CULTURE SECRETARY Lucy Frazer sparked a furious backlash today when she claimed that oil firms should receive a round of applause for donating to museums and galleries, rather than criticism from climate campaigners.
She made the remarks at the launch of a report by right-wing think tank Onward on philanthropy.
Ms Frazer said: “It has to start with applauding, not seeking to find fault with, those organisations who give generously, whether that’s through sponsorships or donations.
“Just look at the past few years — the Science Museum forced to abandon its backing by Shell.”
In 2021, activists protested at the museum’s sponsorship deal with the oil giant and Adani Green Energy by carrying out an overnight occupation.
Artist Darren Cullen, who goes by the alias Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives, staged an intervention there, installing works at Shell’s Our Future Planet exhibition satirising its messaging with guerilla-style subvertising.
“Oil companies aren’t donating money to museums, they’re paying for sponsorship rights to help whitewash their public image,” Mr Cullen argued.
He said the sponsorships were “a desperate attempt to maintain the social licence they need for their apocalyptic business model,” summing up the firms’ reasoning as “if they chuck a few quid at a museum, maybe we’ll forget that they’re trying to kill our grandchildren.”
During her speech, the Culture Secretary said the public should “thank” BP for its recent £50 million donation to the British Museum after the latter extended its partnership with the oil giant for another decade.
Culture Unstained campaign group co-director Chris Garrard said the decision to renew the contract with BP was “astonishingly out of touch and completely indefensible.”
He added: “We believe this decision is illegitimate and in breach of the museum’s own climate commitments and sector-wide codes and will be seeking legal advice in order to mount a formal challenge to it.”
Greenpeace UK policy director, Doug Parr accused institutions accepting such money of being “complicit in this greenwashing.”
James Skeet of Just Stop Oil added that fossil fuel firms were funding cultural institutions to “launder their reputations.”
“They also use their extensive resources to buy our politicians and control the discourse in our media,” he said.
In a study published last March, climate website DeSmog estimated that the Conservative Party had received £3.5m in 2022 from individuals and organisations linked to climate denial, fossil fuels and high-pollution industries.
