So the campaign to end BP’s sponsorship of the British Museum is won, but this is a pyrrhic victory (British Museum ends BP sponsorship deal after 27 years, 2 June). Who is the actual loser? BP will instead reward its shareholders or spend its promotion budget somewhere far less useful. The museum will struggle to share wonderful artefacts, knowledge and heritage with millions of people.
As a member of both Friends of the Earth and British Museum Friends, I certainly have a dilemma, one that George Bernard Shaw addressed in his play Major Barbara, with a tussle over accepting money for charity from an arms manufacturer – I do draw the line there – and a whisky distiller.
Sponsorship is rarely squeaky clean. We do have to ask at what point the ends justify or do not justify the means. A letter published on the same day by Dr Mark Liebenrood highlights the closure of many museums due to a lack of funding. The real scandal is the constriction of access to knowledge and art, and maybe moral purity can go too far.
Melanie Winterbotham
Ruislip, London
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