More like this
Should Britain return the Elgin Marbles?
Should the British Museum return the Elgin Marbles to Athens?
THE ARGUMENTS FOR
Cultural treasures from ancient civilisations belong in the places they come from. Museums in Sweden, Germany, America and the Vatican have already acknowledged this and returned items taken from the Acropolis. The British museum should follow suit and put an end to more than two centuries of bad feeling in Greece.
Since 1975 Greece has been carefully restoring the Acropolis. Athens now undoubtedly has the facilities to look after the sculptures properly - the specially designed New Acropolis Museum would display the marbles exactly as they appeared on the original temple.
The marbles have suffered considerable damage while in London. In the 19th century, pollution seriously harmed the sculptures and the British Museum's attempts to clean them, using sandpaper, chisels and acid, also caused irreparable damage.
It is still doubtful whether Lord Elgin was ever truly granted permission to take the marbles. The existing English translation of the 1801 document supposedly signed by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire has often been denounced as a fake. Furthermore, even if it is genuine, the royal decree gives permission mainly "to examine and view, and also to copy the figures remaining there". So it is unlikely that the Sultan ever thought that Elgin would actually remove entire frescos and sculptures.
THE ARGUMENTS AGAINST
If all restoration demands were met, many of the world’s greatest museums would be emptied of their trademark exhibits. The British museum thinks it best to house the Elgin Marbles in "an international context where cultures can be compared and contrasted across time and place".
Even if the treasures were returned to Athens, many more of the original sculptures are lost forever, meaning the set will never be complete.
The British protected the marbles from being damaged during the Greek war of independence between 1821 and 1833 when the Parthenon was used as an Ottoman munitions store and subsequently attacked. By and large, the marbles have been better looked after in the specialist Duveen Gallery than they would have been in highly-polluted Athens.
The British Museum's legal charter states clearly that the institution cannot legally return items from its collection: "The Trustees of The British Museum hold its collections in perpetuity by virtue of the power vested in them by The British Museum Act (1963)."
Before Elgin took the marbles he gained a royal decree from the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire saying that he could do so. While the original document is lost, a version translated into Italian and then into English says: "when they wish to take away any pieces of stone with old inscriptions or figures thereon, that no opposition be made thereto." ·
Comments are now closed on this article
Comments
Addressing the 'Arguments Against' the return.....
1. No-one wants to do anything like "meeting all restoration demands". Each case must be treated individually and none is so clearly in a category of its own as is the Reunification of the PARTHENON SCULPTURES, they are peerless and deserve to be displayed together in Athens.
2. This is the feeblest argument of all: to have some
70% of the Parthenon Frieze still preserved, much of it in very good shape, after nearly 2500 years is amazing and when seen togetther in Athens, it will not be difficult to imagine the missing bits.
3. The sculptures already in Athens, especially the West Frieze, show much more detail than the over-cleaned London ones.
4. The British Museum has returned human tissues? Fresh legislation was the answer there, and it is here too.
5. This is an outright untruth. It is absolutely clear
that the translated document was not 'a royal decree from the Sultan', whatever else it contains.
And to Maddalena Colautti-Leonard, sorry but the caryatids we saw in Athens when we visited the Acropolis last summer with my son looked amazing, am happy to send you his photographs!
I have seen the caryatids from the Porch of the Maidens on the Acropolis in Athens. The pollution from the past 150 years has eroded the features on their faces. The one caryatid in the Britsh Museum among the Elgin Marbles has been under cover and away from the worst of industrial pollution for the past 200+ years and is the only one from which we can see what the faces did look like. I think the Elgin Marbles should remain right where they are. The British Museum is one of the largest in the world and the Marbles are accessible to the largest numbers of people. They will continue to conserve and take care of the Marbles.
Greece has plenty of monuments and sculptures available to attract the tourists.
It looks as if all of the opinions have some degree of merit, although the "against" argument standing on the Museum's legal charter is so arrogant and immoral that it appears to be ridiculous. How about just saying: "We've got them and we like them and that's just tough for you. We were big and strong and sophisticated when we took them and there is nothing you can do about it."
The missing pieces of the Parthenon would be better viewed and appreciated near the building to which they belong, especially now, since Greece is prepared to take over the responsibility to care for them with a lovely new museum.