The renewal of BP’s sponsorship agreement with the British Museum now looks increasingly unlikely. Although a museum spokeswoman says that “discussions are continuing” with BP, the company may well feel that the negative impact of anti-oil protests now outweighs the benefits. The museum stands to lose around £500,000 a year when the current arrangement ends in December 2017.
In May the protest coalition Art Not Oil published a report based on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and Tate. The protestors say these papers demonstrate “the multiple ways in which BP has interfered in the running of the museums and galleries it sponsors”. A close reading of the documents fails to back up this charge, although not surprisingly the museums do come over as trying to be helpful to their sponsor.
Some of the released documents relate to the British Museum’s Mexican Days of the Dead festival last autumn. BP agreed to provide additional sponsorship, at a time when the company was bidding for oil contracts in Mexico. The protestors argue that this gave BP “privileged access to Mexican government officials, specifically at a VIP reception”. The museum responds that as the event was “part of UK Mexico Year, there were therefore understandably Mexican government representatives present”.
On Hartwig Fischer’s first day as the new museum director, in April, he received a protest letter about BP sponsorship. Signatories included three sons and daughters of Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover - Julian, Mark and Sarah Butler-Sloss. Lord Sainsbury, together with the estate of his brother Simon, gave £25m for the Sainsbury Exhibition Galleries at the museum two years ago. Although signing the BP protest may simply represent a difference between generations, the museum will be keen to avoid difficulties with a family who have been such generous donors to the arts.
The Museums Association ethics committee is expected to discuss BP sponsorship at its meeting on 16 June. In a poll of over 400 members, 79% voted against museums accepting oil company sponsorship. BP confirmed in March that its sponsorship deal with Tate would not be renewed, citing the “challenging business environment”.
