Tate has declined Liberate Tate's donation of a 16.5m wind turbine blade, the artist-activist group announced yesterday. Entitled "The Gift," the blade was installed in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall on July 7, 2012 during a guerrilla performance involving over 100 Liberate Tate members, according to the organizers.

The monumental piece was exhibited as a protest against Tate's longstanding links to the oil company BP. It was offered to Tate as a "gift to the nation" under the provisions of the Museums and Galleries Act 1992. A petition signed by 1,310 people supported the gift. 

"What we have brought you is the blade of an old wind turbine," wrote Liberate Tate in a press release last July. "It is a blade to cut the unhealthy umbilical cord that connects culture with oil, a blade that reminds us that when crisis comes, when the winds blow strong, the best thing to do is not to build another wall but raise a windmill."

BP has been a corporate supporter of Tate since 1990. Lord Browne, the former CEO of BP, has been a Tate trustee since 2007, and chairman of the trustees since 2009.

Following a meeting of Tate's internal Collection Group on September 19, 2012, the institution decided to turn down Liberate Tate's gift, but agreed to keep documentation of the performance for its archive.

"In line with the current strategy, commitments and priorities for the Collection and the size of the object in relations to existing pressures on collection care —the offer of The Gift is declined," wrote Sir Nick Serota in a letter to Liberate Tate dated from October 5^th, 2012.

In response, the activist group asked four questions to Tate, questions which, at time of writing, are still unanswered:

"Whether Tate chair Lord Browne (and ex BP CEO) chaired the agenda item when Tate Trustees considered The Gift.

Whether Tate Trustees considered The Gift within the context of the Tate Sustainability Strategy it has agreed.

Whether Tate Trustees have also agreed a Size Strategy.

Whether Tate Trustees considered The Gift as art."

Liberate Tate made a name for itself by staging spectacular performances denouncing Tate's relationship to BP. These include an oil spill at Tate's summer party in 2010 and "Human Cost" (April 2011), for which a naked Liberate Tate member was covered with oil-like fluid inside one of the "BP British Art Displays."

When contacted by ARTINFO UK, Tate representatives said that Lord Browne was not present when the decision was made.