Environmentalists won: British Museum ends BP sponsorship after 27 years

Environmentalists have won their battle: after 27 years, in fact, the sponsorship that British Petroleum (BP), a British multinational oil company, granted to the British Museum ends. Environmental advocacy groups have long demanded that the London museum cut ties with the oil giant: in the past there have been heated debates, there have been letters and appeals, and resounding and original protests, such as when in February 2020 some activists disguised themselves as Achaean soldiers and brought a Trojan horse inside the museum. The protests have led to a revolution in the relationship between British museums and BP: before the British, museums such as the Tate, the National Portrait Gallery, and the National Galleries of Scotland, and institutions such as the Royal Opera House, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Scottish Ballet ended the long relationship.

So now it is the British Museum’s turn: there are no official communiqués from the institution yet, but the museum has confirmed to the Guardian that, after the last five-year contract linking the British to BP expired (which ended last February), there will be no further BP-sponsored exhibitions or activities, and that “there are no other contracts or agreements in place between the museum and BP.”

Environmentalists hailed this new development as a momentous victory, coming after years of protests and advocacy. “The museum, if it is serious about responding to the climate crisis,” said Chris Garrard, director of Culture Unstained, an association that advocates for a culture free of fossil fuel company funding, “the museum must now confirm that there will be no future dealings with fossil fuel producers, remove BP’s name from its lecture hall, and categorically reject the climate destruction business it represents.”

For the British Museum, therefore, it seems to be a watershed moment: back in December, President George Osbourne, unveiling the “Rosetta Project,” a £1 billion plan to make the British’s headquarters a zero-emissions building, declared that the museum “will no longer be a destination for climate protests, but an example of climate solutions.” And the end of the relationship with BP, for now not officially confirmed, would seem to be heading in this direction.

Environmentalists won: British Museum ends BP sponsorship after 27 years

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