When I was on holiday in the UK in 2002, I went to the British Museum and viewed some of their most famous antiquities, including the Elgin Marbles. If you don't know what these are, they are the remains of the marble frieze around the Parthenon in Athens. They were given to or taken, stolen, or rescued, depending on your point of view, in the early 1800s by Lord Elgin, the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which at that time was the foreign occupying power of Greece, and had been for many hundreds of years. The Parthenon was in a dismal state of repair, having suffered the ordinary ravages of the centuries, and a near demolition by gunpowder when it was used as an arsenal by the Turks, which blew up after a direct hit from the Venetians some two hundred years earlier.
They have been a contentious part of the British Museum's collection for many years, as some people think they should be returned to Greece, now that that country can look after them properly, whilst others, including of course the British Museum, think they should stay where they are. However the last few years have seen a major increase in the debate, with real passion on both sides, in particular with the Olympic Games in Athens this year. The Greeks had hoped that the Marbles could be returned in time for this event. Obviously this will not happen now. A new museum is planned to be built by the Acropolis to hold these items, though the construction of this has been delayed, presumably to get the Olympic Games facilities completed, as they would not be placed back in situ on the Parthenon.
I am not going to restate all the arguments as you can check them out, many times over, on the internet. Nor do I know which side of the argument you might agree with. Both sides have powerful arguments and they are both right, really.
So there is no truly satisfactory solution. If the Marbles stay, the Greeks will continue to feel aggrieved, and the Greeks remain deprived of a major cultural heritage; if they go , the British Museum loses one of its prime attractions, and might feel in grave danger of loosing many others by the setting of this precedent. Its the sort of problem that Solomon made his reputation on.
It was reading about this issue on my return from my holiday that got me interested in the subject. Of course the British Museum contains many other treasures than the Elgin Marbles. There are many other Greek sculptures, even a complete miniature Greek Temple. There are also many Roman treasures, some from Roman Britain, and many from what is now Italy. What is interesting, and which has some relevence to this debate, I think, is that many of the Roman sculptures are copies of original Greek sculptures, which must have been carved many hundreds of years after the originals. When we admire these Roman copies, we admire them as they are, wonderful works of art. We don't say, "phooey, this is phoney Roman rubbish"! This got me thinking. If the Romans could copy the Greeks, why not the Second Elizabethans? The consequence of these thoughts was my sending an e-mail at the end of 2002 to the British Museum, the Committee for the Restoration of the Marbles, and the Greek Cultural Department in Athens. Unfortunately, with changing computers, I seem to have lost my original e-mail, but I can remember it reasonably well, and it went something like this:
Dear Sir / Madam
I have been following the discussions about the rightful resting place of the Elgin Marbles with interest, a recent article in the international edition of the Telegraph brought this to mind. I was lucky to visit the UK earlier this year and viewed these magnificent antiquities in the British Museum. The story of their removal from the Parthenon and Acropolis is now quite well known, and I don't think anyone would disagree that if they hadn't been removed at that time, these beautiful sculptures would have been been further damaged, lost or otherwise deteriorated. However the argument as the whether they will stay in the British Museum or should be returned to Greece has become more lively, especially with the Greeks wishing to have the Frieze returned to Athens in time for the Olympic games in two years time. I think both sides of the argument are equally right, and equally wrong. As long as people think this problem is only amenable by one solution then we will never get a satisfactory or honourable answer.
My proposal is this. The governments of Greece and Britain should commission a copy of the whole Parthenon Frieze, to be sculpted in London, in a temporary accommodation in the open ground at the Museum entrance. This copy will not just be of the remaining parts of the Frieze but will be intended to reproduce as far as is possible, the likely appearance of the whole frieze as it would have appeared, pristine, in ancient Greece (except I imagine that they won't be painted! ). Great scholarship and research will be required, a good deal has been done already, but I am sure the end result is not likely to be too different from the original. Sculptors from all parts of Europe, and the world, would be needed and the endeavour clearly would take quite a number of years. Finance would come from donations, corporate sponsorship, government help, lottery etc. Also the work in progress would be extremely interesting to visitors to London and the Museum and I believe would prove to be a major attraction in itself, and charging entrance money to see the sculptors at work would generate a good deal of revenue, after all, admission to the Museum itslef is free. Once the frieze is completed I would suggest that it is installed as a gallery two thirds of the way up on the walls in the Great Court of the Museum, that wonderful new open space in the Museum. Norman Foster no doubt would be keen to revisit his triumphal design for this Great Court. The original frieze could then be returned to Greece, to be looked after properly there. Or perhaps the carvings could be installed as they are completed, and if this coincides with an original then that could be returned to Greece at that time. I would suggest just one of the original parts of the Frieze could be kept to be incorporated into this new work. This new frieze could be called the "New Elgin Marbles". As to the likely cost of such an endeavour, I have no idea, but I suppose it would be upto several hundred million pounds. But for a nation that can spend £700 million on a white elephant along the banks of the Thames, I think that invesment will prove to be remarkably good value.
Of course a copy is not the original, but does this truly matter? In your own museum, you display, with great pride I'm sure, many beautiful sculptures which are Roman copies of Greek originals, e.g. the head of Sophocles, Pericles, a wounded soldier, Dionysos etc, all sculpted hundreds of years after the originals. In fact these Roman records are often all we possess of these Greek works, the originals having been lost or destroyed. Do we think any the less of these wonderful works because they are copies? Of course we don't. I think in time that the New Elgin Marbles will be held in just the same esteem as the originals. We haven't a clue what life will be like in two hundred years or so, but wouldn't it be nice to think that we could bequeathe such a wonderful adornment to the fabric of London, and the world, to our future generations, whilst the Greeks can continue to take pride and pleasure in their glorious ancient history?
In addition, I suspect such an approach will please the Greeks so much that the British Museum will be able to extend its present relationships with that country so as to be able to borrow other important Greek antiquities, which would otherwise never be seen in London, to exhibit in the vacated galleries presently holding the Parthenon Frieze.
I would be grateful if you would consider this suggestion as someone who is just interested in the matter. I expect will think of this as just another crank suggestion, but I think it has real merit, and that far too many of what appear to be intractable problems in the world are just the result of inflexible thinking and blinkered reasoning.
Yours sincerely,
Dr J K Monro MBChB
Well, that's approximately what I wrote. The British Museum didn't reply, the committee for the return of the Marbles said thank you for the idea and I heard no more, and Mr Hatsiangelu Dimitris from the Greek Ministry of Culture, wrote to me, and forwarded by surface mail a two inch thick wad of documents related to the matter of the Parthenon Freize. Since then I have heard nothing more, but with the Olympic games being imminent, and seeing again some new articles about this issue, I thought I might have another go. So apart from appearing in my new web site, I shall be sending my new letter above back to the British Museum and the Committe and the Greek Cultural attache in London, and we will see what happens, if anything. In the meantime, if you are ever in London, visit the British Museum, and see what all the fuss is about. If you are thirsty afterwards, then call in at the Museum Tavern, just opposite the Museum gates, where Karl Marx used to refresh himself after some intensive work in the Reading Room of the British Museum. This pub is still, amazingly, a characterful and unpretentious place to enjoy a quiet pint.
If you have any comments about my proposal, if you think the idea is brilliant or plain bizarre, let me know. If you do think there is some merit, then see below for the e-mail addresses you can write to supporting the idea.
.
Internet Sites
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3927833.stm A recent BBC news article about the Elgin Marbles.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/3929527.stm A BBC talking point about returning ancient objects to their original owners. In this someone else (Peter Stroud of Andover) mentions making a copy of the marbles to be kept in the British Museum. He must have read my earlier e-mail! However I think his suggestion is only to copy the marbles as they are, which is a less complete solution than my proposal, but it is good to see I am not the only one to suggest this course of action.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/parthenon/0,12119,184528,00.html a guardian report on the issue with many links.
http://www.museum-security.org/elginmarbles.html website dedicated to the return of the Marbles.
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk British Museum Site The home page of the British Museum website
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/gr/debate.html, the British Museum view of the issue
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/greatcourt/ The British Museum Great Court, where I wondered if the New Elgin Marbles might be displayed
http://www.damon.gr/marbles/support.htm The British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles, actively working to persuade the British Government and the British Museum to support the return of the Marbles
e-mail addresses
political@greekembassy.org.uk e-mail the Greek Embassy in London
info@parthenonuk.com e-mail the Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles
information@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk e-mail the British Museum
