Sticky Situation: Anti-BP Protesters Pour Molasses at British Museum

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This is certainly one way to speak out against BP — and really annoy a museum’s cleaning staff.

The British Museum in London is home to countless ancient artifacts, and counts BP as one of its sponsors. To protest the museum’s involvement with BP, especially after the oil spill in the Gulf, an art collective called Culture Beyond Oil decided to take on Hoa Hakananai’a, a sculpture of a head and torso more than 1,000 years old.  In a statement to the BBC, the group said they chose the sculpture because it “represents the way in which civilizations once considered invincible can collapse in a short period of time.” A similar protest took place at the Tate Modern museum, also in London, in June.

Five demonstrators, wearing black veils, poured the molasses out of eggs brandished with BP’s logo, surrounding the statue with the substance, which resembles oil. The group said they took measures not to directly harm the sculpture. Either way, video of the event shows the protesters quickly fleeing the scene, leaving museum employees — who might benefit, salary-wise, from BP’s sponsorship — to clean up the mess.