The British Museum is facing demands to remove BP’s name from its lecture theatre to send a “powerful message” about fossil fuel sponsorship.
The museum did not renew its deal with the energy firm this year after 27 years of BP funding exhibitions and other activities.
The move was welcomed by environmental campaigners and came after other cultural institutions cut ties with sponsors that were causing reputational damage.
Now, more than 80 people from heritage, arts and climate backgrounds have called on Hartwig Fischer, the museum’s director, to remove BP’s name from the lecture theatre before he steps down next year.
The signatories include photographer Nan Goldin, who led a campaign to get the Sackler name removed from museums across the world; climate scientist Bill McGuire; writer Gaia Vince; climate justice activist and mental health advocate Tori Tsui; the director of the Brunel Museum, Katherine McAlpine; and archaeologist and co-author of The Dawn of Everything, David Wengrow.
In their letter to Fischer, they say: “Just as cultural institutions around the world have removed the Sackler family name as evidence of the harmful ways their money was made came to light, the damning evidence of BP’s past – and present – can no longer be ignored.
“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.”
The lecture theatre seats more than 300 people, with a raised stage and cinema-style screen. It is available for hire for events including AGMs, awards ceremonies, conferences and screenings.
In June, it emerged that the museum had decided that no further exhibitions or other activities would be sponsored by BP. It said there were “no other contracts or agreements in effect between the museum and BP”.
The Tate, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Shakespeare Company, Scottish Ballet and Royal Opera House have ended funding partnerships with the energy firm in recent years.
BP has been a sponsor of the British Museum since 1996. The most recent five-year contract expired in February, but the British Museum and BP would not be drawn on whether their partnership was over.
In disclosures obtained under freedom of information requests by lawyers acting for the campaign group Culture Unstained, the museum said “certain terms” of the deal remained in effect, because it had verbally agreed to let BP exercise its “supporter benefits” until the end of 2023.
The letter to Fischer, which was organised by Culture Unstained, said: “We welcome the news that the British Museum’s existing sponsorship deal with the oil and gas company BP formally ended in February and has not been renewed.”
It urged Fischer to “pledge that the museum will accept no further funding from sponsors or donors involved in fossil fuel production”.
Fischer announced last month that he would step down in 2024 after eight years as the museum’s director. He said he wanted to focus on the “rescue and preservation of cultural heritage in times of climate crisis, conflict, war, and violence”.
Last week, BP reported profits of $2.6bn (£2bn) for the second quarter of the year, as the world experienced extreme heatwaves caused by the climate crisis.
Campaigners have accused oil companies of making “obscene” profits at the expense of the environment.
A spokesperson for the British Museum declined to comment.
