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British Museum ends BP sponsorship deal amid pressure from climate activists

British Museum BP sponsorship deal ends climate change activists fossil fuel funding - Tayfun Salci/Zuma Press
British Museum BP sponsorship deal ends climate change activists fossil fuel funding - Tayfun Salci/Zuma Press

The British Museum has quietly ended its sponsorship deal with BP after 27 years, becoming the largest cultural institution to drop the fossil fuel giant.

Under pressure from climate activists, organisations including the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and National Portrait Gallery have also discontinued sponsorship deals with the oil multinational.

BP’s sponsorship deal with the British Museum came to an end in February, making it the largest of the UK’s cultural institutions to cut financial ties to the oil firm.

The museum said this did not mean its relationship with the oil company has ended entirely. A spokesman said: “In times of reduced public funding, corporate sponsors like BP allow us to fulfil our mission to deliver unique learning experiences to our visitors.

“We have not ended our partnership with BP. BP is a valued long-term supporter of the museum and our current partnership runs until this year.”

However, The Guardian reported that information, obtained under freedom of information requests, confirmed that no further exhibitions or other activities are being sponsored by BP, and “there are no other contracts or agreements in effect between the museum and BP”.

‘Supporter benefits’ to BP

The museum does not have any further business with BP planned, but has not has not ruled out co-operation in the future, it was understood.

The museum said that “certain terms” of its lapsed deal with BP remain in effect because it has afforded BP “supporter benefits” until the end of 2023, according to disclosures seen by The Guardian and obtained by Culture Unstained, a group that campaigns for an end to fossil fuel funding of the arts.

It did not specify the supporter benefits, but these could include use of the museum’s spaces for corporate events.

Sarah Waldron, the co-director of Culture Unstained, said: “This is a massive victory for all the artists, activists and workers that campaigned for BP’s logo to be taken down from the museum’s blockbuster exhibitions, with it now joining the RSC, Royal Opera House and National Portrait Gallery in not renewing sponsorship deals with BP that began back in 2016.”

Other venues end deals

Until recently, BP was one of the leading sponsors of the arts in the UK, having sponsored the British Museum since 1996.

The museum’s most recent partnership with BP was part of a five-year block sponsorship deal alongside the RSC, National Portrait Gallery and Royal Opera House, according to Culture Unstained.

The group said that RSC exited its BP sponsorship mid-contract in 2019, saying: “Amidst the climate emergency, which we recognise, young people are now saying clearly to us that the BP sponsorship is putting a barrier between them and their wish to engage with the RSC. We cannot ignore that message.”

In 2022, BP and the National Portrait Gallery announced that its sponsorship agreement would not be renewed at the end of the year, while the Royal Opera House confirmed its sponsorship relationship with BP had ended in December 2022, after more than three decades.