A group of more than 80 artists and academics are calling on leadership at London’s British Museum to strip the BP name from one of its main lecture halls. The action follows the museum’s plans to terminate a long-running corporate sponsorship with the oil company in June under pressure from climate advocacy groups.
Signatories to the letter, which was addressed to outgoing director Hartwig Fischer, described the museum’s partnership with the oil company as “dangerous.” They argued that the museum plays a role in enhancing BP’s reputation by providing “social legitimacy and influence.”
Among the cultural figures who signed the letter are photographer Nan Goldin, climate scientist Bill McGuire, Brunel Museum director Katherine McAlpine, and archaeologist David Wengrow.
The letter condemned BP for its role in lobbying against climate-related policies, stating that the company has funded disinformation campaigns around the effects of climate change, and supported the economic interest of “repressive rulers” in Russia, Egypt, and other countries.
In the letter to Fischer, signatories called on the British Museum to take after other cultural institutions in the UK and abroad that removed the Sackler family name from their buildings. Many of those name changes came after protests by Goldin and her group, PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), highlighting the family-owned pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma’s role in fomenting a drug crisis in the United States through the sale of opioids.
In March 2022, the British Museum was among several institutions in the US and the UK to strip its galleries of the Sackler name.
“The damning evidence of BP’s past—and present—can no longer be ignored,” the letter reads. “Renaming the lecture theatre would send a powerful message about the future the museum wants to see … You would be demonstrating the kind of climate leadership that is now so urgently needed.”
This past February, BP reported a record profit of $27.7 billion in 2022.
The sponsorship between BP and the British Museum terminates this year, but BP retains the right to exercise any remaining “supporter benefits” until the end of 2023. Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the UK-based climate change watch group Culture Unstained indicate that the final exhibition at the museum sponsored by BP was “Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt,” which closed this past February.
As part of the redevelopment of the museum’s Great Court in 2000, BP provided funds to create the 323-seat BP Lecture Theatre, which hosts major events at the museum. According to Culture Unstained, the petroleum company’s use of the venue for its annual business reception and private events has allowed it to “boost its brand by associating itself with the UK’s most visited cultural institution.”