British Museum, Exhibition Sponsorship, Cultural Genocide: Briefing

Days after the release of a new report ‘Cultural Genocide: Devastation of Cultural Heritage in Gaza’, the British Museum opens a prestigious exhibition – sponsored by a major investor in Israeli military tech.

Middle East Eye (MEE) reports that the British Museum has received £5 million in sponsorship from Igor Tulchinksy, whose business interests include a military tech-focused venture capital fund based in Israel. Furthermore, this venture is headed by a recently retired army commander who promotes the use of remote-controlled vehicles, which have been central to the ongoing genocide and the devastation of Palestinian cultural heritage. 

This raises yet more serious questions about the ethics of the Museum’s internal procedures. A scandalously uncritical stance on the ongoing genocide being prosecuted against Palestinians is evidenced by the Museum recently removing the word  ‘Palestine’ from gallery displays, and by Peter Thiel, billionaire founder of Palantir – a tech firm that supplies the Israeli military – being offered unwarranted access to the Bayeaux Tapestry. The acceptance of money from Tulchinsky further reveals the staggering hypocrisy of a museum purportedly ‘dedicated to human history, art and culture’.

The MEE article outlines how Tulchinksy’s venture capital fund is headed by a former military commander who was involved in the genocidal campaign and went on to join the advisory board of an unmanned vehicle startup making ‘force multiplers’ for the Israeli army. A recent report published by Gaza-based Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights shows how these unmanned vehicles, often carrying deadly ordinance, have been used in the systematic damage and destruction of over 70% of all cultural sites in Gaza. Read the full report ‘Cultural Genocide: Devastation of Cultural Heritage in Gaza’ below.

Asked for comment by MEE, Artists for Palestine UK made the following statement:

It is outrageous that the British Museum claims to be a world leader in the conservation of cultural objects from across the globe while receiving funds from a donor whose profits derive from the destruction of centuries of cultural heritage in Gaza and Lebanon.

Israeli forces have deployed APCs and bulldozers in their damage and destruction of more than 70% of Gaza’s total documented cultural heritage sites, including a UNESCO World Heritage Endangered Site. These mosques, shrines, historical houses, archaeological mounds and excavation sites, ancient artifacts, cemeteries, palaces, fortresses, mosaics, fountains, bathhouses, monasteries and churches were built by Palestinians, Romans, Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Nabataeans, Assyrians and others over centuries. Too many are now lost forever to the rubble in what a UN report states may amount to cultural genocide. 

Igor Tulchinksy is profiting from ongoing crimes as this prestigious exhibition opens at the British Museum. Given current celebrations of the loan of the Bayeux Tapestry – the trumpeting of the historic international accord and diplomatic success it represents – it is shameful that this has been facilitated by the profits of genocide. 

How can the Museum’s trustees possibly have come to the conclusion that Tulchinsky, with his links to the on-going erasure of Gaza and parts of Lebanon, was a suitable sponsor? And, more fundamentally, how are basic ethical standards, human rights and international law not guiding factors in such decisions, even before considerations of reputational damage?

Yet again, we demand that the British Museum end its complicity in the cultural erasure of Palestine.

* Find out more about Gaza’s Al Mezan Centre for Human rights