Jenrick calls for sack for British Museum trustees who want to hand over treasures
BRITISH MUSEUM trustees who want to hand over national treasures should be sacked, a former minister has claimed, and “self-aggrandising” negotiations with other countries must stop.
Robert Jenrick, the Tory ex-immigration minister, said the Government should simply be clear to the trustees that the situation should be tackled in a bid to end the cultural vandalism of institutions. The British Museum is currently in discussion with four foreign governments about returning items from its vast collection.
Twelve formal requests have been received by the museum in a bid to return exhibits since 2015 – four have come via discreet diplomatic channels.
Mr Jenrick said: “When the British Museum was founded in 1753, Parliament drew upon the legal device of a family trust to underpin it. The museum was to sit above the shifting sands of fashion. The trustees were to treat its collection like an ancestral family estate – albeit one belonging to the whole nation-and pass it on intact, preferably enhanced. Its founding fathers displayed a wisdom lost upon its current custodians. As was revealed last week the museum is in talks with four foreign governments to part with its collections.”
He added: “The call for restitution of artefacts is wider than one institution. Instead of conserving their collections, today’s curators appear intent on denuding them. To the liberal progressives running many museums, it is unfashionable and career limiting not to do so. Some of the works, like the Elgin Marbles, would not have survived had they remained in-situ. At the heart of today’s drive for restitution is the pervasive and corrosive post-colonial guilt wracking the progressive Left.”
It had been claimed that the museum has been in discussion with foreign governments about returning items from its collection. But a spokesman said: “The British Museum is not in negotiations with anyone about restituting items from the collection – not least because the BM Act prevents us from any such discussions. With regards to Greece, we have been clear our ambition is for a reciprocal loan whereby Greek treasures would be on display here in return.”
When the British Museum was founded in 1753, Parliament drew upon the legal device of a family trust to underpin it. The museum was to sit above the shifting sands of fashion. The trustees were to treat its collection like an ancestral family estate – albeit one belonging to the whole nation – and pass it on intact, preferably enhanced.
Its founding fathers displayed a wisdom lost upon its current custodians. As was revealed by Telegraph last week, the museum is in talks with four foreign governments about the return of items in its collections. The published minutes of the board tell us less about their plans than parish council minutes would of changes to verge cutting. We do know, however, that it is negotiating the long-term loan of its most celebrated
We must rescue them from liberal elites who are intent on denuding them of priceless artefacts
objects, the Elgin Marbles. “Long term loan” is a legal fiction constructed to circumvent the museum’s statutory duty to maintain its collection. There is surely no realistic prospect of the marbles returning from Greece should they ever be sent there. Parliament, like the nation, is being treated like a fool.
The call for restitution of artefacts is wider than one institution. Instead of conserving their collections, today’s curators appear intent on denuding them. It is a slippery slope.
One unpicking inevitably opens the floodgates, with a precedent now set. The origins of works of art are often complex and attempts to reverse their movement around the world by our ancestors are bound to be destructive. Every generation since ancient times traded cultural objects. Each took advantage of their circumstances .
At the heart of today’s drive for restitution is the corrosive post-colonial guilt wracking the progressive Left. We see it in the Church of England’s decision to devote funds to slavery reparations rather than crumbling parishes. As Nigel Biggar has exposed, many of the arguments that rest on the sins of empire are ahistorical. British motives in Benin, from where the Benin Bronzes were removed, included the emancipation of slaves and the ending of human sacrifice.
Given the complicated passage of time, centuries-old injustices can rarely be fitted into simple moulds, nor easily rectified. The liberal elites seeking to do so are embarrassed by British history and eschew our national community. They advance the interests of Greek citizens above their own. They view the nationalism of others as “progressive”.
What can be addressed are today’s injustices. Appalled by the destruction of Palmyra by Isis, I persuaded David Cameron to create a Cultural Protection Fund. Heroic Syrian and Iraqi archaeologists were trained at the British Museum. We passed the Cultural Property Act to tackle the modern trade in stolen artefacts.
But if others are more focused on cultural vandalism at our own institutions, what is to be done? The Government should simply be clear to the trustees of the national collections that their self-aggrandising negotiations must cease. If the trustees don’t like it, other trustees are available. It’s never too late for Conservatives to reform our cultural institutions – as in other spheres, they simply need to act like conservatives.
The former director of the British
Museum, Neil McGregor, declined requests for restitution. He argued that the museum was not only a national collection, but also a universal one, free for every visitor to see. He embraced cultural diplomacy, but with astonishing touring exhibitions that forged links between peoples rather than capitulating to foreign governments.
There’s an adage that family businesses last only three generations: “Rich father; noble son; poor grandson.” Those special trusts created by our forebears, like the British Museum, have fallen into the hands of a careless generation. We need to rescue them.
Foreign governments seeking restitution calculate that our institutions – indeed the UK itself – lacks the self confidence to fight back. We must prove them wrong.