Human rights attorney l International law, policy, advocacy and strategic litigation l Currently Senior Director for Law and Policy at ARTICLE 19
My fellow art lovers: do you agree that the story of Sir Mark Jones, the former interim director of The British Museum, proposing paid entry to the museum for 'foreigners,' is just another case of the media trolling the public with outrageous ideas? Basically, in a recent interview (https://shorturl.at/5pAkB), 'Sir Mark' proposed a £20 entry fee for foreign visitors to the Museum (as well as to the National Gallery and Science Museum). The entry would still be free for Brits and for under 25 years old. The proposal was raised in the context of the discussion on the need to carry out a major refurbishment of the Museum, with estimated to cost between £400 - £500 million. The real kicker: this money would supposedly fund a partnership with Greece over the Parthenon Marbles! I have been pretty outraged by this morally reprehensible proposal. I admit I was fuming. First, many artefacts in the British Museum were acquired through colonial exploitation or looting - from the Marbles to the Benin Bronzes. Charging descendants of those cultures to view their own heritage is like charging someone to visit the storage unit where their stolen property is kept. It adds insult to injury. Also, no idea how would such a scheme be enforced. How would museum staff determine who's "foreign" and who's not? There is no national ID card in the UK and the country doesn't require people to carry an ID. It would create a huge scope for discrimination. But since the British Museum was not behind this idea, I started to wonder whether Sir Mark was just playing the media game. And that instead of a genuine attempt at solving the museum's finances, this was a calculated move to keep the British Museum in the public eye. The media love a good controversy, and what could be more controversial than charging foreigners to see artefacts that were stolen in the first place? The timing of the interview was suspiciously convenient too. With ongoing debates about the repatriation of artefacts and the museum's funding sources (hello, BP donation controversy!), this could be a clever distraction tactic. Get everyone arguing about entry fees, and suddenly the bigger issues fade into the background. Perhaps that is the problem, not the attention-grabbing proposal. It distracts from the real issues at hand - issues of ethics, education, inclusivity, and cultural responsibility. Instead of asking who should pay the entry fees, we should ask questions such as: how should a major cultural institution in the UK - such as the British Museum - evolve to meet the challenges of the 21st century? How can it address the colonial past while shaping a more equitable future? How can it truly serve as a "museum of the world and for the world," as it claims to be? These are the topics I would like the media to ask people like Sir Mark! Everything else is just noise. #UK #media #trolling #art #culture #artisticexpression #accesstoart #controversy #BritishMuseum #freespeech
Synergi Director
3moColonialism is in his DNA.