Fresh doubts raised over future BP funding of British Museum

theguardian.com:

Further questions have been raised about the future of the British Museum’s controversial sponsorship deal with BP, after the museum said the two parties had no meetings or correspondence about renewing their funding arrangement for more than a year before their most recent contract expired.

The museum’s Hieroglyphs exhibition, which ended last week, was the final BP-sponsored show in the latest five-year contract between the energy company and the museum; according to its terms, that commercial partnership has now ended. No renewal or extension of the funding deal, first forged 27 years ago, has been announced by either party.

Responses by the museum under freedom of information legislation state that between October 2021 and December 2022, the most recent date covered by the disclosures, the museum and BP exchanged no correspondence and held no discussions about signing a new funding deal.

Before that, senior museum figures including its director, Hartwig Fischer, met a member of BP staff in September and October 2021, the museum has said, “but … we confirm that we do not hold any information suggesting that … the possible renewal of, or extension to, the company’s sponsorship agreement with the British Museum was referred to or discussed during any of the interactions listed”.

Despite the expiry of their contract, both the British Museum and BP remain tight-lipped about the nature of their current and future association. The museum referred the Guardian only to an ambiguous previous statement that “BP is a valued long-term supporter of the museum and our current partnership runs until this year”. BP did not respond to a request for comment.

While the most recent five-year deal with BP was always due to expire this month,