The British Museum’s newly appointed director, Nicholas Cullinan, has defended the establishment’s determination to just accept a £50m donation from oil big BP. The funding deal, which was introduced on the finish of 2023, fuelled the continuing debate about moral fundraising and sponsorship within the cultural sector.
“I feel the talk has modified, however what hasn’t modified are the 2 standards in opposition to which you weigh up donations and sponsorship,” he advised the UK newspaper, The Sunday Occasions. “One is: was the cash legally acquired? The opposite is: will accepting it trigger us reputational harm? I feel you must have excellent, clear causes for turning down cash that might assist to maintain the British Museum free to the general public.”
The cash from BP is because of kick begin fundraising for the museum’s bold masterplan, together with upgrading the constructing, which was designed by Sir Robert Smirke and accomplished in 1852. The price of the complete masterplan venture is more likely to attain tons of of thousands and thousands of kilos, probably greater than a billion. Nonetheless, the choice to just accept the £50m sponsorship deal initially triggered concern amongst trustees.
In June this 12 months, the director of Tate, Maria Balshaw, spoke out about BP’s sponsorship take care of the British Museum, saying that “the general public has moved to a place the place they assume it’s inappropriate”. Only a month later, London’s Science Museum was compelled to chop ties with one other oil big, Equinor, over its environmental document.
Along with repairing the reputational harm and overseeing the huge renovation venture, Cullinan is more likely to face additional requires the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece and the restitution of different objects within the museum’s assortment acquired in a colonial context. The museum’s chair of the board of trustees, George Osborne, stated final 12 months that “we are able to attain an settlement with Greece”, for no less than a number of the British Museum’s sculptures “to be seen in Athens”. In return, he needs “different treasures from Greece, some which have by no means left these shores, to be seen right here on the British Museum”.
The Sunday Occasions asks whether or not “a pleasant lending settlement [would] finish the seemingly everlasting squabble over the Elgin [Parthenon] Marbles?” Cullinan responds: “This isn’t me making an attempt to dodge the query however that difficulty shouldn’t be inside my purview. It relies on different events…The extra fascinating side to consider now’s how we are able to work in partnership with different museums around the world to lend or alternate gadgets.”
Cullinan additionally burdened that “clear motion” was taken after the theft of two,000 gadgets from the museum’s assortment, together with the choice to digitise the whole eight-million sturdy assortment. He added additionally that he wouldn’t conform “to a specific kind of political agenda” in labelling reveals.
