British Museum’s plan for ‘red, white and blue’ ball sparks row | Culture

An internal row has broken out over the British Museum’s director’s proposal for a “red, white and blue” themed ball for 2026, with staff condemned as “in bad taste” after flags were hoisted across the UK.

Nicholas Cullinan, director of the 272-year-old museum, has suggested a color theme based on the union jack and the French tricolor to celebrate the Bayeux tapestry, which will be on loan from Normandy next year.

The Guardian understands the proposal has led to concerns being raised by staff in the museum’s curatorial and administrative departments.

“The manager and other senior staff have been told this is not very palatable due to the current far-right flag campaigns across the country,” a source said.

Since the summer, union jacks and other flags of the four nations of the United Kingdom have been lowered from windows, bridges and lampposts in what some describe as a celebration of Britishness.

However, concerns have been raised about the motivations of some of those involved. A group behind the flag-raising, called Operation Raising the Colour, accepted a donation from the far-right Britain First party, which has an explicitly anti-Islam and anti-immigration agenda.

The British Museum hosted a successful inaugural fundraising ball in October, with a “pink theme” – a reference to the colors and light in India – attended by 8,000 people, with tickets costing £2,000 each.

Those attending in October included Naomi Campbell, Alexa Chung, Miuccia Prada, Manolo Blahnik, Sir Steve McQueen, Sir Grayson Perry and Dame Kristin Scott Thomas.

Cullinan, who was born to British parents in Connecticut but grew up in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, said he hoped the annual celebration would become a “flagship national event”.

Described as “a great fundraiser”, Cullinan nevertheless faced opposition from within and outside the institution.

The first ball was co-chaired by Isha Ambani, an Indian “businesswoman, philanthropist and patron of the arts.” She is the daughter of Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man and owner of Reliance Industries, a petrochemical conglomerate.

campaign group Culture Is Spotless He criticized the association of the Ambani family, whose “wealth comes largely from Reliance Industries’ fossil fuel and petrochemical projects.”

Prof Nick Groom, author of The Union Jack: The Story of the British Flag, said the British Museum should be encouraged to go ahead with its plans despite concerns raised.

He said: “If the British Museum is reconsidering plans to hold a red, white and blue-themed ball next year to celebrate international harmony between the UK and France by displaying the Bayeux tapestry in London, then not only will it be abdicating its responsibilities as a national institution to preserve our history, it will also be effectively complicit in the politicization of union jack – opening the door to more than 400 years of history being rewritten by the far right.

“And in any case, communities will still need symbols of unity – so what will the union jack be replaced with?

“We are all responsible here; we are tasked with maintaining and recognizing the complexity and indeed contradictions of national symbols.

“The only way is to resist simplistic policies that try to give the flag a single, crude meaning and engage with its diverse history—a history we can both celebrate and condemn when appropriate.”

Groom added: “George Orwell was right when he condemned the ‘Bloomsbury intellectual’ for separating intelligence from patriotism and viewing the expression of national identity as rude: ‘If you were an intellectual you would snicker at the unionist and regard physical courage as barbaric.’

“This was at the height of the Blitz bombing raids on British and Irish cities in 1941, in which more than 43,500 civilians (about the size of the population of Salisbury) were killed, and Britain was facing the real possibility of a Nazi invasion.”

A British Museum spokesman said: “The opening ball was a milestone in the museum’s history, raising more than £2.5 million in vital funding for international partnerships.

“We are excited to continue our success this year with a prom in the fall of 2026 and will announce more details in due course.”