A University of Oxford museum has dismissed national reports claiming that it will not display an African mask which forbids women from seeing it. 

Yesterday (Tuesday, June 18), The Telegraph reported on the front page of their newspaper that the Pitt Rivers Museum will not display an African mask due to the culture which created it forbidding women from seeing it, as part of new policies in the interest of “cultural safety”.

However, the museum has told the Oxford Mail that this is not true.

The report claimed that the museum's "new policy" was "a first for a major British collection", and that it is part of a “decolonisation process” at the Pitt Rivers Museum.

The report also claimed that "the museum had removed online photos of the mask made by the Igbo people in Nigeria" in an effort to "ensure that women do not see the mask".

It also claimed that "the effort to ensure that women do not see the mask follows a suite of policies aiming to ensure “cultural safety” with regard to taboos around secret ceremonies, human remains, nudity and gender roles".

In a statement, Prof Laura van Broekhoven, director of the Pitt Rivers Museum, said: "This is a non-story.

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"The Igbo mask has not been removed from display, as it was never on display and no one has ever been denied access to it.

"The Museum’s online collections now carry a cultural context message, which allows users, especially those from different cultures around the world, to actively choose which items they wish to see, and which to remain blurred from view.

"Only around 3,000 of our object records carry such a warning, so less than 1% of the overall collection. 

"No digital assets are withheld from view from women."

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The statement from the museum added: "Contrary to an article which appeared in this morning’s Daily Telegraph, the Pitt Rivers Museum is not withholding an Igbo mask from display because it should not be shown to women.

"The mask in question is in storage in the museum, and there is no record of it ever having been put on public display.

"The museum displays around 50,000 items from its overall collection of around 350,000 objects.

"Some collections and imagery of them are not appropriate for general public access online, and in this case, direct contact with the museum staff is encouraged to discuss the research need to consult them.

"Overwhelmingly this is for human remains, graphic or personal content, but also for copyright or other legal reasons.

"Only about 2,200 digital assets out of over 250,000 objects (less than one per cent) are withheld from public view in this way."