charles III, unveiled in 2024, and the former US president George W. Bush, a controversial collage made from pornographic images created in 2007.
Yeo wrote on Instagram that he is “honoured that this portrait was commissioned to mark Igor Tulchinsky’s sponsorship of the Bayeux Tapestry’s opening in London and that it will hang in the British Museum for the duration of what is already a legendary exhibition”. Charlotte Appleyard, the director of development at the British Museum, comments on the same post: “You’re brilliant and we’re very grateful.” At the time of publication, the museum declined to say how the work was commissioned and its cost. The Art Newspaper understands it was not commissioned as part of the sponsorship.
Tulchinsky emigrated to the US as a child from Belarus. He is the founder and chief executive of WorldQuant, a quantitative investment firm with $17bn in assets according to Forbes, which values his personal fortune at $1.7bn.
Last year Tulchinsky donated $1m to the Trump-Vance inaugural committee—the organisation funding the 2025 presidential inauguration of Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance. In 2025, he launched a venture capital operation in Israel called WorldQuant Genesis, focused on investments in early-stage deep-tech companies.
According to the news publication CTech, the fund has invested in NavAiro, which CTech describes as “an Israeli defense-tech startup developing solutions to counter swarms of low-cost drones”. Tulchinsky hired a former IDF commander, Saar Tzur, to manage the fund. WorldQuant, the British Museum and Jonathan Yeo have been contacted for comment about these affiliations.
Tulchinksy was in conversation with Appleyard at the annual Art Business Conference in London earlier this week, explaining why he wanted to back the blockbuster Bayeux show and the details that stand out. “[The part] where people’s heads are cut off—that made an impression on me,” he said, adding that he thinks of the medieval masterpiece as a “data set” with its vast cast of characters and animals.
The Bayeux Tapestry exhibition has proven to be one of the most highly anticipated shows to open in the UK in recent times. The first set of public tickets sold out within hours, raising around £2.5m for the museum. Around one million visitors are expected by the time the exhibition closes on 11 July 2027.
