British Museum staff express support for trustee who resigned

Novelist Ahdaf Soueif quit role over BP sponsorship and artefacts repatriation

Workers at the British Museum have issued a statement in support of the novelist Ahdaf Soueif, who resigned as a trustee last week because of the institution’s “immovability” on critical issues, including its sponsorship by BP.

The staff, who are members of the Public and Commercial Services union, said Soueif’s resignation highlighted “the troubling nature of the relationship between BP and the arts”, adding that its sponsorship by the oil company allowed the company “to propagate the myth” that without it “we would not have access to the collections of our publicly funded museums and galleries”.

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