It’s been a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad” year at the British Museum. The Museum recently settled a copyright and moral rights dispute with Yilin Wang, a poet and translator, acknowledging that it used her translations without payment or permission in its exhibition China’s Hidden Century. When first confronted by Wang, the Museum removed the translations and the original poetry by Chinese feminist poet Qiu Jin, who was executed in 1907. From Wang’s point of view this was the worst possible resolution since it resulted in “two female writers of colour [having] their work erased.” The Museum will pay an undisclosed “license fee” as well as an additional sum for Wang to distribute to charitable causes. Not surprisingly, the Museum, as part of the settlement, is now reviewing its permission policies, which had not previously contained a policy specifically covering translations.

Meanwhile, the Museum is involved not only in its well-publicized dispute with Greece over the Elgin Marbles, but also with respect to returning many other items in its permanent collection that are claimed by the countries of origin. Unlike many other major museums, the British Museum has declined to repatriate the items, citing British law, which prohibits, with very limited exceptions, disposing of objects in its collection and its position that the objects are better cared for and more accessible to the general public in the British Museum.

At the same time, the Museum is under pressure from artists and cultural leaders to rename its BP Lecture Theatre to further disassociate itself from the oil giant. This follows the Museum’s termination in June 2023 of its long-term sponsorship deal with BP. One of the artists leading the call is Nan Goldin, who was instrumental in the campaign to remove the Sackler name from cultural institutions (including the British Museum, which removed the name from its galleries).

As if all this were not enough, Director Hartwig Fischer accelerated his resignation amidst a scandal over the theft of about 2,000 objects from its collections. An inside job over a significant period of time is suspected. Although discovered in 2021, no action had been taken. The Museum has now launched a webpage on its efforts to recover the stolen objects.