In a hugely significant WIN, it has been confirmed by the Guardian that BP’s sponsorship of the British Museum’s major exhibitions has ended!
Today, we are celebrating alongside everyone that has been part of a long-running campaign of creative protest and people power which has led to the end of BP sponsorship of the British Museum’s exhibitions – and a near total rejection of fossil fuel sponsorship by the UK cultural sector!
14 leading UK institutions including Tate, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Opera House – and now the British Museum – have ended their ties to fossil fuel funding since 2016.
Today’s news though is hugely significant given the museum’s reputation on the world stage. But we are now calling on the museum to confirm that it will not sign any future partnerships with fossil fuel producers – and to also remove BP’s name from its lecture theatre!
This seismic shift at the British Museum follows a decade-long campaign of creative resistance spearheaded by the activist theatre group BP or not BP? whose ambitious performance protests regularly drew crowds of hundreds, including an overnight occupation of the Great Court, artistic collaborations with communities impacted by BP, and even bringing a 4-metre high Trojan Horse into the Museum’s courtyard – without permission.
Photos by Hugh Warwick of BP or not BP?’s Trojan Horse.
Lydia Hiraide, a member of the group BP or not BP? has said:
“Over the last 27 years, the British Museum has backed BP while it partnered with repressive rulers, spilled oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and poured billions of dollars into extracting new oil and gas. But today, creative protest, people power and solidarity have turned the tide, and BP and its climate-wrecking business model has been roundly rejected by the cultural sector. The fossil fuel industry is rapidly running out of places to hide its climate crimes, as it continues to put pollution and profit before people and the planet.”
Photos by Hugh Warwick of a Viking “flash-horde” (left) and by Kristian Buus of a Sherlock Holmes-themed protest performance (right).
The campaign against BP sponsorship of the British Museum was also backed by archaeologists, young people and leading cultural figures, including bestselling novelist Ahdaf Soueif, who in 2019 resigned from the Museum’s Board of Trustees over the issue. The PCS Union, which represents front of house workers at the museum, has also given its backing and first passed a motion to formally support the campaign against fossil fuel sponsorship of the arts back in 2015.
BP had partnered with the British Museum since 1996 but Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made by Culture Unstained, and reported on in the Guardian today, have confirmed that:
- The final BP-sponsored exhibition “Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt” closed on 19th February 2023 and this marked the official end of the Museum’s contract with BP.
- The Museum says it has made a “verbal agreement” with BP that the company has until the end of 2023 to use up ‘supporter benefits’ that were not taken during COVID-19 restrictions.
- The museum has confirmed that there are no other contracts or agreements in effect between the Museum and BP, and that it has no records relating to renewing the agreement, or agreeing a new or different kind of agreement, with BP.
Sarah Waldron, Co-director of Culture Unstained, which campaigns for an end to fossil fuel funding of the arts, has said:
“This is a massive victory for all the artists, activists and workers that campaigned for BP’s logo to be taken down from the museum’s blockbuster exhibitions, with it now joining the RSC, Royal Opera House and National Portrait Gallery in not renewing sponsorship deals with BP that began back in 2016.
It was also a huge opportunity for the museum to seize the moment and finally demonstrate climate leadership. So it’s deeply disappointing that, rather than proudly kicking out this major polluter which is pouring billions into fossil fuel extraction, the museum appears to be stage-managing its exit.
If it is serious about responding to the climate crisis, the museum must now confirm that it will have 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.”
In 2018, BP had begun a block 5-year sponsorship deal with the British Museum, Royal Opera House, National Portrait Gallery and Royal Shakespeare Company, but now the oil and gas company’s sponsorship deals with all four cultural institutions have ended and not been renewed. Separately, the Scottish Ballet, National Galleries Scotland, Edinburgh International Festival and Tate galleries have also cut their ties to BP since 2016.
Photos by Ron Fassbender of a BP or not BP? protest in the British Museum’s Great Court (left) and by Guy Reece of a protest against BP sponsorship of the Scottish Ballet during COP26 (right).
Last year, the pressure was ramped up on the Museum after a formal submission to its Board from climate and heritage experts spelt out how signing a new sponsorship deal could place the Museum in breach of sector-wide ethics codes while a letter to the Museum from over 300 archaeologists set out how BP was ‘taking advantage of the British Museum’s status as a highly respected institution to associate its brand with values of high culture’.
Responding to today’s news, Professor Rodney Harrison, Professor of Heritage Studies at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, said:
“The archaeology, museums and heritage community will welcome the end of this sponsorship deal with a company whose ongoing operations and lobbying on behalf of the fossil fuel industry is not only a threat to all of our planetary futures, but whose work also has had, and continues to have, a negative impact on cultural heritage globally. Despite the museum’s lack of a clear statement, this important move does gesture positively towards Chair George Osborne’s stated aspirations to become a ‘net zero’ Museum, and the significant role for arts and cultural institutions in taking action for climate.”
In February, BP announced that it would be abandoning its target of reducing its fossil fuel production by 40% by 2030, aiming instead for just a 25% production cut while also reporting that it had made record-breaking profits of £23 billion. Despite making claims of going ‘net zero’ by 2050, BP reduced its ‘low carbon spend’ from 2021-22 and has earmarked up to £6.2bn for oil and gas projects in 2023, double what it plans to invest in low carbon energy.
Photos by Diana More of BP or not BP?’s “Day of the Dead” protest with London Mexico Solidarity (left) and Kristian Buus of the group’s protest with Colombian trade unionist Gilberto Torres (right).
By allowing BP to sponsor its temporary exhibitions programme, the British Museum had helped the oil and gas company to “artwash” its increasingly toxic reputation and further its fossil fuel extraction, with BP’s Vice President admitting that…
“Naturally we are going to try to match a particular exhibition with somewhere we have an interest.”
BP consistently sponsored exhibitions that aligned strongly with its strategic business interests, such as those on ‘Indigenous Australia’ and a one-day festival on Mexico’s ‘Day of the Dead’, with a report by the Art Not Oil coalition revealing how BP’s senior staff had been able to meet with strategically important policy makers at exhibition openings and private business receptions.
Check out our film below which looks at what lay behind the sponsorship deal!
Last year, the British Museum removed the Sackler family name from its galleries and rooms, and last month, Oxford University and King’s College London cut their ties with the Sackler family over links with opioids. Campaigners now argue that the British Museum must now apply the same principle and remove BP’s name from its lecture theatre, where the museum’s major events are hosted.
Anya, a member of UK Student Climate Network London, which has campaigned against fossil fuel sponsorship both at the British Museum and the Science Museum, has said:
“While we welcome the news that the British Museum’s exhibitions will not be sponsored by BP any longer it continues to be a colonialist palace full of many stolen artefacts and displays which celebrate the brutality that the British inflicted on communities around the world. It is time the British Museum removed BP’s name from its lecture theatre, gave back objects to those communities calling for their return and began to make amends through reparations to those that have been harmed by its history.”
In February, the British Museum was forced to close temporarily due to strike action undertaken by members of the PCS Union campaigning for fair pay. The PCS Union represents the majority of front-of-house and security staff at the museum and, when surveyed in August 2022, 70% of its members working in the culture sector backed the ending of oil and gas sponsorship across the sector.
Gareth Spencer, President of the PCS Culture Group, has said:
“We are very pleased that the British Museum has finally ended its sponsorship deal with BP. Our members have always known that the money given by BP was for greenwashing their reputation and not for investment in staff or the collection. We welcome the museum’s commitment to a net-zero future.”
Culture Unstained 
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