De Blasio appoints new cultural affairs czar months after Mother Cabrini fiasco

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday appointed the director of a Manhattan museum specializing in art by LGBTQ artists to serve as his cultural affairs commissioner, filling a vacancy left late last year following the city’s infamous snub of Italian-American icon Mother Frances Cabrini.

Gonzalo Casals, who currently oversees the Leslie Lohman Museum, will take over as commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, replacing Tom Finkelpearl.

“Art and culture should enrich the lives of all New Yorkers – not just a select few,” de Blasio said. “From his work with at the Leslie-Lohman Museum to El Museo del Barrio, Gonzalo understands how to uplift the experiences of New Yorkers from all five boroughs.”

The Post reported in November that Finkelpearl was pressured into statue snub of Cabrini.

Although both de Blasio and Finkelpearl have maintained the breakup was mutual, sources told The Post Finkelpearl drew the mayor’s ire for failing to quell criticism of McCray’s She Built NYC initiative to erect public statues honoring historic women.

The first lady’s statue commission sparked public outrage for refusing to award a monument to Cabrini — even after the Catholic saint received the most nominations in a citywide poll.

Casals, an Argentinian immigrant who identifies as queer, has led Leslie-Lohman since 2017. He previously served as vice president of programs and community engagement at Friends of the High Line and held several titles at El Museo del Barrio.

He has also served on various city commissions, including as a member of the Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers, which developed guidelines on how the city should address controversial monuments seen as oppressive.