The British Museum is being investigated by the data watchdog over claims it has been overly secretive about among the most delicate objects in its assortment – a bunch of sacred Ethiopian altar tablets which were hidden from view on the museum for greater than 150 years.
The 11 wooden and stone tabots, which the museum acknowledges had been looted by British troopers after the Battle of Maqdala in 1868, have by no means been on public show and are thought-about to be so sacred that even the establishment’s personal curators and trustees are forbidden from inspecting them.
There have lengthy been requires them to be returned to Ethiopia; in 2019 the nation’s tradition minister, on a go to to the museum, requested their return.
Campaigners have now submitted a grievance to the Info Commissioner’s Workplace (ICO) arguing that the museum has did not disclose key particulars of inner discussions concerning the tabots in response to a freedom of knowledge request.
Returning Heritage, a not-for-profit organisation that collates data on cultural restitution, submitted the FoI request in August 2023, however says the museum’s reply omitted related materials whereas different data was overly redacted. An inner museum evaluate, at Returning Heritage’s request, upheld its preliminary response.
The organisation argues that whereas the British Museum Act 1963, which bars the disposal of objects besides in very restricted circumstances, means the standing of different disputed artefacts is ambiguous, the tabots might lawfully be returned now.
“The act could be very specific that the museum [can’t] return objects,” mentioned Lewis McNaught, Returning Heritage’s managing editor. “However there are some authorized exemptions throughout the act. And a kind of exemptions permits the trustees to return sure objects in the event that they take into account them ‘unfit to be retained’.”
As a result of the tabots won’t ever be exhibited or studied – they’re regarded as held in a sealed room that may solely be entered by Ethiopian clergy – they match this class, the organisation believes.
Returning Heritage requested data from conferences the place trustees mentioned the tabots, which it believes might present insights into why they consider they can’t lawfully be returned. “It appears very unusual that the museum wouldn’t want to clarify why they’re holding on to things that they will return,” mentioned McNaught, arguing there was “a real public curiosity – with this distinctive group of objects that may be returned – [in understanding] why the museum won’t clarify why they’re not returning them.”
Westminster Abbey mentioned final month it had agreed “in precept” {that a} single tabot that has been sealed inside a cathedral altar needs to be returned to Ethiopia. One other was returned quickly after it was found in a church cabinet in Edinburgh 23 years in the past, resulting in ecstatic celebrations in its house nation.
Tom In need of the regulation agency Leigh Day, who submitted the ICO grievance on Returning Heritage’s behalf, mentioned it believed the museum wrongly relied on sure permitted exemptions to FoI as justification for withholding materials. Leigh Day has beforehand drawn up a authorized opinion that it says exhibits the objects may be legally returned.
“Our shopper seeks data from the museum that many would argue needs to be within the public area by default,” Quick mentioned. “[It] issues decision-making by a serious public establishment on a matter of very important public curiosity.”
The British Museum declined to remark. It has beforehand mentioned that its long-term ambition is to lend the tabots to an Ethiopian Orthodox church within the UK, although clerics have questioned the feasibility of this as a result of the price of insuring a priceless object.
The ICO confirmed it had acquired the grievance.
