State Department bought embassy art and a 'Freedom 250' drone show overseas

The State Department spent this summer buying art for U.S. embassies from Malawi to Mexico City and paying for a drone show branded to President Donald Trump’s “Freedom 250” celebration, according to federal contract records.

The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok held a drone show of at least 300 drones over Lumpini Park on July 4 to mark the nation's 250th anniversary, part of a wave of overseas State Department spending on art and the semiquincentennial.

The embassy solicited "drone show services" for its Freedom 250 event on March 17, according to the request for quotations posted to SAM.gov, the federal contracting portal.

The show was to run 10 to 15 minutes, use at least 300 drones, and demonstrate "the key message of Freedom 250, celebrating 250 years of American independence," the scope of work states. Prices were to be quoted in Thai baht.

The display went up as planned. On its Freedom 250 page, the embassy wrote that the Bangkok sky "came alive" during the celebration as a drone show honored 250 years of freedom. The show was designed for viewing from the fourth-floor grand ballroom terrace of the Ritz-Carlton hotel on Wireless Road, overlooking the park, the solicitation states.

The resulting award, a $32,253 purchase order, appears on USASpending.gov under the recipient name "Miscellaneous Foreign Awardees," a catch-all category the government uses for overseas vendors that hides the identity of the company that flew the show. The order was obligated May 12 and marked completed. A modification on July 14 removed $4,853, leaving $27,399.97.

The purchase was funded through the State Department's Unconditional Gift Fund, an account holding private donations, records show. The embassy's Freedom 250 page displays a wall of corporate logos under the line "Thank you to our generous partners," including Chevron, Meta, Citi, Boeing, Ford, Pfizer and the Thai conglomerates ThaiBev and Siam Piwat.

The embassy described Freedom 250 as "not just a reflection on the past—it's a launchpad for the future" and, quoting the president, promises "a celebration like no other." It said it would bring "all-American style State Fairs to Thailand" and throw "the greatest 4th of July party of the century."

Freedom 250 has become a prominent partner in the Trump administration's 250th anniversary celebrations alongside the congressionally established U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has said the group is "run out of the White House."

The embassy page describes Freedom 250 as "the national, non-partisan organization leading the celebration of America's 250th birthday."

The Unconditional Gift Fund has drawn congressional attention. The New York Times reported in February that U.S. ambassadors solicited corporate donations tied to the anniversary, prompting congressional Democrats to demand State Department documents.

The National Park Foundation, Freedom 250’s parent, told Congress it would not disclose donors who request anonymity.

Urgent Matter previously revealed the U.S. State Department, through its consulate in Sapporo, Japan, spent more than $92,000 on a large snow and ice sculpture of the White House as part of Trump’s initiatives to celebrate the semiquincentennial.

The Bangkok show was part of broader State Department spending abroad that Urgent Matter identified in federal records. Over June and July, the department also purchased art for embassies from Malawi to Mexico City through galleries and individual artists.

The purchases range from $2,000 payments to individual galleries up to a $4.85 million award to an event management firm handling the U.S. presence at a world’s fair in Serbia.

Most contracts were tied to commissions run through Art in Embassies, a State Department office created under President John F. Kennedy in 1963 that places American and host-country art in diplomatic buildings. The office curates about 60 exhibitions a year across more than 200 posts, according to the department.

The program routinely acquires and loans artwork for diplomatic posts around the world, though the recent purchases coincided with broader overseas spending tied to the 250th anniversary.

Among the largest purchases tied to that program went to Casey Kaplan, a Manhattan gallery, which received a $72,000 purchase order on July 14 described only as “ART FOR POST MALAWI.”

The service code classifies it under photography, printing and publication for arts and graphics. Urgent Matter has reached out to Casey Kaplan to ask what was purchased.

RZ-1 Fine Art Solutions, a boutique firm in Maryland, received two orders totaling more than $39,000 for “ARTS, DRAWINGS, FRAMES ETC. FOR INTERNATIONAL EMBASSIES.” The exact embassies were not named.

Others received smaller sums for named embassies. Pentimenti, a Philadelphia gallery, was paid $27,700 for the embassy in Lagos, Nigeria. Atelier 4, a North Carolina art-handling company, was paid $9,666 for artwork in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro.

IN-FO.CO, a Los Angeles graphic design studio whose past clients have included dozens of art-related institutions and museums from the Guggenheim and MoMA to the Frieze Art Fair and Aperture, received $24,000 for art for a post in Mexico City.

Two galleries received $2,000 orders specifically coded to graphic design: Mindy Solomon Gallery of Miami, for work tied to Brazil, and Praise Shadows of Boston, tied to Malawi. A $5,450 order went to the British firm AIP Heritage.

One award ran through a catch-all recipient category the government uses for overseas vendors. A $29,900 order to “Miscellaneous Foreign Awardees,” dated July 14, is described as “ART IN EMBASSIES – DAUDI KARUNGI AFRIART GALLERY.”

Karungi founded Afriart Gallery in Kampala, Uganda, in 2002 and directs the Kampala Art Biennale. The order is coded to portrait photography studios.

The overseas spending sits outside the accounting published June 11 by Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project, which found the administration steered nearly $103 million in anniversary contracts and grants to entities tied to Trump officials and allies. That report counted domestic awards and said it excluded foreign contracts.

The single largest State Department award in the records reviewed by Urgent Matter went to Trivandi USA Limited, a Huntington Beach, California company that federal records list as foreign-owned. Trivandi received $4.85 million from the department, with $4.5 million coded to Serbia and $350,000 to Japan.

The State Department announced in May that it selected Trivandi to run operations for the USA Pavilion at Expo 2027 in Belgrade, a specialized world’s fair themed “Play for Humanity – Sport and Music for All.” The firm previously ran operations for the U.S. pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka.

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