500 signatures reached
To: Hartwig Fischer, new Director of the British Museum.
Tell the new British Museum Director to drop BP
Dear Dr Fischer,
We urge you to not renew the British Museum’s sponsorship deal with BP. It is a highly unethical company, and to continue the relationship would seriously damage the museum’s reputation and undermine public trust.
Why is this important?
On 4 April 2016, Hartwig Fischer became the new Director of the British Museum. One of the first decisions he needs to make is whether to renew its five-year sponsorship deal with BP. Please help make the call to #DropBP the biggest noise he hears as he begins his new job.
Why #DropBP?
This partnership with the British Museum is allowing BP to clean up its dirty image by associating itself with Britain’s most popular tourist attraction – for the annual cost of about two hours’ profit for the oil giant.
BP is violating human rights, destroying ecosystems and actively driving the world towards climate catastrophe:
• It is going after new sources of highly-polluting fossil fuels in the tar sands and the Arctic, despite opposition from local Indigenous communities and knowing that we need to keep 80% of known fossil fuels in the ground to avoid dangerous climate change.
• It is trying to drill dangerous new deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico and Great Australian Bight, despite the devastation BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill is still wreaking on the Gulf Coast’s residents and wildlife.
• In countries such as Iraq, Egypt, Russia, Azerbaijan and West Papua, it is fuelling conflict and repression and undermining workers’ rights.
• It tops the list of firms lobbying against effective climate policies in Europe.
• It dodges taxes and takes billions more in UK tax breaks, in this time of supposed austerity. It donates only a tiny proportion back to the arts, in return for high-profile branding.
The movement for Fossil Free Culture is gathering strength. Tate recently parted company with BP after 26 years, following intensifying protests and public pressure. Now the British Museum, and other BP-sponsored institutions, including the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Opera House, the Science Museum, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Edinburgh International Festival, must follow Tate’s lead and #DropBP.
This petition is jointly hosted by the PCS Union and the Art Not Oil coalition.
