> The exhibition gallery is still under construction, and only limited viewings of the tapestry have been possible across a range of stakeholders.

The general public cannot even see it yet.

> ...how? How do you not see a problem with the limited hours being effectively given to a billionaire for....what reason exactly?

I don't have a problem with it because I am not naive to the way the world operates. The thing that is important to rich people is being able to have experiences that are rare and hard to obtain with money alone. If the museum wants something from Thiel that they need (his money, his resources, whatever) then giving him something rare up front (without actually losing anything I might add!) seems like a good deal that might make a future donation more likely to happen.

And, if it is possible to obtain a private viewing of the tapestry with money alone, like another commenter pointed out could be the case, then there's no story here, because Thiel surely paid.

Disclaimer: I am an American, so my money makes the world go round bias may be showing