The Tate has been ordered to “disclose within 35 calendar days” the sponsorship figures from BP from 2007-2011, after the Information Tribunal overturned on appeal a previous finding by the ICO.
In a decision reached on 26 July, the Information Tribunal ruled that the Tate Gallery must reveal all of the sponsorship fees it received from BP between 2007 and 2011.
The ruling was made by Judge Fiona Henderson and overturned a decision made by the ICO in November 2015, which held that the trustees of the Tate were right in not releasing the requested information, citing “commercial confidentiality” in response to a Freedom of Information request.
In a statement from the Tate, a spokeswoman said: “The Tate has been notified of the Tribunal's decision, which we shall follow. We will respond within the time frame”.
In January 2015, the Tate was forced to release figures showing how much BP had donated to the organisation over a 17-year period. This followed a three-year legal battle between the Tate and arts charity Platform.
Between 1991 and 2006, BP donated a total of £3.8m, giving between £150,000 and £330,000 a year. This figure was criticised as being “embarrassingly small” by Anna Galkina, a spokeswoman for Platform.
Despite releasing information pertaining to financial donations between 1991 and 2006, the Tate refused to release all of the information requested, up until 2011. This was supported by a November 2015 decision notice by the ICO.
The appeal was launched by Brendon Montague, director of Request Initiative, who made the original FOI request in the early part of 2012.
The ruling coincides with reports that BP signed a new five-year sponsorship deal with a number of cultural institutions. The new partnership will see BP pay “an average of £375,000 a year to its sponsored cultural institutions, a quarter less than its previous deal,” according to Galkina.
"Oil branding of art is a threat to our galleries and our climate. Tate has tried to hide how embarrassingly low BP sponsorship fees were. We're delighted that the Information Tribunal ruled against Tate's secrecy. And now BP is signing an even cheaper deal with the other institutions. This is a rip-off,” said Galkina.
“BP's pocket change buys it legitimacy and access to invaluable advertising space. Sponsorship masks BP's role in destroying indigenous lands, arming dictatorships, and wrecking our climate. These deals cannot be allowed to go on for another five years, that's why art interventions and protests will go on."
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