Activists hail end of 27-year BP sponsorship deal with British Museum
4 Min Read
The victory hailed as "massive" marks a drawback of the fossil fuel giant from the British arts world.
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The activist theatre group protest against the sponsorship of the British Museum (AFP)
According to new disclosures, BP’s sponsorship of the British Museum has just ended, closing one of the most controversial deals in the last years and marking the nearly complete retreat of the fossil fuel giant from the British arts world.
The Museum confirmed after its most honest admission so far, gotten through freedom of information requests seen by The Guardian, that no more exhibitions will be sponsored by BP and that "no other contracts or agreements" are being in effect with BP.
The developments were hailed by campaigners and described as a "massive victory" after the 25 years where the Museum’s Great Court has been the scene of environmental protests that were disruptive.
This was a dramatic retreat from BP’s arts, which was, until recently, one of the main sponsors in the UK. Over several years, the Royal Opera House, the Tate, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Shakespeare Company, and Scottish Ballet have all ended funding partnerships of many decades with the energy giant.
Only the Science Museum is still backed by BP, as it funds its education academy.
Since 1996, BP has sponsored the British Museum. The British Museum and BP's most recent five-year contract officially ended in February, but the British Museum and BP have repeatedly refused to make clear that their association was terminated, raising suspicions of a secretive link between the two.
Campaigners are worried that the oil company would be lined up as a prospective backer for the ambitious £1 billion reconstruction project that the Museum is now planning.
Read: BP racks up colossal profits in Q1 amid struggling households
Within the new disclosures acquired by attorneys working for the advocacy group Culture Unstained, the Museum said "certain terms" of the agreement still apply. This is because the Museum orally promised to allow BP to use its "supporter benefits" until the end of 2023.
The supporter benefits will not be specified, but they are anticipated to include hospitality benefits, like using the Museum's spaces for business events. This, however, has nothing to do with how the operations of the Museum are paid for.
The Museum just reiterated a previous statement when asked to comment on the disclosures this week, saying that "BP is a valued long term supporter of the museum, and our current partnership runs until this year." As for BP, it did not answer any request for comment.
The news showed a "massive victory" according to Chris Garrard, Culture Unstained’s co-director, who added that "if it is serious about responding to the climate crisis, the museum must now confirm that there will be no future relationships with fossil fuel producers, take down BP’s name from its lecture theatre and roundly reject the climate-wrecking business it represents."
Ahdaf Soueif, the British-Egyptian novelist who resigned in 2019 as a trustee of the Museum, partly in protest at the BP deal, said that "it is important that institutions like the British Museum do not give Big Oil the opportunity to look like a force for good in society; denying them this platform is important."
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A protest against BP sponsorship at the British Museum in 2015 (AFP)
Not only this, but she noted that the institution was "enormously important" and influential – especially among children.
"At this time of global crisis, which particularly impacts the young, the museum should be directing its weight, its creativity and its resources to helping to create the world the coming generations need to live in," Soueif added.
There have been undertones of embarrassment behind the scenes as protests against the alliance have grown, despite the Museum's constant insistence on the importance of cooperation with BP.
A former regular visitor from Hove, Louise Jolly, wrote to the Museum last month to express her reluctance to bring her kids while it was BP-sponsored.
A reply told her that it was back then "a really great time for you and your children to visit us. These exhibitions are not sponsored by BP and we do not currently have any other exhibitions sponsored by BP."
The Museum’s chair, George Osborne, announced last November a "complete reimagination" of the Museum and said he wanted it to become a net zero institution.
