George Osborne, the former British chancellor who now chairs the British Museum, played a personal role in securing a reported £5 million ($6.6 million) sponsorship from billionaire hedge fund manager Igor Tulchinsky, according to internal emails obtained by the campaign group Culture Unstained.
The correspondence, first reported by in the Art Journal, shows that Osborne introduced Tulchinsky to the museum and gave the go-ahead for sponsorship negotiations less than 90 minutes after receiving a due diligence report that included a section on potential concerns about the donor. What those concerns were remains a mystery, since the museum blacked out that part of the report before releasing it under Britain’s Freedom of Information Act.
Tulchinsky, who founded the investment firm WorldQuant, has become a major backer of the British Museum’s exhibition of the Bayeux Tapestry. But his reported connections to Israeli military technology companies and his alleged financial support for a community center in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank have attracted criticism from some left wing campaigners.
The newly released emails offer a look at how his relationship with the museum came together.
In October 2025, Charlotte Appleyard, the museum’s director of development, reportedly sent Osborne an assessment of the prospective donor and asked whether she could move ahead with discussions. Osborne replied within an hour and a half, saying he was “happy to proceed.”
By November 24, the deal was apparently done. Appleyard emailed Osborne to say Tulchinsky had agreed to sponsor the exhibition and thanked him for making the introduction.
The emails establish Osborne’s involvement in arranging the sponsorship, but according to the Art Journal, they don’t show whether the museum’s other trustees were told about the due diligence findings. Nor do they establish that the museum broke any of its own rules in accepting the money.
The controversy centers in part on Tulchinsky’s reported support for a community center in Efrat, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. Israeli settlements there are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes that position.
On October 13, British culture minister Ian Murray told Parliament that the government hadn’t investigated reports of Tulchinsky’s involvement with the Efrat project. He said responsibility for accepting donations rests with the museum’s trustees, who are expected to follow the institution’s sponsorship policies.
Meanwhile, Tulchinsky has received recognition for his generosity. The museum has named a room in its members facilities after him, featured him in exhibition publicity, and displayed a portrait of him painted by Jonathan Yeo.
He’s also listed as honorary chair of the museum’s Red Ball fundraiser, scheduled for Saturday. The event, held in the museum’s Great Court, will feature artistic direction by Es Devlin and a performance by Wyclef Jean.
Culture Unstained, the activist group which obtained the emails, argues that the museum needs to rethink how it evaluates wealthy donors, particularly when the same person helping bring in the money is also responsible for overseeing the institution.
“The Museum’s approach to ethical sponsorship needs a complete overhaul,” a spokesperson for the group told the Art Journal.
The British Museum is hardly new to arguments over where its money comes from. Its $66 million, 10-year partnership with oil giant BP has drawn protests from political and environmental activists, while earlier sponsorship arrangements with tobacco companies have also faced criticism.
The British Museum did not respond to ARTnews’s request for comment before publication.