British Museum settles legal case with translator

The British Museum has settled a court case after acknowledging it used the work of a translator without permission or payment and then wrongly removed it.

Vancouver-based writer, poet and translator Yilin Wang agreed to settle her copyright infringement claim against the museum for an undisclosed sum.

Wang will also be fully credited in all exhibition materials and future copies of the catalogue will include her contribution.

According to the Art Newspaper, Wang plans to donate 50% or more of the total settlement “to support translators of Sinophone poetry”. 

“I hope my donations can help fund a series of workshops with a focus on feminist, queer and decolonial approaches to translation, in honour of Qiu Jin,” Wang said.

As part of the settlement, the British Museum will be reviewing its permissions policy.

A statement from the institution says the review of its permission process will “ensure that there is a timely and robust methodology underpinning our clearance work and our crediting of contributors going forward”.

The museum says it will complete its review by the end of this year and will “implement appropriate policies and procedures to address any gaps identified in its review”.

The statement also acknowledges the museum does not currently have a policy for specifically addressing the clearance of translations, which Wang said was “surprising” for such a large institution.

“I hope that the British Museum follows through on their commitment to create a clearance process for translations in the future by the end of this year and to take concrete steps to ensure that the mistake does not happen again,” Wang added.