The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum said Thursday they will no longer use Saudi money to run programs that were initially supported by entities tied to the Saudi government.

Axar.az reports citing The New York Times.

The two programs were a three-month-long exhibit on Syrian refugees at the Brooklyn Museum along with a seminar on Middle East art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, both part of a yearlong Arab Art & Education Initiative.

“While this conversation and a subsequent public colloquium were to be supported by external funds, in light of recent developments, we have decided that the Museum will itself fund this event,” Daniel H. Weiss, the Met’s president and chief executive officer, said in a note to participants that was obtained by the Times.

The programs were being organized by Stephen Stapleton, a London-based artist who runs an arts initiative called Edge of Arabia, which is supported by the Saudi government and funded through their state-run oil company Aramco.

“We are fully understanding and supportive of our partner organizations in the Arab Art & Education Initiative when it comes to decisions around funding," Stapleton said in a statement.