The Elgin marbles

The dispute over the Elgin - or Parthenon - Marbles has been back in the news. I have to say that on my one visit to see them a few years ago I was, to be honest, rather underwhelmed by their appearance. They were smaller than I imagined and more worn than I expected. Given their age and exposure to the  elements and neglect for centuries perhaps that should not have been a surprise, but it was.

In the light of the latest Anglo-Hellenic spat a  friend asked me what I thought about the question of returning the sculptures to Athens. What follows is a slightly amended and extended version of my reply.

I am slightly conflicted on this mattter. Ideally things should stay where they belong or, indeed be returned to their place of origin. Frankly I begrudge the fact that so much ancient, medieval and Renaissance art has been shipped across the Atlantic to galleries there far from its home in Europe. Nevertheless they do feed the minds and souls of those who see them in their new homes.

Lord Elgin certainly saved the sculptures from further dacay, if not indeed destruction for road building materials. He also, ultimately, made them accessible to a wider audience and helped thereby the recovery of interest in Greek art alongside the emergence of a newly independent Greek state.

At the moment the British Museum Act of 1963  formally prevents their repatriation. Were that situation to change then the doors would be open to other claims and the break up of such major collections. That is dangerous to all such institutions.

Yes the Marbles are a product of Greek classical culture, but do they ‘belong’ to Greece or to the Western world which inherited that fundamental cultural deposit? The tradition has been shared, so should the artifacts be as well? In that sense they are different to, for example, the Benin Bronzes or the stray statue from Easter Island.

A further point is where it goes beyond art history to politics. Why, one is tempted to ask, do Greek governments and publicists raise the matter of the Elgin Marbles but not - or not so loudly - go after the Winged Victory of Samothrace in the Louvre for example. Is there more going on here than just a concern for heritage?

I know the Egyptians think in a similar fashion to theGreeks about the bust of Queen Nefertiti that is now on Museum Island in Berlin, notwithstanding debates as to its authenticity.

That too has a political aspect to it.

I have a lot of suspicion about politicians from Greece or Britain, or elsewhere for that matter, striking attitudes with more than an eye to domestic audiences. 

The art looted by the French from Italy after 1799 now adorns the Louvre and ownership was resolved by the 1814 Peace Treaty.  The French would no doubt stridently reject call to return significant works to Italy, which still has à superabundance.

Modern trval makes to easier to see items whether in their original setting or in a museum or gallery hundreds, even thousands, of miles away. That said I do still feel something of the argument that things should be where they were meant to be. 

In short the proper place for the Elgin Marbles not an easy question to answer.