The past few years had been marked by incidents such as the stand taken against admission charges by the previous director of the British Museum, who threatened to resign over the issue, to strikes in protest at the laying-off of large numbers of researchers and curators at the Natural History Museum. Many eyebrows were also raised when a group of curators toured Disneyland for inspiration.
從大英博物館前館長不惜以辭職退休，抗議博物館引進收費制度；到自然史博物館大量裁撤研究員，導致館員集體罷工；此後又有博物館因派員遠赴狄斯奈樂園考察，引來軒然大波，和一場場博物館功能的辯論。