The director of the British Museum has denied hypocrisy for accepting BP funding as the institution prepares a climate change exhibition featuring treasures only unearthed by melting Arctic ice.

In an “uncomfortable irony” precious artefacts in the display have been freed from the region's thawing permafrost by global warming.

Fossil fuels are blamed for driving the change which is threatening the climate and culture of the Arctic, and these ancient societies and their contemporary threats are the focus of a new show at the British Museum.

The London institution recognises no contradiction or hypocrisy in receiving sponsorship from BP while promoting climate awareness through the exhibition, which is graced by the millenia-old revelations of melting ice.

Activists warn that ignoring this environmental “irony” could permanently consign marginal peoples to the pages of history, and the artefacts of their daily life to display cases.