BP’s sponsorship of the British Museum has ended after 27 years, new disclosures make clear, bringing to a close one of the highest-profile and most controversial of such deals in recent years, and marking the almost complete retreat of the fossil fuel giant from the British arts world.
In its most frank admission to date, obtained through freedom of information requests and seen by the Guardian, the museum confirmed that no further exhibitions or other activities are being sponsored by BP, and “there are no other contracts or agreements in effect between the museum and BP”.
Campaigners hailed the development as a “massive victory”, after years in which the museum’s Great Court has been the scene of noisy and disruptive environmental protests.
It marks a dramatic retreat from the arts for BP, which was one of the leading arts sponsors in the UK until recently. The Tate, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Shakespeare Company, Scottish Ballet and Royal Opera House have all ended funding partnerships of many decades with the energy giant in recent years.
Among major national museums and arts companies, only the Science Museum is still supported by BP, which funds its educational academy.
BP has been a sponsor of the British Museum since 1996. On paper, the most recent five-year contract between the two expired in February, but the British Museum and BP have repeatedly resisted being explicit that their partnership was over, leading to concerns of an ongoing relationship behind the scenes.
Campaigners feared the oil giant could be lined up as a potential funder for the radical £1bn rebuilding scheme currently being planned by the museum.
In the new disclosures, obtained by lawyers acting for the campaign group Culture Unstained, the museum said that “certain terms” of the deal remain in effect, because it has verbally agreed to let BP exercise its “supporter benefits” until the end of 2023.
It will not specify the supporter benefits, but these are likely to include hospitality privileges, such as use of the museum’s spaces for corporate entertaining. However, this does not relate to any funding of the museum’s activities.
Asked to comment on the disclosures this week, the museum only repeated a previous statement, saying: “BP is a valued long term supporter of the museum, and our current partnership runs until this year.” BP did not respond to a request for comment.
Chris Garrard, Culture Unstained’s co-director, said the news represented a “massive victory”. He added: “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.”
The British-Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif, who resigned as a trustee of the museum in 2019, partly in protest at the BP deal, said: “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.”
She said the institution was “enormously important” and influential – especially among children. She added: “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.”
Despite the museum’s repeated insistence of the value of the partnership with BP, there have been hints of embarrassment behind the scenes, as protests over the relationship have grown.
Louise Jolly, a former regular visitor from Hove, wrote to the museum last month saying she was reluctant to bring her children while it was sponsored by BP. She received a reply saying: “Now is 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.”
Speaking last November, the museum’s chair, George Osborne, announced a “complete reimagination” of the museum and said he wanted it to become a net zero institution.
