I hadn’t see the Elgin Marbles/Parthenon Sculptures since I was 14. My cousin took me there when we were both in England. We had studied ancient Greece in school, and I was fascinated by seeing them.
This is now a new century. I am decades older, and the world is different. There is actually international law now that makes it quite clear that one country can’t go in and take another country’s treasures, even if it has power over that country. That was not the case when the Ottoman Empire was running Greece. Then, it was a free for all.
The goal of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, is to preserve artifacts and places of historical significance. It could not stop when the Taliban blew up ancient Buddhist shrines in 2001 in Afghanistan or when ISIS/ISIL destroyed the ancient city of Palmyra. However, Museums that keep part of a country’s heritage such as the Elgin Marbles/Parthenon Sculptures is questionable, but it’s not in the same league as destroying Palmyra. It is still an issue as to the right to hold onto artifacts taken during domination by another country.
As you walk around the British Museum, you can see at least half of what was once on top of the Parthenon. The museum takes an active role in doing public relations. It has its view of events on its website, and a pamphlet is available to all who come to see the marbles. The museum says about half of the sculptures reside in Greece and half in London. One of the arguments is that the Parthenon sculptures in Greece are in the Acropolis Museum and they are on longer on the Parthenon. It also says some of the ancient Greek art and artifacts are in other museum collections, including the Vatican Museum, the Louvre, as well as other European museums.
These sculptures were on top of the Parthenon, which was built as a Greek temple 2,500 years ago. Somewhere around AD/CE 500, the Parthenon was used as a church. Then, in the late 1600s, the Parthenon was used to hold and sell gunpowder, and there was an explosion that basically put the building in the ruins that tourists see it today. Then, according to the British Museum, between 1801 and 1805, Lord Elgin, who was then the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, received permission to remove about half of the remaining sculptures/marbles and take them to Britain. There is some question concerning the authenticity of Elgin’s permission. They went on show in the British Museum in 1817, and they’ve been there ever since.
In the public relations pamphlet, the museum states: “The Acropolis Museum allows the Parthenon sculptures that are in Athens to be appreciated against the backdrop of ancient Greek and Athenian history. This display does not alter the Trustee’s view that the sculptures are part of everyone’s shared heritage and transcend cultural boundaries. The Trustee’s remain convinced that the current division allow different and complementary stories to be told about the surviving sculptures, highlighting their significance for world culture and affirming the universal legacy of ancient Greece.”
So, in other words, given that the sculptures are so very popular and people from all over the world come to London and view them, the view of the museum is that they should be kept in London and not returned to Greece.
Museum “preservation” processes damaged the sculptures. In this day and age, it would be easy to make casts of them, duplicate them and send the originals back to their home. However, the British Museum is not about to do that. It is true that new technology has allowed researchers to discover the original color of the sculptures and that further study might reveal more.
The museum did acknowledge the Greek government’s position, saying:Â “Since the early 1980s, Greek governments have argued for the permanent removal to Athens of all the Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum. The Greek government has also disputed the British Museum Trustee’s legal title to the sculptures.”
The current Greek government should dispute the legal title to the sculptures. Casts can be made of the sculptures. They could still be enjoyed by people visiting the museum. The actual sculptures should be returned home to Greece.
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