As they used to be named, “The Elgin Marbles”, the marble sculptures from the Parthenon and Lord Elgin have a very interesting and disturbing story. Although one might not view it as looting, as Greece had been under Ottoman rule for 350 years, the Ottoman authorities allowed Britain’s very own Lord Elgin to remove half of the sculptures from the Parthenon’s remaining pieces of marble art. This event marks the beginning of the furious Greeks’ struggle to obtain them once again and put them in their own museum where they rightfully belong. I found it very interesting to read the reasoning behind why Elgin was forced to sell his sculptures to the British Museum in 1816. Elgin was subject to a divorce after his wife left him for his best friend, he lost a portion of his nose due to a disease he caught, and therefore had to sell his collection to the Museum to get out of debt (Newsweek article). This is very ironic and it made me laugh when the Newsweek article referred to these series of unfortunate events as payback from the Gods. To get back to the issue at hand, from 1816 until this preset day the British Museum has claimed ownership to these marbles, which had been argues for decades as to whether or not they should be returned to Greece. The Britain’s claim that not only do they own these marbles, but the marbles represent the beginnings of civilization and thus do not belong only in Greece , but anywhere in the world because it was the dawn of this civilization that brought much of what we know and do today into the world. I do not agree that the British Museum should have these sculptures as it is not right to the culture of Greece that half of their ancient collection is thousands of miles away from its home. Two years ago I had the amazing opportunity to go to Greece on a ten day faculty led study abroad trip and I had the chance to visit the brand new Acropolis Museum. Not only was this Museum awesome in the fact that it was built on top of an ancient village and is being excavated currently, but also it holds almost every artifact from the Acropolis site. Among the many sculptures and artifacts that I saw, there was one thing that had stood out to me that day. As you walk through the halls of the Parthenon artifacts you walk past a series of frieze sculptures and at the time I wondered why, but for some odd reason there were white plaster sculptures, mixed in with the real marble like someone was filling in the holes. It was so distracting and when my professor explained the story I thought it so sad that the majority of the marbles were gone and it did not seem right at all. The idea that has come up about Greece loaning the sculptures from Britain and I believe that this idea is the best one. The marbles do not belong in Britain because they were taken away under foreign rule and still belong to Greece. The British idea that they belong to the world because they represent civilization is true, but they shouldn’t be placed in a country which has had no classical history. Instead they should rightfully be placed in the Acropolis Museum.
How neat that you have been to the New Acropolis Museum! The construction of this museum recently has renewed this decade-long debate between the British and Greeks. For a long time, the British would say to the Greeks, "We can't give you back the Parthenon marbles. You don't have a proper location to display or care for them." Now that the New Acropolis Museum has been built, the British can no longer use that excuse!
ReplyDelete-Prof. Bowen
I am feeling kind of jealous I so wish I could go on a trip like that. I think that you make a very valuable argument that the lighter colored replacement pieces are distracting to the eye. Especially so after you come to understand that they really do not have to be there.
ReplyDeleteAlso I like that you discussed the fact that the British Museum uses the fact that the Ottoman government gave permission for this destruction. A built in scapegoat for being unreasonable about returning the treasures of another country and culture. We are all entitled to be able to visit our past with ease when it has been removed from the place whence it came.
I appreciate your point of view and enjoyed reading about your experience. Thank you for bringing a first hand experience to the argument.
Great post! Reading your side of view on this is very convincing that the marbles should be returned to Athens instead of kept in the British Museum. Although I do think that Britain had done nothing wrong in keeping these sculptures in their museum because they were rightfully obtained from Athens during war, despite the fact that Greece was under Ottomans rule at that time.
ReplyDeleteNice thoughts! Although I believe the Parthenon Marbles rightfully belonged to the Greeks, I don't think they should have them now. In my mind, if someone buys something legally than there is no argument. The marbles were removed with the permission from the government at the time. That said, the British government has the full legal right to have them since it was a fair and legal buy. I think it's very unfortunate that they are not in the Parthenon. I agree the marbles would probably be best in Greece given that they would be in their original place, but they don't belong to the Greeks anymore.
ReplyDeleteStart of civilization! By the British saying that the Greeks founded civilization, and that's why they are entitled to the statues, has so many things wrong with it. First of all they are implying that the British are the only civilized nation worthy of having the statues and that Greece is not a civilized enough nation. Second, they imply that no other culture or people had any influence on our modern civilization besides the ancient Greeks. It shows the bias that people still have about the superiority of ancient Greek art and culture and what some of us value in art today. As we've been learning from our art history class, ancient Greek art and theories were influenced from other cultures, such as Egypt, from the near East, and other Aegean cultures as well. There have also been many other cultures, since the ancient Greeks, that have added to our knowledge of laws, math, art, and culture and played a part in forming our "modern" civilization. Thanks for your personal observations that you were able to bring to the discussion.
ReplyDeleteI agree that those pieces do not belong to Britain. While it would be easier for me to go to England to enjoy them, it's not where they belong. Greece is just as developed as England and is even more entitled to the pieces. It goes along with the notion that many big, industrialized nations sometimes have, which is that they may lay claim to anything they wish. It is something we have seen all throughout history, from the colonization of Africa and the New World to the moon. Just because you "found" it, or got there the fastest, doesn't mean you are the owner.
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