The British Museum is the latest institute of higher learning to be branded racist and imperialist – because the head of the Asian department made the terrible error of saying Asian names could be confusing.
This may or may not be the case, but the museum decided it must apologise on behalf of poor Jane Portal, Keeper of the Asian Department. Never mind that the labels describing the exhibits might be too small to detail the multiple Asian language names for each.
This highly respected Cambridge-educated Chinese and Korean expert turned out to be a modern culture ‘naif’. For the crime of perpetuating ‘colonialist heritage’, as alleged by a group of Leftie wreckers, she’s been hung out to dry.
Her craven bosses at this Victorian neo-classical masterpiece, once the largest building site in Europe, and unique in its collection of 13million artefacts representing the cultures of the world ancient and modern, may be living on borrowed time.
Appeasing angry and unreasonable extremists, who would erase this uniquely preserved and accessible heritage, can only limit their days.