I love the British Museum, but what I’ve learned about the depth of its crisis fills me with dread | Charlotte Higgins

First mass thefts, then fossil fuel sponsorship and claims of Soviet-style management. This is how an incredible institution lost its way

There are six floors in the British Museum, three above ground and three below. In terms of the crisis that has exploded into public view since the summer - the alleged theft of up to 1,500 artefacts - it has felt, a curator recently told me, as if the institution's standing had finally risen above the very lowest possible level, and was moving slowly upwards. But, the staffer added, it had not yet risen to the ground floor.

This week it feels as if the lift has hurtled back down to the adamantine depths. The British Museum's decision to accept 50m from BP is, aside from the profound ethical objections to receiving support from one of the world's biggest polluters, a decision remarkable in its tone-deafness. It has already been widely condemned, and, in practical terms, this will lead to years of protests by campaigners. To many who love the museum, it feels like a betrayal.

Charlotte Higgins is the Guardian's chief culture writer

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