The Parthenon Marbles : At a time when a number of European museums and collectors are returning art and artefacts to their countries of origin, the British Museum in London has consistently refused to repatriate the Parthenon Marbles to Athens. Shrouded in controversy from its inception, the removal of the marbles from Greece by the British diplomat Lord Elgin in the early nineteenth century, was undertaken in ethically dubious circumstances, if not illegally. They were sold to the British Museum in 1816, and efforts to reclaim the marbles began shortly after Greece gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire.
Greece has since assiduously sought their return. Despite the unresolved debate on ownership, the British Museum has maintained that their acquisition was a legal act of preservation. The museum has consequently housed the marbles for over 200 years and views them as being part of a world collection telling the story of human cultural achievement. The institution also claims that by remaining in London, the marbles are in a safer and better preserved location than Athens and reach far larger audiences.
Yet the uncomfortable and simple truth is that the Parthenon Marbles are an integral part of Greece’s cultural heritage embodying the history of those who made them. Aside the evident aesthetic value, are embedded in the sculptures, the non visible meanings such as beliefs, rituals, legends and stories. The marbles are a record of a cultural and collective memory that tie the past with the present, in view of the future.
To understand the meanings and values of this heritage, context is therefore crucial. Currently divided between the British Museum in London and the Acropolis Museum in Athens, the separation of the marbles is a hindrance on many levels. Both for the scholars’ in their ability to study them in their entirety, and for the visitors’ in their comprehensive viewing of a unified frieze. The marbles have, like all artefacts of importance to heritage little or no intrinsic value when they are decontextualised. Imagine Salisbury without Stonehenge or Paris without the Eiffel Tower – being held by a foreign power.
The Acropolis Museum : The Acropolis Museum, with its stunning architecture designed by Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi and his Greek collaborator Michael Photiades, opened its doors fifteen years ago at the foot of the sacred rock. Its existence legitimises the cultural and historical importance of displaying and preserving artefacts found around and on the Acropolis. Signalling further the urgency in restituting the Parthenon Marbles to Greece in situ. Within the glass walls of the luminous museum, visitors explore the full scale replica of the Parthenon frieze, which currently combines original features with cast copies made from the missing sculptures that are displayed at the British Museum. Intelligently designed, the floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the gallery allow a direct line of sight between the sculptures indoors and the original monument outside.
A magical setting that welcomes annually 1.4 million visitors who come to celebrate, connect and identify with Greece’s past. A form of worldwide recognition which plainly yet emphatically advocates for the restitution of the Parthenon Marbles to its country of origin.
https://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/en
https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/contested-objects-collection/parthenon-sculptures
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