British Museum 'struggling'

The British Museum is so underfunded by government that it can hardly provide a basic service, its director has told MPs.

Robert Anderson warned that even that service will have to be cut if its grant is not increased substantially.

Dr Anderson, who last week became the first director in 250 years to see it closed by a strike, said: "We are a flagship museum, one of the major museums in the world, yet in many ways we are impoverished.

"Our funding is completely inadequate in terms of what is expected of us by government."

Appearing before the parliamentary archaeology committee, Dr Anderson denied his own regime was to blame for the crisis sparked by a £6.5 million deficit.

He said: "It is easy to say that efficiency must be increased, but it comes to the point that people have extraordinary workloads, and their output is already extraordinarily high.

We must remain the definitive museum for archaeology and antiquities - the less we are that, the less we are the British Museum."

The museum has blamed its deficit partly on last year's collapse in tourist numbers, but mainly on years of government cuts or standstill funding, which it claims has reduced its grant in real terms by 15 per cent in 10 years.

Dr Anderson retires on Sunday to be replaced by Neil McGregor, director of the National Gallery.