The world’s largest museum, created with a bequest of golden sovereigns from a British scientist, is asking for an injection of $2.5 billion (£1.2 billion) of private capital to stop it falling down.

The Smithsonian Institution’s board of regents authorised this week the first big fundraising campaign in its 161 year history to meet a backlog of repairs on crumbling buildings. The Washington complex houses 142 million items, including some of America’s greatest treasures, in art galleries, research centres and world famous museums like those for Natural History or Air & Space.

In the past year the venerable organisation has been shaken by allegations of financial scandal, political controversy over its programmes and warnings that some artefacts are being put at risk by inadequate or dilapidated facilities. The board rejected calls this week for it to change its longstanding principle of free admission, although visitors will be expected to pay for some special exhibitions.

Founded for the “increase and diffusion” of knowledge in 1846 by a bequest of 104,960 sovereigns to the United States, the motives of its original British benefactor have always been a source of speculation.

The Smithsonian gets 70 per cent of its $1 billion annual operating budget from the US federal Government which, especially given the financial market turmoil of recent months, is reluctant to foot the repair bill.

Lawrence Small, the institute’s secretary, resigned earlier this year after the disclosure of a million-dollar housing allowance and expense account which was denounced by Congress as a “Dom Perignon lifestyle”.

His defenders said that he was the victim of a backlash against efforts to introduce more corporate-style management to the largely public-funded organisation. For instance, Mr Small had been attacked for removing the name of the aviation pioneer Samuel Langley from the Air & Space Museum theatre so that it could be rechristened after its donor, the Lock-heed Martin Corp.

Since his departure, the board has strengthened oversight systems – only to become mired in more controversy over efforts to raise money through private sponsorship.

This week it promised to review how corporate donations are handled after the American Petroleum Institute withdrew a bitterly contested $5 million gift for the Ocean Initiative exhibition hall. Critics said that it was wrong to accept money from the oil industry which, they claim, is responsible for polluting of the seas. Another row erupted over the institution’s handling of an exhibit on the Arctic, which was toned down to include uncertainty about global warming.

In September a report from the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said that museums and the Smithsonian’s National Zoo were crumbling under construction and repair backlogs. A lack of humidity and temperature control at the National Air and Space Museum had resulted in the corrosion of historic aircraft; the zoo’s sealion exhibits had been losing 110,000 gallons of water a day, and leaking pipes at the Museum of African Art had endangered many artefacts.

Mystery bequest

— It was founded with a bequest from James Smithson, a British scientist who died in 1829. He never visited the United States.

— Some think he admired its less rigid social structures.

— The illegitimate son of a peer, he was prevented for years from using “Smithson”, his father's name.

— His fortune, 100,000 gold sovereigns, was melted down and recoined as $500,000 in 1838 by the US Mint to set up the trust.

Sources: Smithsonian; The Stranger and the Statesman, Nina Burleigh

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