Hundreds of people have occupied the British Museum in protest against its relationship with longstanding sponsor BP and to highlight that the multinational lobbied the UK government to help it gain access to Iraq’s oil reserves prior to the war in the country.

I am Ashurbanipal, the museum’s current main exhibition, features artefacts that protesters said had been removed from modern day Iraq during the Ottoman era, while BP’s impact on climate change was also a central cause for concern.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Activists from the pressure group BP or not BP protest inside the British Museum in London against BP’s sponsorship of the exhibition I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA

“We are the people rising, when oil burns and armies grow” chanted protesters as they unveiled banners saying “Crisis colonialism” and “Stolen objects”, with the museum allowing the day of peaceful action.

“There are memos from meetings just before the war where the Foreign Office was very clear that BP wanted access to Iraq’s oil, and indeed once the war was over BP was the first foreign company into Iraq,” said Helen Glynn, a spokesperson for BP Or Not BP, who helped organise the protest.

“Today, Iraq is still reeling from the impact of that war and oil extraction. They were promised it would bring them wealth and instead there’s huge pollution, poverty and corruption.”

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She added that the company’s sponsorship of British Museum events allowed BP, formerly called the Anglo-Persian oil company, to appear as a “good corporate citizen when in fact it is one of the most destructive companies in the world”.

The campaigner Yasmin Younis said during the protest: “When I saw there would be a special exhibition on my culture and my history I was ecstatic because, for once, my culture’s beauty would be celebrated, but finding out the sponsor was BP was a massive slap in the face.

“These are the very same sponsors who advocated for the war which destroyed my homeland and slaughtered my people all in the name of oil. To BP and the British Museum, I say how dare you use my culture and my history as an attempt to hide your colonialist skeletons. Not my culture, not my country. No war, no warming!”

It was unclear whether the 350-strong protest was the largest ever to take place at the museum. The British Museum said it was affected by the Chartist uprising in the 1830s, though the protest was not specifically against the museum.

BP or not BP? (@ReclaimOurBard) We’re outside the BP sponsored exhibition in the British Museum.



We have a simple message.



Drop BP. #NoWarNoWarming pic.twitter.com/JWugpcVpX1

“The British Museum respects other people’s right to express their views and allows peaceful protest onsite at the museum as long as there is no risk to the museum’s collection, staff or visitors,” it said in a statement.

“The long-term support provided by BP allows the museum to plan its programming in advance and to bring world cultures to a global audience through hugely popular exhibitions and their associated public programmes.

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“The objects from the British Museum’s collection in I am Ashurbanipal exhibition were collected and excavated with the full knowledge and permission of the Ottoman government, who gave permission for the objects to be exported.”

This Ain’t Rock’n’Roll (@thisaintrock) How long can the @britishmuseum carry on with such ridiculous behaviour? Stolen art and climate breakdown-driving sponsorship. These institutions used to enrich our lives, now they simply shame us. #NoWarNoWarming #DropBP #Ashurbanipal pic.twitter.com/HG5dIp0lzu

It added that it had a good relationship with colleagues in Iraq, and collaborates with the Iraq State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. It trained 50 Iraqi archaeologists in emergency heritage management in response to the Iraq War.