The British Museum’s interim director said tourists should have to pay an entrance fee of £20 to visit the institution as the funds could save the attraction.
Sir Mark Jones, 73, also suggested that other major museums and galleries across the country, including the National Gallery, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum, should also consider charging entrance fees to visitors from abroad.
While he believes tourists should have to pay to visit the attractions, he said entrance into the institutions should remain free for British visitors and foreigners under the age of 25.
The UK’s museums stand out among their international competitors when it comes to charging entry frees – with The Louvre in Paris costing €22 per adult visitor, The Acropolis Museum in Athens €15, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is $30 for adults.
Jones said that a price of £20 for entry into the British Museum would be reasonable.
He added that charging tourists for entry into the nation’s most popular museum attractions could help fund the work needed on the British Museum’s buildings and create relationships with foreign museums to loan back artefacts taken from their countries.
Jones told The Times that some of the museum’s buildings are in a ‘poor state’ and when there is heavy rainfall, water can sometimes seep into the galleries.
The British Museum desperately needs to undergo a massive restoration project and redisplay its vast collection of artefacts.
This has an estimated price-tag of between £400million to £500million.
‘The British Museum is also too small to do its job. A masterplan would include an increase in space and more space given over to facilities for visitors,’ he added.
The policy would also go towards reducing ticket prices for the institution’s special exhibitions, fund projects outside of London, and increase pay for staff.
On top of this, a ticket charge could help to reduce crowds, which often appear outside the British Museum at several points throughout the day.
Jones, who was the previous director of the Victoria and Albert Museum backed his entrance fee solution, adding that it was the least bad option.
He told the newspaper: ‘The money has to come from somewhere, either a major part of the funding has to be found out of taxation, which is difficult as the public finances are very stressed, or we need reasonably to charge [tourists]’.
has reached out to the British Museum for comment.
Jones became the interim director of the British Museum in September after the resignation of Hartwig Fischer, who announced his immediate departure on August 25 after it emerged that around 2,000 items from the museum’s collection were lost or missing.
It was later revealed some of these items had been sold on eBay.
In May, the British Museum announced they had recovered 268 of the missing stolen objects from across the globe – bringing the total to 626.
These precious objects were found across the world including as far away as North America.
In an update from the museum in February, it stated that more than 350 artefacts had been returned after the objects, which included classical Greek and Roman gems and jewelry, were taken.
Chairman of the British Museum trustees and former Chancellor George Osborne said at the time: ‘Few expected to see this day, and even I had my doubts.
‘When we announced the devastating news that objects had been stolen from our collection, people understandably assumed that was it – we were unlikely to ever see more than a handful of them again. That’s usually the history with thefts like this.
‘But the team at the British Museum refused to give up. Through clever detective work and a network of well-wishers we’ve achieved a remarkable result: more than 600 of the objects are back with us, and a further 100 have been identified – in total almost half the stolen items that we could recover.
‘It’s a great result but we’re not resting here – the hunt goes on for the remaining missing objects. I urge anyone with any information to follow the example of all who’ve helped us and get in touch.’
In March, outgoing National Portrait Gallery director Nicholas Cullinan, 46, was announced as the permanent director of the British Museum.