In 2002, Chin-Tao Wu wrote,
Since 1990, the regular rehanging of the Tate Gallery collection […] has been sponsored by BP. For around £150,000 a year, a sum which can buy only two-and-a-half minutes’ commercial advertising on prime-time television in 1990, the BP logo appears all year round on the Tate’s large banners advertising the New Displays and on the front cover of the gallery’s publications.
After 2014’s order to reveal further details, 2015 saw the news that over a 17 year period, BP’s sponsorship had an average value of £224,000 per year.
In 2017, BP’s sponsorship will end after 26 years. 34 years of sponsorship of the Edinburgh International Festival are also at an end. Can the new sponsorship deal with the British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Opera House and Royal Shakespeare Company survive? 217 “arts and culture professionals, scientists and campaigners” hope not.