An arts charity has criticised the Tate for accepting an “embarrassingly small” amount of money from BP, after it successful obtained figures for how much the oil giant donated.
Tate has now released figures for how much BP has donated over a 17-year period to have its name and logo used at the gallery, following a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
The information was released following a three-year battle by arts charity Platform.
At the end of last year Tate lost an appeal at the Information Tribunal and was ordered to reveal the details of BP’s donations by yesterday.
Between 1991 and 2006 BP donated a total of £3.8m, giving the charity between £150,000 and £330,000 per year.
Anna Galkina, spokeswoman for Platform, said: “The sponsorship figures are even lower than we had estimated. For nearly a decade, Tate provided a veneer of respectability to one of the world’s most controversial companies for just £150,000 per year.”
Since 2001 less than 1 per cent of the Tate’s fundraised income has come from BP. Galkina added: “The figures are embarrassingly small for Tate to go on justifying its BP relationship.”
As well as the figures Platform obtained the minutes of Tate’s ethics committee which revealed that “taking a moral stance on the ethics of the oil and gas sector… is outside of Tate’s charitable objectives”.
Rosa Curling, solicitor of Leigh Day who has been working on the case, said: “Tate has fought and no doubt spent a large amount of money trying to keep this information secret. If cultural institutions such as Tate are accepting sponsorship money from corporations such as BP, they must be open about how much they are receiving.”
Last week a consortium of charity investors tabled a resolution calling for BP to honour a 2010 pledge to see global warming increase by no more than 2 degrees Celsius.
The Tate said in a statement: “BP is one of the most important sponsors of the arts in the UK supporting Tate as well as several other leading cultural institutions.
“Tate works with a wide range of corporate organisations and generates the majority of its funding from earned income and private sources. The support that these organisations give is extremely important and allows us to deliver a hugely successful and popular programme."
