PARAGUAY
Member
As on the news a totem pole has gone back to Canada to the indigenous people it rightly belongs to, so should we give the Elgin Marbles back to Greece, especially the way we look after things they might end up on ebay
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Elgin Marbles
- Thread starter PARAGUAY
- Start date
Apparently you’re not allowed to call them the Elgin Marbles any more. It’s not been politically correct for some time. They are referred to as the Parthenon Sculptures. Largely since the Ottoman Empire allowed Lord Elgin to commit grand larceny and nick them from the Acropolis complex.
I was admiring them in the British Museum a few years back. It was quiet for once, and one of the curators sidled up to me and engaged me in conversation. I couldn’t resist teasing him by referring to them as the Elgin Marbles, even though they had been clearly relabelled. He promptly corrected me, and got a bit upset when I asked if the museum was trying to sanitise the marbles history in an attempt to pour oil on troubled waters.
I think if we give back the marbles it would open the flood gates and we’d be forced to repatriate all antiquities and cultural artefacts stolen from colonies and other countries throughout the history of the Great British Empire. Our museums would soon be empty, and we’d be culturally destitute. It’s a harsh historical and political reality but to the victor go the spoils. And I don’t think we should be apologetic about it.
Not least since many precious artefacts have been stolen for private collections or to fund terrorist organisations, or destroyed in less politically stable parts of the world. Similarly many artefacts in the British Museum would no longer exist if they hadn’t been aquired when they were. At least now they are relatively safe, well preserved, and accessible for all to see. And in my opinion are the heritage of all humanity, not necessarily just individual nation states.
I was admiring them in the British Museum a few years back. It was quiet for once, and one of the curators sidled up to me and engaged me in conversation. I couldn’t resist teasing him by referring to them as the Elgin Marbles, even though they had been clearly relabelled. He promptly corrected me, and got a bit upset when I asked if the museum was trying to sanitise the marbles history in an attempt to pour oil on troubled waters.
I think if we give back the marbles it would open the flood gates and we’d be forced to repatriate all antiquities and cultural artefacts stolen from colonies and other countries throughout the history of the Great British Empire. Our museums would soon be empty, and we’d be culturally destitute. It’s a harsh historical and political reality but to the victor go the spoils. And I don’t think we should be apologetic about it.
Not least since many precious artefacts have been stolen for private collections or to fund terrorist organisations, or destroyed in less politically stable parts of the world. Similarly many artefacts in the British Museum would no longer exist if they hadn’t been aquired when they were. At least now they are relatively safe, well preserved, and accessible for all to see. And in my opinion are the heritage of all humanity, not necessarily just individual nation states.
PARAGUAY
Member
That's good point @Tim Harrison how we " Police "what gets returned and how stable the country of return would be ,but l think in the case of the Parthenon Sculptures ,as now known with good reason, return to Greece and thinking about indigenous people their historical artifacts they mean far more to them and their history it's a no brainier to return them
PARAGUAY
Member
Just give them back to Greece Rishi ,I think Greece is prepared to share them for exhibition purposes ,which seems very generous
It's high time we returned the plundered loot of Empire, museums all over the world are starting to do exactly this. The British Museum would do well to repurpose a wing to tell the real story of the British Empire as part of our own process of truth and reconciliation. Watch 'The Australian Wars', tracing the genocide of first nations people currently available on BBC iPlayer for just one part of the story. It's shocking and illuminating.
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LightingBamboozled
Member
The thing that bothers me about these particular artefacts is that for a lot of them they're part of a near complete set. Reuniting the whole set gives a better understanding to the viewing public of the piece as a whole, so purely from the point of view that the purpose of keeping and displaying them is public education it makes sense to me to complete as many of the sets as possible. And for the rest, adding the surrounding context can only be a boon.
Greece has shown it's capable of caring for the artefacts and isn't going to destroy historical knowledge if they're returned so it feels like a no brainer.
The cynic in me says, keep them until we need Greece to sign on to something international or need them to nudge another country in the right direction and give them freely to improve their attitude to us at the right moment.
Greece has shown it's capable of caring for the artefacts and isn't going to destroy historical knowledge if they're returned so it feels like a no brainer.
The cynic in me says, keep them until we need Greece to sign on to something international or need them to nudge another country in the right direction and give them freely to improve their attitude to us at the right moment.
