Memorandum submitted by The British Museum
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 The British Museum holds in trust for
the nation and the world a collection of art and antiquities.
The collection is one of the finest in existence, spanning three
million years of human history, and is housed in one of Britain's
architectural landmarks. Access to the collection is, and always
has been, free and reaching new audiences is a primary commitment.
1.2 The legal status of the collection is
fully documented and was confirmed by the British Museum Act (1963).
Ownership in a broader moral sense is justified by the Museum's
commitment to serve a world audience by providing the widest possible
access. The British Museum provides an international context where
cultures can be experienced by all, studied in depth and compared
and contrasted across time and place.
1.3 The British Museum was founded in 1753
principally from three private collections, brought together to
promote liberal understanding of the arts and sciences in a public
museum. It is now a recognised centre of worldwide learning for
the international community. Its approach to cultural heritage
is based on the positive principle that the Museum exists to further
understanding of peoples, past and present. It is through the
richness and reach of the collection that the Museum offers a
global public the sense of shared heritage, fostering reciprocal
cultural experience and understanding.
1.4 The British Museum maintains free entrance,
bringing enjoyment and a sense of history to more than five million
visitors a year, some 75 per cent of whom are from overseas. It
is now improving the visitor's experience through the £97.9
million Great Court development and a library devoted to the study
of world cultures in the historic Reading Room. The creation of
the British Museum Study Centre will increase access to collections
not on display and to the "behind the scenes" work of
curators and conservators.
1.5 The Museum seeks to reach out to the
widest possible audience through its education and loans programmes.
Last year some 11,000 objects were loaned within the UK and abroad.
Around 20,000 students per year are assisted with their research
through departmental "Students Rooms", while academic
collaboration with scholars throughout the world underpins all
curatorial activities. In 1999 Museum staff published more than
400 works in periodicals and more than 70 books.
1.6 The Museum is also developing new ways
of communicating. Two new explanatory galleries to the Parthenon
Sculptures, including a multimedia reconstruction and a touch
tour for visually impaired visitors, to which audio guides are
available in seven languages, were opened by the Secretary of
State for Education in 1998. The Ancient Egyptian Web Site for
schools (Key Stage 2) had 500,000 hits in its first month. COMPASS,
a multimedia public access system offering information, virtual
exhibitions and virtual tours with images of some 5,000 objects,
is to be launched in May 2000.
2. THE BRITISH
MUSEUM'S
FRAMEWORK FOR
ACQUISITION AND
RETURN
2.1 The British Museum has a published policy
on acquisitions (1998), which is under periodic review (Annex
I), a position statement on loans (Annex II), and a position statement
on restitution, repatriation and spoliation (Annex III). These,
together with the Museum's governing legislation, define the Museum's
duties and powers and provide a clear framework within which the
Museum considers all such issues.
2.2 The British Museum has contributed to
the recent work of the Museum and Galleries Commission on good
practice in the field of restitution and repatriation, which is
due to be published shortly. The Museum has also participated
fully in the National Museums Directors Conference Working Group
on Spoliation of Art during the Holocaust and World War II. This
has led to an action plan for further research and the identification,
by February 2000, of 11 drawings (out of a total of 50,000) whose
provenance may be uncertain. Similarly, there is representation
on the Museums Standing Advisory Group on Repatriation and Related
Cultural Property Issues.
2.3 Through its curatorial and scientific
expertise, the Museum has provided assistance to those taking
action against smuggling and illegal excavation. Recently, this
has included the discovery and conviction of a smuggling ring
involved in the trading of Egyptian objects, resulting in the
return of 40 objects to Egypt. In this country, an immense amount
of primary work has been done both in the creation of the UK Treasure
Act (1996) and in its operation. In addition, the Museum has been
able to identify objects stolen from local museums in Britain
and to facilitate their return.
2.4 British Museum experts also assist in
the regulation of the antiquities market in the UK through the
operation of the UK Treasure Act and by advising DCMS on European
Union Licences and on the export of art and antiquities under
the Waverley Criteria.
3. ILLICIT TRADE
AND ACQUISITION
3.1 The British Museum's policy on acquisition
is in accordance with the UNESCO Convention of 1970, the ICOM
(International Council of Museums) Code of Professional Ethics
(1990) and the UNIDROIT Convention of 1995. These conventions
provide the international legal framework for the return of stolen
or illegally exported cultural objects. The British Museum welcomes
the opportunity to play a role in developing any alternative legislation
envisioned by Government, as it did in the case of the Treasure
Act.
3.2 If it is shown that, despite due investigation
at the time of purchase, any object has been illegally removed
from its rightful owners, then the Trustees act to see that it
is returned. For example, in 1989 the Museum purchased a group
of miniature bronze shields (Netherhampton hoard), but the continued
investigations of the curator in charge led to the discovery in
1995 of their precise provenance. The Museum was advised it was
able to return the objects to the owner of the land on which they
were found, notwithstanding its very limited powers of de-accession.
The reason was that, following recent convictions for the theft
of the objects from their rightful owner, there was significant
doubt whether all previous purchases of them had been in good
faith. Consequently, it was not clear that the Museum had acquired
good title to the objects, and it remained practicable within
the statutory limitation period for the rightful owner of the
objects to institute successful legal proceedings against the
Museum for their return. The Museum decided that, in view of the
importance of the principle involved, it should avoid placing
itself in the position of potentially having to assert title to
the objects against the owner of the land on which they were found.
Therefore the objects were returned to him voluntarily, and without
the necessity for him to institute legal proceedings to compel
the Museum to return them. In 1998 they came back to the Museum,
together with many other objects in lieu of inheritance tax.
3.3 The Museum uses its expertise to advise
and assist other countries in acquiring items of their own cultural
heritage with great success, as has happened recently in Ghana,
Madagascar, South Africa and Cyprus.
4. DE -ACCESSION
4.1 The British Museum's ability to dispose
of or de-accession objects is delimited by the British Museum
Act 1963, which reaffirmed and extended earlier legislation and
by the specific conditions or terms of donors' bequests or gifts.
4.2 Under the Act, the Trustees may only
dispose of objects which are duplicates of other objects, or unfit
for retention, or consist of printed matter, created after 1850,
which can be reproduced by a photographic process. These conditions
for de-accession were fully discussed in the House of Commons
and in Standing Committee at the time of the passing of the 1963
Act.
4.3 There is a long history of the disposal
of duplicate prints and coins, dating back to 1787. There have
been five recorded auctions of prints, the last being in 1986.
Coins and prints have also been exchanged with the trade and other
museums for new acquisition. These have been monitored by the
Trustees and are fully documented.
4.4 The Museum held a large number of Benin
bronze works, which were individually cast but created in pairs.
In 1949 the Trustees accepted the judgement of the Keeper of the
Department of Ethnography that some were duplicates. Between 1950
and 1951, 25 of these were sold to Lagos Museum as part of a dedicated
attempt to help Nigeria establish a museum service.
5. INTERNATIONAL
LOANS AND
COLLABORATION
5.1 The Museum's relations with other nations
and societies involve collaboration at all levels. Undertaken
on a scale unmatched elsewhere, such collaboration is vital to
the Museum's role in advancing public and scholarly understanding
of the Museum's collections and the cultures they represent. The
depth and breadth of these partnerships address the claims of
others and may account for the low number of formal claims for
the return of objects. Relevant examples of areas of collaboration
are given below.
5.2 Loans
The British Museum Act 1963 increased the Museum's
power to lend objects for public exhibition whether in the UK
or elsewhere, although some restraints were imposed that were
intended to secure the safety of the object and the needs of the
London visitor. As a result, each year sees numerous loans both
within the UK and abroad. These are now an essential part of the
Museum's commitment to access and the current policy for considering
requests for loans is attached as Annex II. In addition, the Museum
has in the past explored the possibility of a reciprocal exchange
of objects as renewable long term loans to alleviate such restitution
claims as the Parthenon Sculptures (Annex IV) and a fragment of
the Sphinx's beard. Exchange-loans, however, require both parties
to accept the right of the other to own the material.
5.3 Temporary Exhibitions
The Museum has an active temporary exhibition
programme and exhibitions such as "Madagascar, Island of
the Ancestors" (1986), "Skeleton at the Feast"
(1991) and "Cracking Codes" (1999) have done much to
foster mutual understanding. "Skeleton at the Feast"
was visited by the President of Mexico, while "Madagascar"
was opened by the country's Foreign Minister and Minister of Culture
and travelled on to be mounted in the Presidential Palace as a
centrepiece of the country's twenty fifth anniversary of independence.
"Cracking Codes", which focused on the Rosetta Stone,
was opened by the Egyptian Ambassador.
5.4 Permanent Galleries
The collaboration with colleagues in Mexico
led to the creation of a permanent Mexican Gallery (1994), which
was designed by a Mexican architect and was supported by funds
raised in Mexico, encouraged by the then President. In his opening
speech, the Mexican Ambassador expressed the sentiment that his
country was proud to have a gallery dedicated to its culture alongside
the other great cultures represented in the British Museum. Similarly,
the Museum is considering a request by the Sudanese to recognise
their cultural aspirations by devoting a permanent gallery to
Sudanese antiquities.
5.5 Provision of Replicas
The Museum has a long history of providing replicas
of objects in its collections. Between 1844 and 1846 a full set
of plaster casts of the Parthenon Sculptures were presented to
the Greek Government, together with cement casts of other sculpture
from the Acropolis. Similar gifts were also made throughout the
twentieth century. Furthermore, facilities were provided for a
Greek workman to make moulds from casts in the British Museum
of the whole of the west frieze of the Parthenon for the production
of cement cases to go on the building. Replicas of objects from
the Republic of Ireland have also been made, such as Kell's Crozier
and the Glankeen Bell.
5.6 Collaboration
The Museum acts as an international centre of
scholarly activity. It seeks to generate understanding through
widespread collaboration with colleagues from museums and universities
around the world. For example, there is a sponsored programme
of visiting fellowships for museum-based scholars and the Museum
is currently hosting colleagues from Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,
Azerbaijan and China. Museum staff also take part in or direct
excavations and fieldwork in many parts of the world.
5.7 Conferences
Against the background of the cultural festival,
"Africa 95", the Museum organised a highly successful
conference for directors of museums and antiquities services under
the auspices of the West African Museums Project. The object was
to review problems faced by ethnographic museums in contemporary
Africa and their relevance to post-colonial cultural concerns,
as well as introduce the delegates to ways of securing new sources
of funding.
5.8 Parthenon Sculptures
The Museum is committed to maintaining its long-standing
status as a centre for Parthenon studies. This it does by organising
conferences and seminars, by publishing scholarly and popular
books and articles, and in facilitating the studies of others
through access to the unique collection of books, photographs,
manuscripts and casts. In 1985 it hosted a special exhibition
on the programme of the work undertaken by the Committee for the
Conservation of the Acropolis Monuments. The Museum also maintains
close links with the Centre for Acropolis Studies in Athens and
has advised on the conservation programme on the Acropolis.
6. CONCLUSION
The British Museum holds its collections in
trust and in perpetuity for the nation and the world. Its stewardship
is dynamic rather than static and the Museum seeks to provide
ever-increasing access, free of charge. The Museum is not complacent
about the wide public support that it currently enjoys and is
committed to developing new audiences and continues to seek new
ways to communicate with its international public through wide-ranging
educational and scholarly activity.
Annex I: Position Statement on Loans.
Annex II: Position Statement on Acquisitions.
Annex III: Position Statement on Restitution,
Repatriation and Spoliation: Duties, Powers, Policy and Procedures.
Annex IV: The Parthenon Sculptures.
| 
