• Outrage as Science Museum hosts private cocktails and canapés reception for coal and arms producing sponsor Adani in gallery it sponsors.
• “Indefensible” decision to host event comes as museums urged to “transition away” from sponsors linked to fossil fuels and human rights abuses.
• Revelations come as UN Commission concludes that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and after 1000+ culture workers joined march in support of Palestine on Sunday.
• Event coincides with a series of in-person investor meetings hosted by the Adani Group in London. It follows the indictment of Adani executives in the US for a massive bribery scheme in India and for fraudulently obtaining billions of dollars of financing from international investors.  

The Science Museum in London has sparked outrage after it hosted a private cocktails and canapés reception for its corporate sponsor Adani on Monday evening, a conglomerate involved in large-scale coal mining, the operator of Israel’s Haifa port, and a manufacturer of drones in partnership with Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems.

The revelations come after the museum confirmed earlier this year that it was “monitoring developments” after arrest warrants were issued for senior Adani executives – including billionaire Chairman Gautam Adani – over their alleged role in a major $265m bribery scheme. It also comes as a UN commission has today concluded that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Adani, the world’s biggest private producer of coal, held its private reception for investors inside the Science Museum’s ‘Energy Revolution: Adani Green Energy Gallery’ which opened last year amidst large-scale protest. As around 50-60 smartly dressed guests arrived, they were greeted by activists who unfurled a banner at the museum doorway which read, “The Science Museum: complicit in human rights buses, fraud, bribery, climate destruction, genocide.”

The cocktails and canapés event coincided with a series of in-person investor meetings hosted by the Adani Group on September 15-17th including the ports, coal and green energy arms of the conglomerate. (More details below).   

Parents for Palestine, which is calling on schools to pause trips to the Science Museum until it drops its sponsorship deals with Adani and BP, has said:

“At a time of escalating genocide against the Palestinians, hosting a company directly linked to providing weapons to the Israeli regime is unconscionable and unacceptable. The Science Museum is not a legitimate place of education and culture. Schools across London are boycotting the Science Museum and that boycott will continue until the museum cuts ties with Adani.” 

A spokesperson for Artists for Palestine UK, has said:

“We are saddened to see the Science Museum host a corporation so deeply complicit in planetary and human destruction. That this event took place on the eve of a UN Commission confirming that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza only underlines the point. The museum’s leadership seems unable – or unwilling – to recognise the lasting reputational damage it is inflicting on its own brand by associating with Adani.”

In May, The British Museum faced huge backlash after it hosted a private party for the Israeli Embassy, with museum leadership ignoring repeated calls for an apology from staff. A spokesperson for Energy Embargo for Palestine, which campaigns against BP’s sponsorship of The British Museum, has said:

“We must oppose global energy companies, such as BP and Adani, complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza using cultural spaces to present a more palatable public image. As with the British Museum’s genocide gala earlier this year, these private events alienate staff members and the general public to promote companies who will stop at nothing to generate profits.”

The revelations came after hundreds of workers from the arts and culture sector marched from the Royal Opera House to Downing Street on Sunday, calling on theatres, museums and other arts organisations to stop censoring those advocating for Palestinian liberation and end the “artwashing” of corporate sponsors and donors profiting from the genocide in Gaza.

The Museums Association, the membership body for the museums in the UK, recently published its proposed new ‘Code of Ethics’ which urges museums to, ‘Transition away from sponsorship from organisations involved with environmental harm (including fossil fuels), human rights abuses, and other sponsorship that does not align with the values of the museum.’

A spokesperson for Culture Unstained, which campaigns for an end to fossil fuel sponsorship of culture, has said:

“Sadly, the leadership of the Science Museum has shown time and again that it is morally bankrupt. It is completely indefensible for a national museum to be selling itself as a promotional billboard and entertainment venue to a company so clearly profiting from environmental destruction, human rights violations and genocide. We don’t need to debate the acceptability of Adani as a sponsor any longer – we need the Trustees of the Science Museum to cancel their contract with Adani.”

A spokesperson for Culture Workers Against Genocide, which organised Sunday’s culture workers’ march for Palestine, has said:

“As culture workers, we are appalled that the Science Museum is wining and dining Adani. Cultural institutions should not be providing cover for corporations fuelling climate breakdown and profiting from occupation and genocide. The Science Museum must end its toxic partnerships now.”

Gautam Adani and Science Museum Chair Sir Tim Laurence at the opening of the ‘Adani Green Energy’ Gallery

The cocktails and canapés event coincided with the Adani Group’s investor meetings in London. In-person meetings with investors and analysts and representatives of Adani Group companies were due to take place on September 15-17th. 

These include: 

• Adani Enterprises, whose subsidiary Adani Defence & Aerospace is in a joint venture with Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems for the manufacture of Hermes 900 drones, used in the genocide in Gaza. 
• Adani Power, Adani’s coal-producing subsidiary. Adani is the world’s largest private producer of coal with plans to double its production. On September 13 it announced a new agreement for an additional 2,400MW power plant in Bhagalpur.  
• Adani Green Energy, whose name adorns the Science Museum’s Energy Revolution Gallery. In 2024, an indictment in the US alleged that senior executives of Adani Green Energy, including Gautam Adani, had participated in a $250 million bribery scheme in India and fraudulently obtained billions of dollars of financing from international investors. Both Gautam and Sagar Adani, for whom US courts have issued arrest warrants, attended and spoke at the Gallery opening. Adani’s Bhadla Solar Park, implicated in the bribery and fraud case, is featured in the Gallery

The Science Museum Group’s Ethics Policy contains clear anti-bribery provisions:

“The Science Museum Group will not accept donations, sponsorship or grants where the donor has acted, or believed to have acted, illegally in the acquisition of funds or where there are concerns of fraud, money laundering or other financial crime.” 

• Adani Ports, which holds a controlling stake in the Israeli port of Haifa, through which weapons and fuel for the Israeli military are supplied, was also due to meet investors in London in September.

Two UK banks, Barclays and Standard Chartered, have provided financial services to Adani. UK based investors Sona Asset Management provided private credit for Adani’s controversial North Queensland coal port earlier this year. Legal & General and Aviva also hold shares in Adani companies.

Adani Defence & Aerospace is in a joint venture with Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems for the manufacture of Hermes 900 drones, used in the genocide in Gaza.