I won’t add politically correct labels to exhibits, says new British Museum director
The new director of the British Museum has said he will not add politically correct labels to exhibits.
Dr Nicholas Cullinan, a 46-year-old art historian and curator, left his post as director of the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in March last year to take the helm at the museum.
His appointment comes amid pressure on the museum, already embarrassed by the theft of 1,500 collection items, to sever ties with fossil fuel companies and repatriate contested artefacts that some critics say were “stolen” from foreign countries.
Other institutions have taken to warning visitors that what they are viewing has colonial links.
In January, Tate Modern added warnings about “violence and dead bodies” to a puppet show recreation of the Crusades.
Tate Britain, meanwhile, filled its galleries with paintings linked to slavery and removed prized national artworks, in a rehang pitched as a “more inclusive narration of British art and history”.
Critics said it was a “polemic against the past”, however. Paintings linked to the British Empire were brought out of storage and displayed with labels explaining connections to racism, colonialism and the slave trade.
In April, the Fitzwilliam Museum, added a note to an exhibition about the countryside suggesting pictures of scenery might evoke “dark nationalist feelings”.
Later that month, it was reported that the British Library would “establish a comprehensive glossary of problematic and inclusive terminology” in the “culturally sensitive material” held there.
‘Biggest transformation’
Dr Cullinan, recognising a fraught road ahead, has billed the impending overhaul of operations as the “biggest transformation of any museum in the world” involving a rethink of the best way to display and interpret collections.
Asked if this would include imposing politically correct labelling of exhibits, as seen at Tate Britain, Dr Cullinan told The Times: “No. What I mean is making sure our scholarship is up to date, not conforming to a particular sort of political agenda.”
Born in America and raised in Yorkshire, Dr Cullinan became the NPG’s second-youngest ever director in 2015 and oversaw a major £41 million regeneration.
During his time at the gallery, Dr Cullinan became embroiled in a row over cultural institutions and fossil fuel funding, which has also proved a thorn in the British Museum’s side.
In 2022, Dr Cullinan ultimately oversaw the NPG cutting ties with BP, which had sponsored its portrait award for more than 30 years.
The British Museum has recently entered a “new multi-year partnership” with BP which will bring in £50m over 10 years, but which has provoked a backlash from climate activists.
Chris Garrard, a co-director of the campaign group Culture Unstained, said the deal was “astonishingly out of touch” and “completely indefensible”.
He added: “The only way you can sign up to a new sponsorship deal with a planet-wrecking fossil fuel company in 2023 is by burying your head in the sand, pretending the climate crisis isn’t happening and ignoring the almost complete rejection of fossil fuel funding by the cultural sector in recent years.”
‘Good reasons to refuse money’
In response to the criticism of controversial donors, Dr Cullinan said: “I think you have to have good, clear reasons for turning down money that would help to keep the British Museum free to the public.”
He added that the criteria for allowing donations centred on whether money was acquired legally and considerations over reputational damage.
Dr Cullinan previously told The Times: “I think you would be hard pressed to find any bank or law firm that didn’t have investments [in energy] so I think we just have to be careful because fundraising has always been about turning private wealth into public good and doing that while also acting in the public interest.
“What you don’t want to do is start occupying that position of being an activist because it also puts off other people wanting to support museums.”
Elgin marbles
Dr Cullinan will also have to navigate growing calls for items such as the Elgin marbles and Benin bronzes to be repatriated.
The director, who studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, has emphasised that more people see the British Museum’s objects in exhibitions on tour than in the museum itself.
Dr Cullinan was curator of international modern art at Tate Modern from 2007 to 2013, before becoming curator of modern and contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
He takes over from interim director, Sir Mark Jones, who had stepped in when director Dr Hartwig Fischer resigned over allegations the museum’s leadership at the time had ignored warnings that an insider was selling artefacts.
Last year, Dr Peter Higgs, a senior curator, was sacked over items in the collection allegedly being stolen or damaged. It was estimated that 2,000 artefacts were missing, damaged or stolen.