British Museum removes bust of Founding Father over slavery history

The British Museum has removed a bust of its founding father in what they say is trying to confront their ‘links to colonialism’.

Hartwig Fischer, the institution’s director, said that the bust of Sir Hans Sloane has been placed in a secure cabinet alongside artefacts explaining his work in the context of the British Empire.

The museum’s curators said that the decision was influenced by the Black Lives Matter movement which has once more come to the fore after the death of George Floyd.

Fischer told The Telegraph:

“We have pushed him off the pedestal. We must not hide anything. Healing is knowledge.

Dedication to truthfulness when it comes to history is absolutely crucial, with the aim to rewrite our shared, complicated and, at times, very painful history.

The case dedicated to Hans Sloane and his relationship to slavery is a very important step in this. We have pushed him off the pedestal where nobody looked at him, and placed him in the limelight.

The British Museum has done a lot of work – accelerated and enlarged its work on its own history, the history of empire, the history of colonialism, and also of slavery. These are subjects which need to be addressed, and to be addressed properly. We need to understand our own history.”

Sir Hans is honoured by a number of place names, including the famous Sloane Square. Sir Hans was a physician and natural scientist who married a wealthy heiress of Jamaican sugar plantations worked on by slaves. His collection of rare artefacts provided the starting point for what became the British Museum.