I agree with almost everything in Charlotte Higgins’ important article (I love the British Museum, but what I’ve learned about the depth of its crisis fills me with dread, 21 December). I too love the museum. Bad management in hard times has fuelled a lack of confidence. It fails to confront difficult issues with openness and honesty, one symptom being the absurd degree to which its extraordinary curatorial expertise is barely heard from, within and outside its walls. Another is the low public awareness of many of the good things it does achieve.
Behind this lies years of underfunding, as Higgins says, but unlike her, I would not demand that BP’s cash should be denied. For the museum, £50m is a large sum, signing intent for its transformative and essential reimagination that will cost many times that gift. For BP it is small. It will do nothing to alter its public reputation; most visitors are oblivious to sponsorship, and those more aware know their own minds. We live in a world built on oil. That is changing, but essential emissions targets will not be met without action from oil producers.
