The British Museum’s Pink Ball fundraising gala on Saturday was disrupted when a climate protestor took to the stage during a speech by the museum’s chair of trustees, George Osborne.
More than 800 guests attended the £2000–per–ticket event, including the former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and the artists Grayson Perry and Tracey Emin, who is a trustee of the museum.
The gross total raised by the event, which was was co-hosted by the Indian philanthropist Isha Ambani, was £2.5m. This amount, minus expenses, will go towards the museum's international partnerships.
The protestor reportedly worked as a waitress at the ball. In a video posted to Instagram by the campaign group Energy Embargo for Palestine she can be seen on stage next to Osborne, holding a sign which reads: “DROP BP NOW”.
The protestor said: “The British Museum’s £50m sponsorship with BP provides cultural cover for a company that is causing climate collapse… If the British Museum truly wants to confront its cultural legacy, it [should] look at the way it is actively upholding imperialism today.”
The protestor added that the museum should “not use the money from the Ambani family, [majority] owners of the Reliance company who are an oil, gas and surveillance corporation”. Osborne, a former conservative member of parliament and chancellor of the exchequer, responded: “It is great to live in a democracy.”
A British Museum spokesperson said: “As our Chair said at the event, it’s great to live in a democracy and people are entitled to their views. The British Museum respects other people’s right to express their views and allows peaceful protest onsite at the Museum as long as there is no risk to the collection, staff or visitors.”
In its Instagram post, Energy Embargo for Palestine demanded that the British Museum establish an ethics committee comprising trustees, directorate members and union representatives to “oversee future funding opportunities, partnerships and political events at the museum”.
Taking to her own Instagram, the British singer and rapper M.I.A, who performed at the ball, shared a clip of her singing her 2008 hit Paper Planes. During the song’s chorus, which features the lyrics “we pack and deliver like UPS trucks, already going to hell, just pumping that gas. All I wanna do is—and a—and take your money”, the singer adds into the microphone: “I’m talking about BP.”
In text added over the video, the singer writes: “I love the museum and definitely would love for the British government to give them more money directly, without BP having to. It’s 50 million shaved off the war and destruction budget and put towards preservation and culture and education budget.”
A statement issued by the museum prior to the ball said: “With the support of the Ball, the museum can do even more to fulfil its ambition of making the collection the most accessible and widely shared in the world.” The statement went on to highlight key initiatives such as working with the Kumasi Palace in Ghana and the History Museum of Armenia.
The British Museum announced in 2023 that it would receive £50m from BP across the following ten years, as part of a masterplan to refurbish and redisplay its permanent collection. Ongoing debate around the controversial move comes against the backdrop of new guidance from the UK Museums Association approved on 7 October, which states that museums should: “Transition away from sponsorship from organisations involved with environmental harm (including fossil fuels), human rights abuses, and other sponsorship that does not align with the values of the museum.”
Reliance was contacted for comment.