The centuries-old row over the Elgin Marbles divides into a legal argument and a moral one.
The Elgin Marbles, carved under the supervision of the master sculptor Pheidias between 447 and 432BC, consist of 247ft (75m) of a frieze that ran all the way around the Parthenon, together with 17 figures of the gods and legendary figures from the pediments at either end of the building, and 15 metopes, or relief panels, from above the columns. “It has really gathered pace in the last five years, and other countries with a colonial past, like Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, are all moving forward with this.”Īs Johnson told Mitsotakis this week, the British Museum and the Government do not believe the Elgin Marbles should be part of that trend. “But there is a definite shift towards museums in Europe and further afield changing their position on repatriation. “It would be psychologically challenging for any trustee of the British Museum to allow the removal of an entire hall of sculptures in one go,” says Alexander Herman, author of Restitution: The Return of Cultural Artefacts. What is undisputed is that the return of the Marbles would be the world’s most significant such repatriation, and could have repercussions across the globe. The British Museum, then, might understandably be worried that it could be denuded if it bows to pressure to give back the Elgin Marbles, though that is not its official reason for refusing their return. Some are being sent from museums in Britain. A mass repatriation of African cultural objects is also underway from museums around the world, with Benin Bronzes from Nigeria among the most famous. Earlier this year the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC sent a spectacular gold breastplate, the Sol de Soles, back to Peru, where it was made more than 2,000 years ago. Some internationally renowned institutions have already begun returning their treasures.
Mitsotakis’s comment that the Museum was being “anachronistic” in its approach also referenced a much wider debate about the return of artefacts – and human remains – to their countries of origin, which could radically reshape the collections of museums and art galleries across the western world. Waiting there are the sculptures that Lord Elgin, the former British ambassador to the Ottoman empire, left behind, with the whole collection split roughly 50/50 between London and Athens. There is, then, growing support for the Elgin Marbles – which have been contentious since the day they arrived in Britain more than 200 years ago – to be returned to Greece, where they would be housed in a purpose-built museum that stands in the shadow of the Parthenon itself. Meanwhile Amal Clooney, perhaps Britain’s most recognisable human rights lawyer, is advising the Greek Ministry of Culture on its options and tactics. And if Johnson should decide he wants to nudge the British Museum towards returning the Marbles, he need only pick up the phone to the new chairman of its trustees, the former Tory chancellor George Osborne. In Boris Johnson, he has a counterpart who keeps a bust of the ancient Athenian leader Pericles in his No. Public opinion is on his side, with a clear and growing majority of Britons believing the sculptures should be returned by the British Museum. He has plenty of reasons to be optimistic. His parting shot was to say that his demand for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures in Athens is no “flash in the pan” and that they will, one day, go home. Kyriakos Mitsotakis did not have the Elgin Marbles in his diplomatic bags, though he believes he would have every right to help himself to objects he insists were “stolen”. After a charm offensive that stretched from Downing Street to Good Morning Britain, Greece’s Prime Minister had to return home this week without the prize he had come for.
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