BP: Oil giant's sponsorship deal with British Museum slammed as 'blatant greenwashing' by environmentalists

The British Museum has signed a new £50 million deal with BP to fund renovation plans, but the news has caused controversy with environmentalists - who have slammed it as a "greenwashing" attempt from the oil giant.

The museum says the money from the decade-long deal, an extension of its previous ten year partnership with BP, will be used to redevelop its Bloomsbury site in Central London. Environmental campaigners have previously urged the museum to end its sponsorship deal with BP, with a further backlash mounting after the details of the museum’s “masterplan” were revealed this week.

Charlie Mayfield, chair of the British Museum’s masterplan committee, told PA that although the British Museum is one of the largest and most visited cultural institutions in the world, some of its buildings are over 200 years old and in urgent need of refurbishment. “That’s why the masterplan is so essential – and it’s exciting to be moving forward with our plans," he said.

“Next year we will begin the process of completely overhauling our outdated energy infrastructure and replacing it with state-of-the-art facilities that will dramatically reduce our carbon footprint, and we will begin a global search amongst leading architects to find a partner to help us reimagine the famous Western Range. There’s so much to look forward to in 2024 and we are grateful to all our partners for their support.”

UK BP chair Louise Kingham also shed some light on the new sponsorship deal, saying: “As a business that has made Britain its home for over a century, we are proud to be a long-term partner to this important British institution and play our part in its future transformation – whilst helping to ensure that this iconic cultural venue remains freely accessible to all.”

But not all have welcomed the news, with climate campaigners in particular critical of the partnership Greenpeace UK policy director Doug Parr said the arts and culture world has been steadily cutting ties with "Big Oil", "after realising the handy role they play in cleaning up their climate-wrecking image".

"Yet, BP have wormed their way back into the British Museum with what must surely be one of the biggest, most brazen greenwashing sponsorship deals the sector has ever seen," he continued. “The climate is teetering on the edge of collapse and, like most of the exhibits on display, BP’s relationship with the British Museum needs consigning to the history books.

“No cultural establishment that has a responsibility to educate and inform should be allowing fossil fuel companies to pay them to clean their image, not least the British Museum who have been here before. Did they learn nothing?”

The first phase of the museum's renovation plan will see a new archaeological research facility opened in June next year. It will house items from rare Peruvian fabrics to ancient fingerprints preserved on 5,000-year-old antler picks in a bid to offer a “radically different approach to museum storage” by also facilitating research and study by academics and members of the public.

Proposals for a new energy centre have been also submitted with the intention of “phasing out” of the use of fossil fuels within the museum’s estate and replacing them with low carbon technologies, PA reports.

This is far from the only time the British Museum has courted controversy in recent years. Earlier this year is was revealed that as many as 2,000 items may have been lost or stolen from the museum's collection over the years, leading many to speculate that security lapses must be rife.

The museum has also increasingly come under fire over how many of its artefacts were acquired, with plenty calling for items in its possession to be returned to their native homes - such as the Benin Bronzes, from Nigeria. The UK and Greece are currently in the midst of a stoush over the Elgin Marbles - with Rishi Sunak even cancelling a meeting with his Greek counterpart after it was revealed he planned to ask for them back.