International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures

Actor Pierce Brosnan has been in Athens as publicity for his latest film. Whilst doing a television interview, he was asked about the Parthenon Sculptures & expressed his support for their return.

Interviewer: I have a question about the Parthenon Marbles which are now in the British Museum
Pierce: The Elgin Marbles?
Interviewer: The Parthenon, as we say…
Pierce: The Parthenon. They Should come back. They should come back. Sure. You should have them. They’re yours.

Among the vast numbers of disputed artefacts in museums & galleries, some have a high profile, whilst others are barely known. Time Magazine has attempted to draw up a list of what they feel are some of the most currently significant cases.

This article was published a few months ago, but I only recently came across it – explaining the fact that the information on the Louvre’s Egyptian Frescos is already out of date.

From:
Time

Top 10 Plundered Artifacts
History is big business. Plundered art and antiquities trade to the tune of at least $3 billion a year, much to the chagrin of nations struggling to reclaim their lost artifacts. In honor of a recent spat between the Egyptian government and the Louvre museum in Paris over the fate of fresco fragments, TIME examines 10 plundered antiquities and the conflicts they’ve created.

The Louvre’s Egyptian Frescos

A set of ancient fresco fragments is at the center of a nasty feud between Paris’s Louvre Museum and the Egyptian government. Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s antiquities department, claims the Louvre bought the fragments last year despite knowing they were taken from a tomb in Egypt’s storied Valley of the Kings in the 1980s, a prime spot for grave-robbers. Egypt, which has made reclaiming ancient art taken from its country a top priority, said they would sever cooperation with the Louvre unless the fragments were returned. A museum representative claimed on Oct. 7 that the Louvre was unaware the fragments were stolen, and said the museum would consider sending the fresco pieces back to Egypt.

Current status: For now, the pieces remain in the Louvre’s collection.

Nefertiti’s Bust

During a 1912 Egyptian excavation, German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt discovered the bust of Nefertiti, a 14th Century BC Egyptian queen. He claimed to have an agreement with the Egyptian government that included rights to half his finds and — using this as justification — Berlin has proudly displayed the item since 1923. But a new document suggests Borchardt intentionally misled Egyptian authorities about Nefertiti, showing the bust in a poor light and lying about its composition in order to keep his most-prized find. The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities has repeatedly asked Germany to give the bust back — or at the very least let it return home on a temporary basis.

Current Status: Germany insists their ownership of Nefertiti is without doubt, and Berlin’s Egyptian Museum curators maintain that even a brief loan may damage the bust.

The Elgin Marbles

The Elgin Marbles receive their name from the British lord who craftily spirited them away from Greece. Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin and ambassador to the Ottoman Empire — occupiers of Greece in the early 19th century — grew to admire the Parthenon’s extensive collection of ancient marble sculptures and began extracting and expatriating them to Britain in 1801. Lord Elgin claimed his imprimatur from an Ottoman sultan, who said he could remove anything from the Parthenon that did not interfere with the ancient citadel’s walls. Despite objections that Lord Elgin had “ruined Athens” by the time his work was done in 1805, the British Government purchased the marbles from him in 1816. They’ve been housed at the British Museum ever since.

Current Status: Greece considers Lord Elgin’s agreement with the Ottomans dubious at best. They claim the Sultan was bribed and that, as an occupier, he really had no authority over the Parthenon to begin with. Calls to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece have fallen on deaf ears; the British argue that giving the marbles back would do everything from irreparably destroying them to creating more demand for the return of ancient art, draining the collections of European museums.

The Hottentot Venus

The Hottentot Venus was not a piece of art at all. Instead, it — rather, she — was a person named Sarah Baartman. An indigenous woman from an area now located in South Africa, Baartman was taken to London in 1810 and paraded through Europe, on display for the public to gawk at her full figure and for scientists to explore the reasons for her voluptuous appearance. The indignities continued past her death at the age of 26 — until 1985, Baartman’s sex organs and brain were housed in Paris’ Musee de l’Homme, ostensibly for scientific study.

Current Status: Calls by South Africans for the return of Baartman’s remains began in the early 1980s; bowing to pressure, the Musee de l’Homme took the body off display. In 1992, Nelson Mandela, then the president of South Africa, issued a formal request for the Baartman’s return, but it took a decade more of hand wringing for the French to repatriate her remains. She was buried in South Africa on August 9, 2002.

Ramses Mummy

With a history equally rich in antiquities and the looting of said antiquities, Egypt is exhaustive in its attempts to recover stolen artifacts. Few items are more prized than the mummified remains of its ancient pharaohs, and Egypt has tried for years to recoup what is likely the 3000-year-old body of Pharaoh Ramses I from North American museums. It is suspected that grave robbers sold the body to a Canadian museum sometime in the 1860s.

Current Status: In 1999, Atlanta’s Michael Carlos Museum received the mummy and used carbon dating and CT scans to place the mummy to the era of Ramses I. Upon confirmation, they offered to return the body to Egypt, where it is now housed at the Luxor Museum.

Euphronios Krater

Even with the best of intentions, it may be difficult for museums to completely avoid the acquisition of ill-gotten artifacts. Consider the case of the Euphronios krater. The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired the 2500-year-old krater — an ornate bowl used to combine water with wine — for $1 million in 1972, thrilled to find one of the few known examples of the ancient painter Euphronios. It had been purchased, however, from Robert Hecht, now on trial in Italy on charges of conspiring to deal in looted antiquities. And while any cloud of suspicion over the krater’s provenance was unbeknownst to Met curators in 1972, the museum faced calls from Italy to return the artifact, originally discovered outside Rome.

Current Status: After several years of negotiation, the Met returned the krater to Italy in 2008 in exchange for the rights to display several comparable artifacts on loan.

Priam’s Treasure

Germany’s plunder during World War II was legendary, but with Priam’s Treasure they were the victims.

Not that we should feel sorry.

German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered the artifacts — mostly gold, copper shields and weapons — in Anatolia 1837 and named them for Priam, king of Troy. Schliemann illegally smuggled the loot to Berlin, convinced he had found evidence of the Iliad’s famed ancient city. But in a bit of karmic payback, Soviet soldiers stole the treasure from Berlin during the waning days of World War II, keeping their bounty a secret for decades until the artifacts turned up on display in Moscow in 1993.

Current Status: Russia is technically bound by a 1990 treaty that provides for the return of all pilfered art and artifacts back to Germany. But Russian museums are now stonewalling, saying they plan to keep the treasure as reparation for Germany’s destruction of Soviet cities during the war.

Koh-i-Noor Diamond

There are many claims to the Koh-i-Noor diamond.

The jewel may have passed through hands and nations for as many as 5000 years — some think ancient Mesopotamian texts make reference to the Koh-i-Noor as early as 3200 B.C. It may have once been a monstrous 793 carets, before a jeweler’s maladroitness and a few subsequent refinements chopped it to the mere 109-caret chunk it is today. The Moguls possessed it in the 16th Century, only to lose it to the Iranians, who then lost it to the Afghans. It later went to the Sikhs and ended up with the British. And while the stone carried with it a warning that it would bring harm to its owner, Queen Victoria paid it no heed. It circulated through the British crown jewels until finding a home in the coronation crown of Elizabeth, Britain’s most recent Queen Mother.

Current Status: Many lay claim to the Koh-i-Noor, including the Taliban, who trace its origin in India through Afghanistan in ancient days. Indian Sikhs have asked for the diamond back too, as they were the most recent holders before the British. For their part, the British are deaf to these claims, arguing since the diamond has passed through so many hands for so long, they have just as much right to the stone as anyone.

Geronimo’s Skull

Are the members of one of the world’s most prestigious and legendary secret societies grave robbers? Descendants of Geronimo want answers to the persistent rumors that members of Yale’s Skull and Bones Society unearthed the remains of the Apache warrior to bring back to their New Haven campus.

Current Status: Descendant Harlyn Geronimo filed a lawsuit in February against Yale, the Order of Skull and Bones and members of the U.S. government, calling for the return of any of Geronimo’s remains. A Yale spokesman had no comment, but some experts believe Bonesman raided the wrong grave anyway. No matter — the Bonesmen are also rumored to possess two more famed skulls, those of Pancho Villa and President Martin Van Buren.

Chinese Bronzes

The recent attempt to sell a pair of brass Chinese animal heads took an inventive turn after they were put up for auction as part of the sale of French designer Yves Saint Laurent’s art collection. A $40 million bid was received for the two heads (a rabbit and a rat), which French and British troops removed from a clock at China’s Old Summer Palace during the second Opium War in 1860. One hitch — the buyer had no intention of paying. Chinese art dealer Cai Mingchao submitted the massive bid to protest the sale of the heads, which many Chinese see as unfairly torn from their cultural patrimony.

Current Status: Saint Laurent’s partner said he plans to keep the heads and is “thrilled” the sale failed. And while Christie’s may consider charges against Cai, they will likely relent after an outpouring of support from the Chinese public for his actions.

The Parthenon Sculptures are just a small proportion of the many other cases of disputed artefacts around the world. The countries that currently posses them rarely admit that these pieces are anyting other than legitimately acquired & owned.

From:
Pravda

Heritage, Loot or Booty?
07.02.2010

Western Museums are brimming with cultural heritage…from other countries. The Elgin Marbles are just one set of tens of thousands of artefacts looted from distant lands during colonial or imperialist times. However, the same desecration of cultural heritage continues. How many of the 13,000 artefacts stolen from Baghdad National Museum are today in the United States of America?

The list was drawn up and given to Vice-President Richard (Dick) Cheney before the first US or British soldier set foot in Iraq. It was a shopping list of archaeological treasures which the White House cronies wanted to see on their shelves in Rhode Island, in Maryland, in Virginia. UNESCO claims that when the Baghdad National Museum was looted in April 2003, 13,000 objects disappeared. How many of these are sitting in private homes in the USA?

Much was written about the theft of The Scream painting by Munch in Oslo, 1994. Yet what is the difference between the theft of a painting from a Museum and the wholesale pillage and desecration of cultural heritage perpetrated by invading powers over the centuries? As public interest in Ancient Egypt was revived during Napoleon Bonaparte’s Expedition to Egypt (1798-1801), the Louvre’s Department of Egyptian Antiquities was set up and “scholars” flocked to Egypt to fill their pockets in the same way in which US troops filled their suitcases in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Kabul National Museum, which once had one of the world’s richest collections, has lost 90% of its artefacts. Where are they?

Yet not only the French and Americans are guilty of what amounts to wholesale looting of a country’s cultural heritage, The British thought nothing of filling their museums with “spoils of war” from the French, which included the Rosetta Stone, today sitting in the British Museum alongside antiquities from Babylon, Greece, Rome, Assyria, Persia, Egypt. How were these “collections” put together?

Let us take as a possible answer the case of the Elgin Marbles, made to decorate the Parthenon after the victory against the Persians at Plataea in 479 BCE. During its troubled history the Parthenon was turned into a Christian church, then a Catholic Church (by the Franks), then a Mosque (by the Turks) and was blown up by the Venetian Commander Morosini. The British Ambassador to Athens from 1799-1803, Lord Elgin, obtained permission from the occupying Ottoman authorities to remove pieces from the Acropolis, which he shipped back to Britain. Among these were the “Elgin Marbles”

The British Parliament then debated the fate of the marble plaques, exonerated Lord Elgin from his act of vandalism and looting and the British Government bought them for the British Museum, where they have stayed since 1816.

This State-sponsored desecration has continued time and again throughout the centuries and throughout the world. Countless treasures from Latin America, from Africa, from Europe, from Asia have been stolen and carted off to foreign lands as part of private collections or worse, state-sponsored museums. The times of “This is ours and that is yours” as lines are drawn on maps apparently continue (cf. Kosovo).

Cultural heritage belongs to nobody while it belongs to everybody. If in the past Paris or London had the best conditions to house collections looted from abroad, today the globalization of knowledge has seen the possibility to construct excellent technical conditions to house the original collections in their places of origin where they belong, while faithful replicas are shown elsewhere.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY

Those living in the UK can not fail to have noticed the BBC’s ongoing series – the history of the world in one hundred objects, organised by British Museum director Neil MacGregor. This series due to run for much off 2010, promises to perpetuate his personal world view of the Universal Museum, while sidestepping the true nature of the debates surrounding many of the artefacts in his institution. There is an issue at stake here of how vast a mouthpiece the BBC has given him to expound his own views, without others being given a clear, proportional right of reply.

From:
Modern Ghana

A HISTORY OF THE WORLD WITH 100 LOOTED OBJECTS OF OTHERS: GLOBAL INTOXICATION?
By Kwame Opoku, Dr.

It is perhaps indicative of the cultural climate of our times that the British Museum and the BBC could announce a programme with a pretentious title such as “A History of the World in 100 Objects”. (2) A pretence to serving the whole world, a title which indicates a wider view but hides in fact the reality of frantic efforts to preserve the interests of a few in the guise of the so-called “universal museums” which have come under some heavy criticisms in recent years. The project appears to be aimed at diverting attention from the fact that the tide of history is moving against the illegitimate detention of the cultural objects of others. It is aimed at impressing the masses about the alleged indispensable role of the major museums and gathering support for their continuing possession that is tainted with illegality and illegitimacy. In the process, public interest for the museum would be stimulated and information about the objects as considered necessary would be produced.

The last few years have seen major Western museums being criticised for purchasing looted objects. Leading American museums and universities have been forced to return to Italy looted artefacts that had been bought by the museums, knowing full well that the objects could only have been looted. Indeed, an American curator is in jail in Italy, waiting for her trial for criminal offences in connection with acquisition of Italian artefacts for her museum in the USA. Moreover, Egypt has renewed its demands for the return of the Rosetta Stone, the bust of Nefertiti and other items that have been in major Western museums for several decades. The Greeks have constantly been reclaiming the return of the Parthenon/Elgin Marbles and the completion of the magnificent New Acropolis Museum has exposed the hollow British arguments for retaining the marbles. The British public has overwhelmingly voted in favour of returning the Parthenon/Elgin Marbles to Athens whenever a poll was made. We should also remember that the Nigerians who have never forgotten the brutal invasion of Benin in 1897 are seeking the return of some of the 5000 objects looted by the British troops in their bloody aggression against a kingdom that resisted British imperialist expansion and hegemonial endeavours.

The main objective of the British Museum and the BBC is therefore not simply to inform or educate the public. They have had more than enough time to do that if they so wished, bearing in mind that most Western museums do not even provide full information about the various looted objects they detain. We still do not have sure figures about the Benin bronzes that the British looted in 1897 and sold to others. The Chinese have had recently to send missions abroad to catalogue the artefacts looted during the nefarious Anglo-French 1860 attack on the Summer Palace in Beijing which Voltaire eloquently criticised as an act of barbarism and robbery. Do the “great museums” not keep records of the looted items in their collections?

A motivation for this so-called history of the world goes back to the idea of Neil MacGregor that there is a need for a new history of these objects, different from their history as objects seized in brutal imperialistic and colonial adventures. In his article of 24 July 2004 in the The Guardian, “The whole world in our hands”, MacGregor declared:

“The British Museum must now reaffirm its worldwide civic purpose. That must be the goal that shapes our future plans. Where else can the world see so clearly that it is one?” (3)

From that point on, MacGregor has been busy trying to attribute to the British Museum an international and humanitarian character it does not possess. He has assiduously presented the British Museum as an institution for the whole world. (4) But how does history look like, from the point of view of MacGregor whose pronouncements do not always make it easy to distinguish “history” from “story”? Let us take as example, the invasion of Benin. MacGregor states: “A British delegation, travelling to Benin at a sacred season of the year when such visits were forbidden, was killed, though not on the orders of the Oba himself. In retaliation, the British mounted a punitive expedition against Benin.” (5)

What kind of delegation was it that came with an army of 250 soldiers with a mission to depose the Oba of Benin, already identified as the main obstacle to British colonial expansion and hegemony in the region? When the British Punitive Expedition came in retaliation of the killing of Phillips and others, the Oba was exiled and his close associates executed. Benin City was looted and burnt down by the British Army which terrorized the capital and neighbouring towns until Oba Ovonramwen gave himself up. The people of Benin have been asking for decades for the return of some of the thousands of objects looted but the British Museum which has allegedly some 700 Benin Bronzes refuses to consider such requests for restitution and does not even bother to acknowledge the existence of such requests.

A basis of MacGregor’s approach can also be discerned in the 250th British Museum anniversary lecture where he declared that it is only when the museum can show that objects like the Benin bronzes permit a different reading of history between Benin and Europe that their retention can be justified. From this fundamental premise, the museum director weaves a story which basically states that some of the materials used by the Benin people to make the famous bronzes came from Europe and therefore this justifies their retention by the British museum. We have already stated elsewhere our criticism about this approach to history underlying MacGregor’s position and the project of telling stories with the looted artefacts of others. (6) Effectively, the others are prevented from telling their own history because most of the objects are kept by the “universal museums” that insist on telling our histories for us. True, some non-Westerners may be involved in the narration but they have to act within the parameters and limitations set by the museum.

The story-telling approach is intended not only to defend the British Museum but also the so-called universal museums in their contested detention of the cultural artefacts of others. The major museums issued in 2002 the notorious Declaration on the Importance and Value of Universal Museums which was initiated by the British Museum but cunningly not signed by the Bloomsbury museum. (7) The motivation was to gather support for the British Museum in its dispute with Greece which was mounting political pressure for the recovery of the Parthenon/Elgin Marbles. The Declaration sought to provide a blanket pre-emptive defence against the mounting claims for restitution which had gained the general support of the United Nations and UNESCO. The statement boldly declared that: “Over time, objects so acquired – whether by purchase, gift, or partage – have become part of the museums that have cared for them, and by extension part of the heritage of the nations which house them”.

Moreover, restitution claims would be considered only on case by case basis but there would be no general restitution. A similar notion was introduced by the organizers of the Benin exhibition, Kings and Rituals – Court Arts from Nigeria who argued that the Benin bronzes had acquired added value and significance in their sojourn in Western museums, the so-called shifting interpretation.(8) Those objects had become important objects of Western culture in addition to their importance for Benin.

The motivations of the project by the BBC and the British Museum are therefore more than a simple desire to inform or enlighten. We are here not concerned with whether the British Museum and the BBC present a good programme or not. A person who steals my Mercedes-Benz may be a better driver than myself and may even look after the vehicle better than I can ever dream of doing. But would his skill in driving or his excellent maintenance affect the property relations involved? Could he turn round and argue that since in addition to the Mercedes, he has also stolen Ford, Buick, Volkswagen, Opel and other vehicles from others and so returning my Mercedes amounts to a dismemberment of his large collection of vehicles? This has been the basic argument seriously made on behalf of the so-called “universal museums”. The British Museum used to argue that the Greeks had no adequate facilities for the Parthenon/Elgin Marbles and therefore they were better kept in London. However, as soon as the Greeks constructed the magnificent New Acropolis Museum, it was impudently argued that the location of the Marbles was never an issue and that the important issue now is how the British and the Greeks can make it possible for Africans and Chinese to see the Marbles! We see here very clearly the distinction between “history” and “story”. (9)

On the announcement of the project, MacGregor declared that such a programme could only be mounted in London: “MacGregor is adamant that his history of the world could be told only in Britain, only in his museum. It could not, he says, be done at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, nor at the Louvre in Paris. The Smithsonian in Washington might come close. “Britain, and therefore the British Museum, is unique because of its particular history and the museum was set up to tell the story of human societies,” he says. “Britain stands alone not just because of its colonial past but also its intellectual history… Teachers have gone abroad, so have missionaries. That’s the history of many European countries over the past 500 years. But there is no other country in the world with such deep connections to other parts of the globe, particularly countries such as India and parts of Africa.” It makes London the most cosmopolitan city in the world, he adds, given the recent history of immigration: “There’s a richness here.”(10)

MacGregor does not seem to realize that any emphasis on London as being the centre of the world reminds victims of British colonialism and imperialism of their suffering, defeat and continued humiliation through the detention of their cultural symbols as war trophies by the British. That one could recount a history of the world on the basis of the objects in the British Museum is an open admission that the museum retains a huge amount of artefacts looted during the colonial era. It is noticeable that when asked about the colonial and imperialist origins of objects in the museum MacGregor was uncomfortable:

“But when I ask how he feels about the British Empire – the source, after all, of so much of BM’s collection, including such contentious holdings as the Elgin marbles and Benin bronzes – he gives me a funny look…He shoots back: Well, how do you feel about all the other empires?” before continuing: “It’s a key bit, isn’t it, of why our city is the way it is? This wonderful, cosmopolitan world city is one of the consequences of an empire and I think what I find fascinating about the museum, and its collection, and the publics we now have, is that whereas in the 18th century it was the things that moved to London, as it were, now it’s the people that have moved…But isn’t the museum itself an enormous monument to a time when Britain ruled the waves? “It’s not, it’s not. I mean that is the really important and interesting thing. Of course some of these objects come to the museum directly through [an] imperialist function. Others come from intellectual collecting; others come from trade or whatever. But I think what is so interesting is that you have a pre-imperial collection that is now operating in a post-colonial world.”

As for restitution, MacGregor cannot envisage circumstances where this might be a compelling solution:

“So aren’t there any cases in which the circumstances in which an object came to be here are so regrettable that the only solution is to give it back?

Well, that’s obviously a question for debate, I mean people have their own views. Where there are real issues about the current location of the objects, that’s part of their history so we’ve addressed that in the programmes. “ (11)

The substantial evaluation of the BBC/British Museum project must be left to the specialists. In all probability, the programme as such will be interesting. With all the resources at its disposal, including the various looted items, the British Museum cannot fail to make a good programme. One could even go so far as to say it will probably make a better show than many of the owners of the artefacts who have not seen their looted objects for decades since many of them have been in the British museum for a century. Most of the Benin people, including the Royal Family, have not been able to see many of the Benin bronzes since they were looted in 1897. It is clear that those in possession of the objects of others are in the best position to report about them. Indeed many Africans do not know exactly where to find the objects taken away by the Europeans, including the Christian missionaries. The important question then is not the quality of the British Museum/BBC project but whether it is acceptable in our days that those in possession of looted cultural artefacts of others make an arrogant public display of the objects whilst the owners that are requesting their return, are being treated with utter disdain by the illegal holders, as if the further cultural development of the societies were of no importance. To believe that a massive programme of looted cultural artefacts would make the owners forget their loss is to misunderstand the nature of cultural objects, their spiritual value and the attachment of the societies that produced them in the first place.

One could well imagine the profits the BBC and the British Museum will derive from A History of the World in 100 Objects. They will claim copyright in the text of the programme although this was only made possible by the illegal possession of looted items. They will charge fees for the use of photos of the objects discussed or shown even though they are not the owners and have made no contribution to their creation. They will sell DVDs, books and other materials based on the programme. Those who created the objects and their successors will not derive a single cent from all this. On the contrary, if we are to go by the past practice of the British Museums, the Africans and Asians who may be interested in the topics of the programme will have to pay cash for their use. The museum has been known to sell Benin bronzes to the Nigerian Government and others.

I was revolted by the sycophancy in the Times article by Deirdre Fernand which contained so many false statements which would sicken many who have some knowledge or experience of British colonial rule and history, the subjugation and oppression of many African peoples, the wars of conquest and the inherent racism of colonial rule. It is said to be MacGregor’s mission to fight eurocentricism: “It’s his mission to give our sloppy Eurocentred thinking a good bashing”. Can anyone seriously suggest that MacGregor who has been fighting in defence of the Western museums, the so-called “universal museums” and in interviews, including the very one that Deirdre Fernand is reporting, asserts the primacy and importance of London, is about to castigate eurocentricism?

How do MacGregor and Deirdre Fernand expect African and Asian intellectuals to take a statement such as: “Teachers have gone abroad, so have missionaries. That’s the history of many European countries over the past 500 years. But there is no other country in the world with such deep connections to other parts of the globe, particularly countries such as India and parts of Africa.” It makes London the most cosmopolitan city in the world, he adds, given the recent history of immigration: “There’s a richness here.”

The “deep connections” MacGregor is talking about are the colonial wounds and destructions which have made many African and Asian countries dependent on Britain in many ways. They should explain how, despite those connections, Africans and Asians are the least welcome immigrants and visitors to Britain today. Peoples who do not have those “deep connections” appear to be more acceptable in Britain.

I fail to understand MacGregor’s criticism of the word “Mediterranean” except perhaps as an indirect attack against the Greeks and their efforts to recover the Parthenon/Elgin Marbles:” I hope that the series will serve to point out that the very word ‘Mediterranean’ is no longer sustainable. It is a sea which, despite the claim of its name, is not and never has been in the middle of the earth.” If we went about trying to change the names of various seas and mountains we may have a lot more to do than we can handle.

What can one say about the following: “MacGregor firmly believes that art and culture can make us better people in our understanding of the world. And if in turn we understand each other, we will get along more easily. Objects have the power to speak of our inter-connectedness,” he says. It’s his favourite political theme“.

Is somebody being naive or disingenuous? We all know that art and war have often gone together in Western history and experience. The major museums such as Louvre, Berlin State Museums and the British Museum, owe a large part of their acquisitions to wars and other aggressive actions. Napoleon Bonaparte, in his various military adventures ensured that the French army looted enough artworks for the Louvre. The Rosetta Stone though was lost to the British after Napoleon’s defeat in Egypt. The notorious Adolph Hitler was an artist himself; some would say a failed artist. Nevertheless he and Hermann Goering organized large scale robbery of artworks from occupied countries, such as France and Poland for their projected museum in Linz, Austria. Post-war Europe has been occupied till today with questions of restitution of Nazi-looted artefacts. Many Nazi-looted artworks are hanging in museums, including the British Museum. The British Parliament has recently passed legislation to enable owners and their successors to claim the return of such objects. Has all this discussion on Nazi-looted art gone unheard by some?

The British Museum probably has the greatest number of looted artefacts in the history of mankind. Jeanette Greenfield has stated in her excellent book, The Return of Cultural Treasures that: “The United Kingdom stands out as a principal holder of some of the major cultural treasures of the world, primarily because of her colonial history, although not all the treasures were acquired as a direct result of this. Many were acquired simply as the result of long-distance archaeological raids and these were not always carried out by archaeologists. The United Kingdom was not alone in this, all the European countries which maintained colonial interests abroad mounted archaeological expeditions and amassed collections containing items which are of special cultural significance in their homeland. These countries included France, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Italy, Denmark and Spain. Often objects were collected in the spirit of intense competition and rivalry, and this only hastened the destruction or removal of countless treasures”. (12)

We need not recall all the various aggressions against African and Asian peoples which resulted in massive transfer of artworks to Britain. The use of violence was frequent in colonial expeditions such as Benin in 1897, Kumasi (Ghana) 1874, Magdala (Ethiopia) 1868, and Dahomey (Republic of Benin) 1890. Tribute and punitive removal of treasures were the usual practice of colonial masters. The example of Benin is surely on the minds of most readers. British invasion and loot resulted in the dispersal of some 5000 Benin objects in the Western world, a large number being in the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Field Museum, Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, the Ethnology Museum Berlin and the Ethnology Museum, Vienna.

Even the British Museum which is the example par excellence of the so-called encyclopaedic or universal museum has admitted at various instances the connection between its large collection and the imperial connection. David M. Wilson, former director of the British Museum, stated in his book The Collections of the British Museum as follows:

“The Asante’s skill in casting gold by the lost-wax method, and the use of elaborately worked gold to adorn the king and his servants is represented by many superb pieces which came to the Museum after British military intervention in Asante in 1874, 1896 and 1900″. (13)

We know what happened to artworks in Baghdad after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 by USA, Great Britain and their allies. Baghdad Museum was looted and much of the loot ended in the Western world. Discussions on what artefacts should be collected seem to be part of war preparations.

In view of all this, how can MacGregor, the director of the British Museum declare that “art and culture can make us better people in our understanding of the world. And if in turn we understand each other, we will get along more easily.” Has the presence of the Benin bronzes in his museum for a century helped him to understand the people of Benin and their need and desire to recover some of their looted art? Most Western museums do not bother to respond to requests for restitution even from the Benin Royal Family.

One could assert that in the history of mankind, the more aggressive, less peace-loving nations have accumulated more art objects, looted from the peaceful or weaker nations. There is not a shred of evidence that the more peoples or nations understand the art of others, the more likely they are to live in peace. Germany’s aggressions against its neighbours surely disprove this postulate. Indeed, we might even suggest that the knowledge about the art and culture of some nations may have acted as catalyst for their invasion by foreign States. The gold of the Aztecs (Mexico) and the Asantes (Ghana) as conveyed by their arts and culture may have excited the greed of the invaders. That many European nations – Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, British and of course, Portuguese built castles and forts along the coast of Gold Coast (Ghana) was surely due to their knowledge or information about the availability of gold in that part of the world. Knowledge about the wealth of Asantes may have been conveyed by acquaintance with the display of gold in Asante art and culture.

The British Museum itself admits on its own homepage that it had sent experts to accompany invading British troops in Ethiopia. (14) It appears to be a well-established Western tradition to send art and culture specialists in wars against other nations. A look at the stocks of the great museums could be very instructive.

Western museums, including the British Museum, have had African arts for more than a century. Will anyone be bold as to declare that this illegitimate possession has made them any more respectful or tolerant towards Africans and their cultures? True, there is now a general, sometimes reluctant, agreement about the essential contribution of African art to modern art. But many take the wrongful possession of African artefacts as confirmation of their superiority and efficiency. How else can one interpret the often repeated insulting argument that Africans cannot look properly after their own cultural artefacts and that the Europeans have done mankind a great service in looting and keeping the objects?

The announcement of the BBC and British Museum project has been greeted with almost general uncritical approval by the British media which does not seem to be aware of the real motivation behind the programme. Tom Flynn has quite correctly stated: “…we’ve witnessed a nauseating media hagiography of British Museum director Neil MacGregor in which he single-handedly educates the world from the comfort of his beautiful Bloomsbury office. We hear of “Saint Neil”, a “suave and smooth-talking Scot”, with a “lilting highland brogue”, a “skilled diplomat” with “infectious schoolboy enthusiasm”, a “natural storyteller” and “the most fortunate man alive.” (15)

If the British Museum and the BBC are hoping that through this massive publicity and propaganda for A History of the World in 100 Objects, they can divert attention from the urgent need for restitution of some of the looted artefacts amassed during the heyday of colonialism and imperialism, they have misunderstood the movement of history; they underestimate the intelligence and determination of those deprived of their cultural objects now located in the British Museum and other Western museums. Times have changed since the idea of the so-called “universal museum” was born. The museums cannot resist the tide of history and continue to offer us nineteenth century ideology of European superiority and domination to justify the constant and permanent violations of the cultural right of the peoples of Africa and Asia.

Even some commentators, sympathetic to the project by the BBC and the British Museum, have seen through the real objective behind all the words of MacGregor. Ben Hoyle, who is supportive of the project, has declared:

“The project will ram home his argument that the British Museum belongs to the world, strengthening its moral case for holding on to controversial artefacts such as the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens and the Benin Bronzes from Nigeria both featured in the series”. (16)

Another commentator on the programme also commented as follows: “Casting his museum as an international hub is also his answer to the questions that won’t go away about whether the BM should give some stuff back.“You have to decide what kind of museums you want, and whether you want museums that try to put the whole world into one context, into one building, so that you can actually look and compare and take a view of the whole thing, or whether essentially you feel that you want museums to be about individuated national stories, local stories.” (17)

The British Museum can sing the praises of Egyptian civilization, the glory of Greece and the beauty of Benin art as long as the museum is locked in permanent dispute with Egypt, Ethiopia, Greece, Benin (Nigeria) and other States over looted artefacts, so long will its credibility be in serious doubt whenever it presents programmes on those cultures.

Kwame Opoku, 6 February 2010.

NOTES
1. Tom Flynn, “A History of the World in Looted Objects”, http://tom-flynn.blogspot.com

2. British Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org BBC, “A History of the World in 100 Objects”, http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/programme British Museum and BBC reveal history of the world in 100 objects http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk Telegraph, “A History of the World in 100 Objects”, http://www.telegraph.co.uk “The story of civilization in 100 Objects”, http://entertainment.timesonline

3. Neil MacGregor, “The whole world in our hands” http://www.guardian.co.uk,

4. http://www.guardian.co.uk See also, Martin Kettle, “The world needs new histories” http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk

5. N.MacGregor, http://www.guardian.co.uk,
The story of Benin has been told several times but I found the short account by Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie very useful:

“In February 1897, an elite British force of about 1200 men (supported by several hundred African auxiliary troops and thousands of African porters) besieged Benin City, capital of the Edo Kingdom of Benin, whose ruler, the Oba Ovonramwen sat on a throne that was a thousand years old. The British Punitive Expedition used Maxim machine guns to mow down most of the Oba’s 130,000 soldiers and secure control of the capital city. They set fire to the city and looted the palace of 500 years worth of bronze objects that constituted the royal archive of Benin’s history, an irreplaceable national treasure. The king and his principal chiefs fled into the countryside, pursued by British forces that lay waste to the countryside as a strategy to force the people of Benin to give up their fugitive king. According to Richard Gott, for a further six months, a small British force harried the countryside in search of the Oba and his chiefs who had fled. Cattle were seized and villages destroyed. Not until August was the Oba cornered and brought back to his ruined city. An immense throng was assembled to witness the ritual humiliation that the British imposed on their subject peoples. The Oba was required to kneel down in front of the British military “resident” the town and to literally bite the dust. Supported by two chiefs, the king made obeisance three times, rubbing his forehead on the ground three times. He was told that he had been deposed. Oba Ovonramwen finally surrendered to stem the slaughter of his people. Many of his soldiers considered his surrender an unbearable catastrophe and committed suicide rather than see the king humiliated. A significant number, led by some chiefs, maintained guerrilla warfare against the British for almost two years until their leaders were captured and executed. The remaining arms of the resistance thereafter gave up their arms and merged back into the general population.”

http://aachronym.blogspot.com

6. K. Opoku. “Tristram and Neil, a dubious alliance.” http://www.elginism.com

7. Declaration on the Value and Importance of Universal museums (2002). See also, http://icom.museum/universal Signatories to this extraordinary document are: The Art Institute of Chicago; Bavarian State Museum, Munich (Alte Pinakothek, Neue Pinakothek); State Museums, Berlin; Cleveland Museum of Art; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Solomon R.

Guggenheim Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Louvre Museum, Paris; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Prado Museum, Madrid; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Tom Flynn, “The Universal Museum – A valid model for the 21 Century?” www.tomflynn.co.uk/ Mark O’Neil, “Enlightenment museums: universal or merely global? http://www.le.ac.uk/ms/m&s/Is

8. Barbara Plankensteiner, Ed. Benin – Kings and Rituals – Court Arts from Nigeria, Snoeck, 2007, p.17

9. K. Opoku, “The Amazing Director of the British Museum: Gratuitous Insults as Currency of Cultural Diplomacy? http://www.modernghana.com

10. Deirdre Fernand, “The story of civilisation in 100 objects”, http://entertainment.timesonline.

11. Susan Rustin, “The greatest exhibition you could have”, http://www.guardian.co.uk

12. Third Edition, Cambridge 2007.p.97.

13. British Museum Press, 1989, p. 97

14. Richard Rivington Holmes, an assistant in the manuscripts department of The British Museum, had accompanied the expedition against Magdala, Ethiopia, as an archaeologist. He acquired a number of objects for the British Museum, including around 300 manuscripts which are now housed in the British Library.” http://www.britishmuseum.org

Professor Richard Pankhurst has written about Richard Holmes as follows:

“One of those present at this large-scale looting was Richard (later Sir Richard) Holmes, an Assistant Curator in the British Museum’s Department of Manuscripts, who had been appointed “Archaeologist” to the expedition. He later noted in an official report that the British flag had “not been waved… much more than ten minutes” over the fort of Maqdala before he had himself entered it. Shortly afterwards, while night was falling, he met a British soldier who was carrying the golden crown of the Abun, or head of the Ethiopian church, and a “solid gold chalice” weighing “at least 6 lb”, i.e. pounds. Holmes purchased them both for four pounds Sterling. He was also offered several large manuscripts, but declined to buy them as they were too heavy for him to carry”

“The Ethiopian Millennium – and the Question of Ethiopia’s Cultural Restitution” http://nazret.com http://www.elginism.com

An internet site provides the following: The invading British force included a number of mysterious civilians and an “official archaeologist”, a Mr Richard Holmes, said to have secured “many interesting items” from Magdala. Holmes was an assistant in the British Museum’s Department of Manuscripts, but soon after the successful war became Sir Richard Rivington Holmes KCVO, Keeper of the Queen’s Pictures and Librarian to Queen Victoria and her son Edward VII at Windsor Castle (from 1870 until 1906). http://www.elecbk.com/facts.htm-

See also Adrian Cooper „Arts & Artefacts: Raiders of the lost ark, “http://www.independent.co.uk Terry Kirby, Hidden in a British Museum basement: the lost Ark looted by colonial raiders http://www.independent.co.uk

On the Ethiopian treasures that are in the British Museum, see www.afromet Ethiopian treasures are found at the following places in the United Kingdom: The British Library, The British Museum, Duke of Wellington’s Regimental Museum, Halifax, Dundee University Museum, Edinburgh University Library, The John Rylands University Library, Lancaster Museum & Priory, National Archives of Scotland, The Schøyen Collection (London/Oslo), The Victoria & Albert Museum and Windsor Castle. More stolen African treasures can be found at the homepage of the African Reparations Movement www.arm.arc.co.uk

15. Tom Flynn, http://tom-flynn.blogspot.com
16. British Museum and BBC reveal history of the world in 100 objects http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk

17. Susan Rustin, http://www.guardian.co.uk

Source: Kwame Opoku, Dr.

British Museum director, Neil MacGregor has given a talk, mentioning both the Elgin Marbles & the Cyrus Cylinder. He says that the sense of national identity that people get from these pieces is an example of seeing what one wants to see – but surely his own interpretation of the artefacts as part of a global story that can only be told when they are assembled together in the British Museum is far more of a digression from the original significance of these particular artefacts.

From:
Guardian

British Museum’s Neil MacGregor on the Parthenon marbles and Cyrus cylinder
Tuesday 2 February 2010 22.45 GMT
Charlotte Higgins

Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, gave the first of the London Review of Books’ winter lectures, organised to celebrate the ­journal’s 30th birthday. He began by talking about John Dee’s obsidian ­mirror, in which the Elizabethan ­magus could supposedly see angels. That became MacGregor’s metaphor: we look at objects and find in them what we want to see. And so to the ­Parthenon marbles and the Cyrus ­cylinder (a clay cylinder inscribed with a decree from the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great). “A whole nation,” MacGregor said of the marbles, “has decided they embody something ­fundamental about Greek national identity. It is a prime example of ­seeing what you want to see.”

The Cyrus cylinder is of huge ­significance in Iranian, Iraqi and ­Jewish history, and is currently the ­focus of a spot of bother between Iran and the museum. The BM had promised to lend the cylinder to ­Tehran by the end of last year, but the ­recent dramatic discovery in the ­London museum’s stores of fragments of the same inscription (suggesting that the cylinder’s decree was publicly promulgated) has delayed the loan while further research is undertaken. There is also the matter of security amid Iranian instability. MacGregor confirmed the museum’s commitment to send it to Tehran, though without a firm date. “The trustees have said that as soon as it’s safe to go to Tehran, it should go.”

Alex Kapranos, lead singer of the band Franz Ferdinand has spoken out in his Twitter feed on his support for the return of the Elgin Marbles to Greece.

From:
alkapranos

Just discovered my father follows me on this thing. Hi Dad. Good luck getting your marbles back.
10:37 PM Feb 1st from web

alkapranos

Now he’s retired he spends his time campaigning to have the Parthenon Marbles returned to Greece where they were stolen from.
10:43 PM Feb 1st from web

alkapranos

Stolen by a Scot – a descendent of Robert The Bruce – then sold to the English for £30K.
10:47 PM Feb 1st from web

alkapranos

British Museum always trots out the same old patronising crap about how they look after them in a way the savages in Greece never could.
10:50 PM Feb 1st from web

On the BBC’s Desert Island Discs this morning was renowned Cambridge classicist, Mary Beard.

Those who have listened to this program before, will know that as well as the music, the guest also gets to choose a book & an object to take to their desert island with them. The object that Mary Beard said that she’d take with her was the Elgin Marbles. I wonder if she’d have any more success in borrowing these sculptures than the Greeks have had…

Listen to the full programme here. The Elgin Marbles are mentioned about five minutes before the end of the programme.

The New Acropolis Museum which opened last year forms a gleaming new home to potentially house all the surviving Parthenon Sculptures.

From:
Los Angeles Times

A gleaming new showcase for the Acropolis
Athens finally has a place to display the hotly contested Elgin Marbles, plus statues, friezes and other artifacts from the ancient Greek site.
By Suzanne Muchnic
January 24, 2010

Reporting from Athens – For advocates of the repatriation of marble sculptures removed from the Parthenon in the early 19th century and long housed at the British Museum in London, the new Acropolis Museum is proof — at last — that Greece has a safe place to display the hotly contested artworks.

For Athenians who live and work near the Acropolis, the looming modern structure at the southeastern base of the hill is a mixed blessing. The $200-million, 226,000-square-foot museum has transformed the area of Makrygianni, boosting property values while dwarfing other buildings in the neighborhood.

Dimitrios Pandermalis, a classical archaeologist who presided over the building’s construction and is now president of the museum, is acutely aware of all this. But for him, the gleaming edifice is a dream come true or at least partly so.

With 150,000 square feet of exhibition space, 10 times that of its predecessor, the museum presents layer upon layer of Acropolis history, from about 1000 BC to AD 700. Opened in June, it welcomed its millionth visitor in late October and continues to pack in about 10,000 people a day.

“What we miss in many museums with pieces from different origins is that we don’t know precisely where many of them came from,” Pandermalis says. “It’s not enough to say that something is from Greece. We need to know if it’s from northern or southern Greece or from Athens and which side of Athens. Here, all the exhibits are related to the Acropolis. Inscriptions on the bases of the statues help us connect the pieces to great personalities of politics and leading artists of the time.”

A soft-spoken, grandfatherly scholar, Pandermalis wears an apricot-colored tie sprinkled with whimsical giraffes and elephants. But he works in an austere, high-ceilinged room on the second floor of a museum-adjacent neoclassical building, a former military hospital that houses Ministry of Culture offices. On his desk, a replica head of a classical sculpture jauntily crowned by a white hard hat speaks of construction challenges.

“I’ve had a turbulent life,” says Pandermalis, part of the Greek Parliament in 2000, when he agreed to head the building commission. Professor emeritus of classical archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, he has ended a long teaching career but still directs the university’s archaeological excavation at the foot of Mt. Olympus.

“The idea of a new Acropolis Museum started more than 30 years ago,” he says. “The first architectural competition was held in 1976. I got involved in 2000 and started the fourth competition. A major problem was the site. Should it be around the Acropolis or at a distance from it or hidden underground? Another difficulty is that the site around the Acropolis is full of antiquities.

“It wasn’t easy to hope for a new museum,” he says. “But it was really necessary. The old museum on the hill was not appropriate for the finds. We have masterpieces, very precious pieces, and we did not have space to present them.”

War, earthquakes and ravages of time, weather and pollution have seriously damaged the historic structures on the Acropolis, including the Parthenon. Today, cranes and scaffolding are part of the landscape in an ongoing effort to stabilize and restore crumblings buildings..

Earlier layers

The new showcase, designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects of New York and Paris, stands on concrete pylons above an excavation of an urban settlement dating from archaic to early Christian Athens. Discovered during construction, the site is expected to open to the public this year. For now, parts of it are visible in open pits and see-through panels in walkways. Inside the building, visitors see the excavation through the glass floor of a central ramp as they ascend to a vast, airy gallery of sculpture from the 7th to the early 5th century BC.

Depictions of violent struggles among animals, gods and demons in the Archaic Gallery once adorned triangular pediments under temple roofs. Many free-standing objects mingling with a forest of columns were made as votive offerings, dedicated to the gods as tokens of piety, thanks for blessings or emblems of achievement and status. Towering marble statues of young women bearing gifts were donated to a temple by wealthy citizens.

On the top floor is the Parthenon Gallery, a jaw-dropping, glass-encased rectangular space that has been shifted 23 degrees from the lower part of the building to align it with the ancient temple. Visitors have a direct view of the Parthenon itself while perusing its decorative scheme of carved marble reconstructed in the gallery. The sculptures are attributed to Phidias, who collaborated with his pupils Agorakritos, Alkamenes and other artists.

The pediments depict the birth of Athena and her victory over Poseidon. A bas-relief frieze that wrapped around the building portrays a 12-day festival populated by 360 figures and more than 250 animals. Ninety-two high relief panels, called metopes, illustrate battle scenes. About half the components are original marbles that have remained in Greece. Some pieces were lost in a 1687 explosion. The rest are plaster casts, mostly of pieces at the British Museum.

“I like very much that the physical environment is involved in the presentation of the exhibits,” Pandermalis says. “People need to be conscious of cultural and historical layers to arrive at their sources. We have the sources. We are very proud of that.”

Debate on marbles

But it’s no accident that the Parthenon Gallery has heated up the long-simmering debate about the rightful home of the marbles taken to London by a Scottish diplomat known as Lord Elgin during a period of Ottoman Turkish rule and purchased by the British government in 1816 for 35,000 pounds sterling (more than $3 million today).

“The new museum explains the problem to the public,” Pandermalis says. “It’s a new base for the discussion. A full interpretation of the whole architecture is necessary to get an idea about the size, richness and quality of the sculpture. It was the glory of Athens in the classical period.

“We do not demand the return of every antiquity to the country of origin. For this one monument that is so important for the cultural history of the world, we have to find the solution to reunify all the original fragments. When you have the head of a statue and the body is 4,000 kilometers away, it’s a problem.”

The British show no sign of relinquishing the marbles in their possession. But instead of belaboring the point, Pandermalis shares “special views” at the museum, such as a quiet spot overlooking the Archaic Gallery, where visitors come face to face with an astonishing array of statues made thousands of years ago, some with traces of bright pigment. Another favorite place provides a vantage point above a group of female statues known as caryatids made to support a porch roof on the Erechtheion, a temple built in the early 5th century BC.

“Look at that, how people move,” he says. “There’s an overlay of space and movement, also of time. History becomes power, moving power.”

From:
Los Angeles Times

A tour of the new Acropolis museum
January 23, 2010 | 2:15 pm

“The idea of a new Acropolis Museum started more than 30 years ago,” says the president of the institution, Dimitrios Pandermalis. “The first architectural competition was held in 1976. I got involved in 2000 and started the fourth competition. A major problem was the site. Should it be around the Acropolis or at a distance from it or hidden underground? Another difficulty is that the site around the Acropolis is full of antiquities.”

“It wasn’t easy to hope for a new museum,” he says. “But it was really necessary. The old museum on the hill was not appropriate for the finds. We have masterpieces, very precious pieces, and we did not have space to present them.”

War, earthquakes and ravages of time, weather and pollution have seriously damaged the historic structures on the Acropolis, including the Parthenon. Today, cranes and scaffolding are part of the landscape in an ongoing effort to stabilize and restore crumbling buildings.

But the new museum opened last fall is a showcase for classical Greek art — and, the Greeks say, the perfect place to display London’s Elgin Marbles.

Anyone who read the first edition of Mary Beard’s book; The Parthenon, will be pleased to hear that a revised version of it is planned, which will take into account the fact that the New Acropolis Museum discussed in the first edition has now opened & is quite liked by the author.

From:
The Times Blogs

January 15, 2010
The “new” Parthenon, my new edition?

I wrote my little book on the Parthenon about a decade ago. It looked at the material of, and from, the temples in all its different locations — from the Acropolis itself to the diaspora of the Parthenon in London, Paris, Rome and Wurzburg and other places.

Things have changed a little since then. A small fragment of the Parthenon frieze (and I mean very small) has been sent “back” to Athens from Heidelberg (thanks, largely to a Greek then in the administration of the University of Heidelberg); another, slightly larger piece, has gone back from Palermo.

But the biggest development since I wrote is the opening of the new Acropolis Museum last year. You can hardly have a book on the Parthenon on sale, which laments the fact that the new museum has still not yet opened after years of delay, when any visitor to Athens see a great pile the size of a multi-storey car park standing about 300 metres from the Acropolis.

So a new edition is called for.

I am actually quite a fan of the inside of this museum, as I have said before — and I think that the display of the archaic sculptures from the Acropolis is particularly good.

But, in the new edition of the book, I am also wanting to capture something of the controversies that have surrounded it. (Everything about the Parthenon, you might say, turns to controversy — which is part of its wondrous status!)

That is partly a question of the long stop/start process of getting the building off the ground in the first place, and the various architectural competitions held…and the wildly different proposals. Daniel Libeskind, for example, put in a scheme, which won second prize — but flagrantly disregarded the rules. The brief was to construct a museum which incorporated the Parthenon marbles in as close a relationship as possible to the original layout on the building. Instead, Libeskind — in a typical up yours gesture — disaggregated them and paraded the individual sections of sculpture rather as if they were paintings in a gallery. The award of second prize was to say that he would have won if he played by the rules.

But there have been good controversies since the construction too — not only the on/off (now off) demolition of the two large houses that stand between the museum and the rock, but also the fuss about the museum’s information video on the history of the Parthenon (it is said — how true I am not sure — that the Orthodox church objected because it showed iconoclasts who looked for all the world like orthodox priests HACKING at the Parthenon metopes).

Of course there’s the question too of what kind of experience it gives you of the Parthenon. If anyone’s who’s visited has any reaction, I’d love to hear.

A new website (http://www.parthenonfrieze.gr) has created a virtual representation of the surviving frieze fragments of the frieze of the Parthenon in a way that is easily accessible for anyone to view.

From:
Cordis

2010-01-14
The Parthenon Frieze

The Parthenon Frieze is presented in a new website (http://www.parthenonfrieze.gr) which utilizes new technologies to present and elevate cultural content online. This new application, which was carried out by The Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism in collaboration with the National Documentation Centre (EKT), is valuable for specialists and the general public alike.

The Parthenon Frieze, a unique work of art, is presented in a new website (http://www.parthenonfrieze.gr) which utilizes new technologies to present and elevate cultural content online. This new application, which was carried out by The Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism (YSMA-Acropolis Restoration Service, Department of Information and Education) in collaboration with the National Documentation Centre (EKT), is valuable for specialists and the general public alike.

The application provides the possibility of immediate access to the frieze, both as a database for scholars and, as digital games for schools and their pupils. This virtual representation of the Parthenon Frieze presents, in an articulate and transparent way, in both Greek and English, a comprehensive overview of a masterpiece of significant archeological value. At the same time it is characterized by scientific documentation, becoming thus an essential tool for the archeologist/researcher, as well as for the teacher, who can use it as an educational implement.

The National Documentation Centre, always in the front line of developing Greek cultural content, has collaborated on this application, bringing in new Information Technologies for open access to knowledge. The designing of the application was developed in accordance with contemporary ways of presenting and displaying cultural subjects on the Internet, making use of new technologies and the new educational programmes that have been developed by YSMA and have to do with the description and deepening of knowledge about the Parthenon Frieze.

The application in its new form enhances and upgrades the first digital version that was presented in 2003 in CD-ROM form. Since that version entered the Web, on the EKT website, it has been consistently in first place out of 50,000 postings in the list of world-wide searches conducted through Google.

What is the Parthenon Frieze

The Parthenon frieze, which runs on a continuous line around the exterior wall of the inner chamber of the temple, is 1 meter high and 160 meters long. It represents the Panathenaic procession that was a central celebration in Athens during Classical times, dedicated to the goddess Athena. The frieze consists of 115 blocks where some 378 human figures and deities and more than 200 animals, mainly horses, are represented.

Groups of horses and chariots occupy most of the space on the frieze. The sacrificial procession follows next, with animals and groups of men and women carrying ceremonial vessels and offerings. The procession concludes with the offering of the peplos, the gift of the Athenian people to the cult statue of the Goddess, a xoanon (ancient wooden statue). To the left and right of the peplos scene sit the twelve gods of Mount Olympos.

From the entire frieze that survives today, 50 meters are in the Acropolis Museum, 80 meters in the British Museum, one block in the Louvre, whilst other fragments are scattered in the museums of Palermo, the Vatican, Würzburg, Vienna, Munich and Copenhagen.

The units of virtual Parthenon Frieze

The contents have been organised into three units, entitled “The Parthenon”, “Know the Frieze” and “Play with the Frieze”.

The unit “The Parthenon” includes a text and illustrations that show the architecture and sculptural decoration of the temple. The sculpture comprises the statue of Athena Parthenos, the pediments, the metopes and the frieze. The frieze is analysed under the following units: the Theme, the Panathenaia, Interpretive Theories, Designing and Construction, History, Conservation, Bibliography. The contents are presented through three-dimensional cards that include the relevant texts and accompanying pictures.

The unit “Know the Frieze” is based on a three-dimensional model of the Parthenon, on which the four sides are distinguished. The user has two possibilities in this unit. The first possibility is to know the frieze according to the side. If you choose the north side, for example, the three-dimensional model revolves and on the screen appear the preserved blocks of that side filled in by the drawings of Carrey. If you select a specific block from that side, it is enlarged and it moves into centre-screen. The user can see it from close-up and can read a text that describes the scene on the block in detail. With the navigation buttons the user can move to the next block.

The second possible choice of “Know the Frieze” unit is entitled “thematic tours”. Here the user can approach the frieze through its various themes: preparation, horsemen, chariots, sacrificial procession, gods/goddesses and the handing over of the peplos. Placing the pointer on the titles emphasises the corresponding areas of the three-dimensional model of the frieze. By selecting, for example, the unit “gods/goddesses”, the corresponding area of the East Frieze is enlarged on the screen and the tour begins. The relevant text appears at the top of the screen and depending on the content of each phrase, the corresponding areas of the frieze are highlighted.

Play with the Frieze

The third level of the application is entitled “Play with the Frieze” and it is intended for children. It begins with an introduction where the user, whatever his age, can understand very quickly what the frieze was, where it was, what it represented, and he can see a number of statistical facts as well as the games contained in the application. After this, a yellow box appears. This is the museum kit of the frieze: it appears, it opens and out come the games.

The games “Acquaintance with the Figures in the Procession”, “The Procession to the Altar”, and “Observing the Horses” are games of memory and they are designed to attract children to closer observation of the details of the frieze. In this same category of games, in which the children are asked to exercise their powers of observation, there are two puzzles entitled “The Hidden Chariot” and “A Gift for the Goddess Athena”. The children choose a representation and are asked to put together the corresponding puzzle.

The game entitled “Colouring a Block of the Frieze” is intended to enliven the relief scenes of the frieze and to help the children to imagine their colours. The next game is entitled “Be a Conservator”. In the game “I Compose the West Frieze”, the children try to find the correct position of the 16 blocks of the West Frieze that represent the preparation for the procession of horsemen in the Great Panathenaia. Likewise in the games entitled “Olympian Puzzles: find the gods/goddesses” and “Contests that Remained…on the Vases”, the children have to match text with picture.

The unit “Play with the Frieze” has also been enriched by an animation entitled “And Suddenly my Horse became Marble”. Here, one of the riders of the frieze has come “alive” and, galloping, tries to find his place in the procession. The moment he finds his place, he turns into marble.

While the museum kit has been used by a total of some 35,000 pupils and has been given to 120 institutions in Greece and 90 abroad, the new application provides the possibility of open access to virtually all who are interested.

The application was developed in the framework of the project “National Information System, Phase III – Open Access Electronic Repositories and Journals”. The project is being implemented by the National Documentation Centre and is co-funded by the European Union – European Regional Development Fund (80%) and by the Hellenic State (20%) through the Operational Programme Information Society (3rd CSF 2000-2006).

Links

Parthenon Frieze

http://www.parthenonfrieze.gr/

Acropolis Restoration Service (YSMA)

http://www.ysma.gr/

National Documentation Centre (EKT)

http://www.ekt.gr

Notes to editor:

For further information, please contact:
National Documentation Centre (EKT)
Mr Margaritis Proedrou
48, Vas. Constantinou Ave., GR-116 35 Athens
Tel.: +30210 7273966, Fax: +30210 7246824, e-mail: mproed@ekt.gr
Subject: Cultural Heritage; Education Training; Information Media; Information Processing Information Systems; Information Society Technology; Science and Society; Technology;
Country: GREECE;
Institution: National or Government Administration;
Category: Miscellaneous; Project; Result;

As the appeal to keep the Staffordshire Hoard in the Midlands region continues, Dr David Starkey joins a growing list of supporters of this campaign all of whom claim that locating the artefacts near to where they were found gives them more of a sense of context – a historic resonance that they have wit their location. We should remember when this is mentioned that there are few cases where this contextual importance is as relevant as that of the Elgin Marbles – they were designed specifically for one location & many of them were in fact carved in-situ there.

From:
Birmingham Mail

Public appeal launched for Staffordshire Hoard fund
Jan 14 2010 by Edward Chadwick, Birmingham Mail

THE Midlands will miss out on a chance to purchase its own history if it fails to raise the cash to keep the Staffordshire Hoard in the region.

That is the view of the TV history expert Dr David Starkey who was in Birmingham to launch a public appeal to raise the remaining £2.8 million needed to secure the awe-inspiring Anglo Saxon treasure.

The historian said the 1,800 pieces of gold and silver were likely to be the spoils of a battle between the 7th Century pagan King of Worcester, Penda and his Christian enemy, either King Edwin or King Oswald, Edwin’s successor.

Speaking at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, he said: “This is the foundation on which to learn a whole new wonderful story.

“We’re going back to a battle where King Penda’s armies duffed up and slaughtered his foes and physically ripped these pieces from them.

“It’s an astonishing tale. This is the beginning of history in the Midlands and it would be such a shame if it were to be lost.

“I’m not against art being moved, otherwise galleries across the world would be empty but in this case there’s a sense of historic resonance with the hoard and the Midlands.

“Taken out of the geographic context, some of its magic is lost.”

Dr Starkey, the face of dozens of TV documentaries focusing on British history, said he was confident that the public were so taken by the story that they would quickly raise the cash that was needed.

A £300,000 grant from the Art Fund Charity has already been pledged towards the overall £3.3 million cost. Birmingham City Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council have also each promised £100,000 – leaving a further £2.8 million to be found by the April 17 deadline.

He said it was “unthinkable” that the hoard could go to another country and believes that the Government would protect it with an export ban.

Metal detector enthusiast Terry Herbert, 55, made the staggering find in a field in Burntwood, Staffordshire, last July. The jaw-dropping hoard went on show in Birmingham for eight weeks and was then moved to the British Museum where it was valued by a panel of experts.

Mary Beard has regularly spoken about the Parthenon Sculptures & about her views on their return. Here in an interview, she clarifies some of her thoughts on the issue.

You can watch the interview with her here.

Yet another positive review of the New Acropolis Museum – this time from The Irish Times.

From:
The Irish Times

The Irish Times – Monday, December 21, 2009
The gods are in the details
EILEEN BATTERSBY

The New Acropolis Museum, which sits below the Parthenon, is a fitting tribute to the area’s Classical past and its myths about Greek gods, as its curator, Dimitrios Pandermalis, explains

IT HAS TO BE this way; the finest of modern design had to bow to the gods. And in Athens it could be no other way. High above the city is the hill of the Acropolis, the citadel upon which the remains of the Parthenon, the finest Doric temple in the world, stands.

Whether viewed by day or night, it is a dramatic sight. The Acropolis separates daily life from what was and remains mythic symbolism. The centuries fall away and you are looking at not only the beginning of history, but of civilisation, of democracy, of literature.

Various cults used to dwell in caves in the slopes of the Acropolis; cults devoted to Zeus, Apollo, Pan and the nymph Aglauros, daughter of Kekrops, once king of Athens.

Stories surround each stone. The wealth of archaeology is the envy of the world. Yet until now it has been impossible to see the thousands of artefacts that were stored away because there was no space to display them.

Standing on the plateau of the Acropolis gazing at the Parthenon is as elevating as it is humbling. But for all the romance of this wonderful sight, common sense must ask the question: “How to preserve this beauty, this legacy?” Archaeologist and curator Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis smiles his quiet smile. He has spent the past 30 years battling for the construction of a museum worthy of the site: the defining symbol of world archaeology.

It looks as if, with the new glass and concrete building in the foothills of the Acropolis, he has achieved exactly that.

“We have all of these wonders and, yes, we must look after the heritage but we also want the people of Greece and the visitors who come from all over the world to see what has survived the centuries and also to understand it.”

Unsaid, at least for the moment, is the other story, the litany of objects taken from Greece and brought to museums around the world. Pandermalis again smiles, “This is the story of much archaeology; in order to see it, and share it, pieces are scattered throughout many countries.”

No one country, it seems, can expect to keep either its archaeology or its art, in situ. Classical pieces are as likely to be found in Berlin, London or Boston as they are in Athens or Rome. However, it makes little sense to have about half of the Parthenon frieze in Athens and most of the rest of it in the British Museum, which acquired it after Lord Elgin had removed it from Athens in 1801 (and who kept the Marbles in his own house for a while).

But Pandermalis did not come to Dublin to discuss the spoils of war. His recent address was more celebratory. When delivering the Irish Museums Association Annual Lecture, he described the project that has, with the support of the Greek Government, fulfilled his life’s dream – a new museum at the Acropolis.

Modern architecture at its most subtle has created a setting which preserves the site without enclosing it. In fairness to the old museum, which remains on the site, it was first opened in 1865 and was never capable of accommodating the antiquities. At best it gave a glimpse at what was there; at worst, it was a storehouse.

The New Acropolis Museum, designed by the New York-based Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi, covering 25,000sq m, is 10 times larger. It is arranged over three floors, the first of which is built over the remains of a 5,000 year-old settlement.

The discovery of the settlement delayed the completion of the museum. It has now become part of it. A glass floor covers the excavation site, enabling visitors to look down on it and view archaeologists at work. It creates a very real sense of walking on history. This engagement with the past is at the heart of the design. Endeavours to protect archaeological sites have invariably placed the public at a distance. Visitors at many heritage sites in this state have experienced the wary rebukes of OPW staff anxious, at times over-zealous, in their protection. The New Acropolis Museum is intent on allowing the public to engage. Visitors are allowed to walk directly up to the many statues and artefacts on display.

How aware is the average Greek of their heritage? “They have become more so, but if you live in Athens, it is a part of daily life. You see it all around you.”

But at what point does this awareness relax into simply taking it for granted? Pandermalis smiles that smile. “We were too casual; there was so much archaeology all around us. Much of it was stolen; all the bronze pieces for instance. Much of that was used to make weapons. So the precious materials were stolen, the clay was left.

“But the careless attitude has changed. We see this is where we came from, this is our identity.”

He goes on to explain the changes which have taken place. Even the notorious Athens smog has been dealt with. “Finally people realised the damage it was causing not just to the environment but to the heritage,” it was eating into the stone, causing it to crumble particularly through the effects of acid rain.

His engagement with archaeology came about through direct contact with it. When he was a student in his native Thessaloniki, a coastal town in north eastern Greece, his literature teacher took a group of students on a walking tour. “He pointed out the buildings, the statues. I was overwhelmed, I had been studying literature but I changed to archaeology. It became my passion. I have worked on many excavations. My house, I have an apartment in Athens, but my house is at the foot of Mount Olympus. This is where I want to live.”

It must be the dream place for anyone, but particularly for a Greek. Immortalised in mythology as the dwelling place of the supreme gods, Olympus, on the border of Thessaly and Macedonia, is far from Athens, close to Pandermalis’s home town. He refers to the peace there, and the olive groves. But his sigh is more of the romantic dreamer than of a man who feels his work is done. As the president of the new museum, which was formally opened ahead of schedule last June, he knows the project is still young. The public has already supported it; as yet, the Greek visitors significantly outnumber the international figures.

What makes this museum so special are, “the views over Athens, and the use of the natural light”. But there are other factors. The construction process revealed further archaeological and architectural layers as well as a wealth of artefacts. The vast amount of pottery which survives testifies to the ease of making it; the advantage of being able to dry it in the sun. Even the simplest pot or platter has its story. The span of continuous settlement ranges from the late Neolithic (about 3,000 BC) to the 6th century or early medieval period.

The second floor houses the Archaic Gallery with its wealth of dramatic statues. Most of them depict female shapes honouring, as they do, Athena, the presiding deity of the Acropolis. Yet there are also riders and some magnificent stone chariot horses.

Unlike the archaeology of Egypt, which is dominated by burial, Greek archaeology is more celebratory. “This is true,” agrees Pandermalis. “The Egyptian is very much one of the dead, ours is more living.”

At the top level is a gallery dedicated to the Parthenon. Begun in 447 BC, the temple took 15 years to build and involved painters and coppersmiths as well as masons and sculptors. The legendary frieze depicts 360 human and divine figures, and more than 250 animals, mostly horses. It has been designed in the form of a procession and is mounted on a wall. It is 160m long and about 80m of this is original. The remaining half is a facsimile, copied from the sections held mainly in the British Museum (a smaller section is in Paris).

THE ONGOING ARGUMENT ABOUT Greek rights to the section held in Britain has long been a source of tension. Whereas many classical artefacts held in foreign museums were negotiated for – the Pergamon Museum in Berlin attributes its classical collection to extensive 19th century negotiations, many of which began only with extraction licences – the section of the Parthenon frieze, now known as the Elgin Marbles, were taken from Athens by Lord Elgin, who sold them to settle his debts. The story, as much as the physical absence of the pieces, has angered many. Elgin was not alone: Napoleon ordered extensive looting of Egyptian tombs.

Now, more than ever, with such a magnificent on-site home available, would seem the ideal time to return them. But enforced repatriation of archaeology would have massive political, cultural and educational repercussions.

The philosophical Pandermalis smiles and mentions the many quarrels, “the many and great quarrels”, that went into both securing and constructing the new museum. “History is full of these quarrels; just as heritage and its protection usually comes down to the use and abuse of history.”

American Mary Phillips made a protest about the Parthenon Marbles a few weeks ago, standing outside the British Museum dressed as a caryatid.

During the protest though, there was an unexpected appearance by British Museum director Neil MacGregor coming over to see what was going on.

Read all the details on Artknows.

I went yesterday evening to East 15 acting school’s play: Losing Marbles.

I’m not sure what I expected the play to be like – but it definitely wasn’t like any of the ideas I had in my mind. It was at the same time different & far better than what I had expected. As it still has one more night to show (at a different theatre) I won’t reveal the plot – but I can say that it is hilariously funny, ingeniously performed & well worth watching – whether or not you are interested in the story of the Parthenon Marbles.

As I mentioned before, there is one last chance to see it – in Colchester, Essex this Friday Night.

From:
University of Essex

11 December 2009
Losing Marbles and The Tart With a Heart

Performance Time: 19:30
Venue: Lakeside Theatre

Joining TAS on the second night of Snow White: The Tart With a Heart, East 15 acting school present Losing Marbles, a tale of ancient grievance.

When a Greek immigrant attempts to singlehandedly return the Elgin Marbles to Athens, an epic struggle unfolds – hurtling from the Parthenon to the bowels of the British Museum and beyond. A startlingly profound musical satire on the nature of love and posession.

Tickets:
Full: £7.00, Conc: £5.00, UoE Students: £3.00

Booking information:
Ticket Hotline: 01206 573948
Book Online: http://www.mercurytheatre.co.uk/artson5
In person: University Gallery, Square 5
Monday – Friday 11 – 5, Saturday 12 – 4

Andrew George MP, Chair of the Marbles Reunited campaign in the UK has submitted two Parliamentary Questions relating to the Parthenon Marbles. The answers might be predictable, but they do help to clarify that there are no current official negotiations – something that needs to happen for the Parthenon Marbles to get any closer to returning.

From:
Hansard

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 30 Nov 2009 (pt 0003)
30 Nov 2009 : Column 373W—continued

[...]

Elgin Marbles

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions he has had with the Board of Trustees of the British Museum about the future management of its Parthenon marble exhibits. [302468]

Margaret Hodge: Neither my right hon. Friend, nor I have had any recent discussions with the Board of Trustees. However, he has met the Director of the British Museum and discussed the Museum’s capital programme. He has also been briefed by the Director

30 Nov 2009 : Column 377W

on the issue of the Parthenon Sculptures, whose management, as part of the entire collection, is a matter for the Museum and not for Government.

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions he has had with his Greek counterpart on exchange of museum artefacts since the building of the new Acropolis museum. [302469]

Margaret Hodge: Neither my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State nor I have had such discussions.

[...]

Despite the fact that its opening was a few months ago, press coverage of the New Acropolis Museum in Athens continues, with regular reviews – the vast majority of which are positive.

From:
AllGov

Greece Unveils Museum Meant for Stolen Sculptures
Saturday, November 21, 2009

Greece has built a new museum to reclaim the Parthenon Marbles, or Elgin Marbles, from the British Museum. The Parthenon Marbles are symbols of ancient Greek glory that were chiseled off the Parthenon temple two centuries ago by Lord Elgin. Greece has been demanding their return for decades, and in the past the main argument against their return was Greece’s lack of a suitable location for their display. The new Acropolis Museum is a proud rebuttal and call for their return.

Located at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens, the modern museum’s five-stories of exterior glass walls reflect images of the Parthenon and surrounding ruins. The museum is the new home for hundreds of statues from the Archaic and Classical eras, but the Parthenon Gallery on the top floor is the museum’s showcase, says archaeologist Naya Charmalia, a member of the museum’s exhibition team. “This is the crown of the building, a glass box and glass surfaces, because the major requirement was the visual link to the Acropolis. You can see the monument and at the same time the sculptures from the monument,” Charmalia says. In the display, plaster casts of the sculptures housed in London are interspersed with original pieces Lord Elgin left behind.

Charmalia says the contrast between the stark white plaster and the ancient honey-colored stone has a specific purpose. “Everyone understands at once what is missing, because if you say numbers, you can’t understand, but you can see how many are missing,” she says.

While pressure on the British Museum has increased, its spokeswoman, Hannah Boulton, firmly rejects repatriating the chiseled marbles to Greece.
-Angela Chen

East 15 Acting School are performing a play about the Elgin Marbles in London next week.

The play is on Tuesday 8 December & Wednesday 9 December 2009 at 20:00 in the Drill Hall, 16 Chenies Street, London WC1E 7EX. This is conveniently located in central London, only a few minutes walk from the British Museum. Tickets can be booked at the website address below.

From:
the Drill Hall

Losing Marbles
East 15 Acting School Showcase

Losing Marbles is an epic cinemascope blockbuster Christmas show made with the help of sticky back plastic, cardboard tubes and spaghetti.

A high speed chase across the new Europe to discover who owns the past.

English archaeologists, Italian policemen, the Russian Mafia and a lone Greek woman fight it out to see who should keep the Elgin Marbles.

Cast:
Zenah Leigh – Zoë
Joe Darke – Ivan
Mike Auger – Museum guard, Italian policeman, Hitchhiker
Rebecca Zienko – Museum guard, Italian policeman
Jesse Briton – Restorer 1, Nigel
James Jaggs – Restorer 4, Boss
Tine Bentsen – Restorer 3, Irena, Busker
Sarah Wardeh – Restorer 4, Miroslava, Artist
Claire Gaydon – Grandmother, Shamen
James Inkson – Vlaho
Helen Foan – Director of the British Museum

Tuesday 8 December 2009
Wednesday 9 December 2009
8pm
Drill Hall 1

£8
£5 concessions

In addition to this site, for some time now it has been possible to follow Elginism on its associated Twitter feed & Facebook page. In an attempt to increase the multimedia aspects of the site, you can now also join Elginism’s Flickr photostream. At present the photostream consists of archive images – some of which I’ve already made available through other sources. In the coming months though I hope to further integrate these various aspects of the site so that they tie in more closely to the main site.

A youtube channel for Elginism will also be available soon.

View Elginism’s photostream on Flickr here.

Current photosets include:

• New Acropolis Museum opening.
• The Acropolis (including many areas not normally accessible to the public).
• Protest outside the British Museum (see original post for more details).

A follow-up to Professor Dimitrios Pantermalis’s lecture on the New Acropolis Museum organised by the Irish Museums Association.

From:
Heritage Key

Controversy Present and Absent: Dimitrios Pandermalis Introduces the New Acropolis Museum
Submitted by Brian Dolan on Thu, 11/19/2009 – 18:16

Thirty years in the making, the €130 million euro New Acropolis Museum is a stunning, if controversial, addition to Athen’s famous architectural landscape and at the same time a provocative statement of intent by the Greek people. In a fascinating talk in Dublin last night, Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis, President of the new museum took an enthralled audience on a tour of the history, architecture and intentions of the spectacular building.

The talk, entitled ‘Collections Present and Absent at the New Acropolis Museum, Athens’ was hosted by the National Museum of Ireland, organised by the Irish Museums Association and was attended by the new Greek ambassador to Ireland, Her Excellency Ms. Constantina Zagorianou-Prifti.

The lecture was opened with some brief introductions, including a subtle assurance from the Director of the National Museum of Ireland that the Professor was ‘amongst friends’ (an obvious reference to the repatriation controversy surrounding the famous Elgin Marbles in the British Museum in London). Finally Professor Pandermali, a short amiable man with greying hair, excellent English and a gift for public speaking took to the podium and began to take the audience on a tour through the history of the museum, and some of its major spaces and design features, stopping occasionally to note the empty spots left by artefacts not currently residing in Greece…
Why Build a New Acropolis Museum?

The first topic considered was, appropriately, the question of origins. The building of such an expensive museum is a rare event and one with many motivations. So why did the Greeks decide to do it? The professor first explained why the original Acropolis Museum was constructed in the late nineteenth century; his contention being that it was built as a response to the damage caused by both the Turkish gunpowder explosion and later Lord Elgin’s ‘vandalism’ (certainly a primary motive for the building of the new museum). Perhaps a very modern perspective on nineteenth century motivations.

Whatever the reasons, the museum was almost immediately to prove not-fit-for-purpose. The discovery of an archaic-period Acropolis, pre-dating the classical one so visible today, with a wealth of sculptures and artefacts, meant that the museum was almost immediately too small to house the Acropolis finds. By the 1970s a decision had been made that all of the sculptures on the rock should be sheltered from the harsh Athenian elements. Clearly the old museum would not be able to accommodate them.

This made the need for a new museum, and a massive one at that (clearly too big to be situated on the Acropolis) very clear. A need further re-inforced by the campaign started in the 1980s for the return of sculptures removed from the Parthenon in the nineteenth century. The campaign was seriously undermined by the lack of a suitable venue in Greece for their preservation and presentation.

Some thirty years of arguments, controversy, architectural competitions and funding issues led eventually to the opening of the new museum earlier this year and a renewed and reinforced call for the return of the missing marbles.

A Quick Guided Tour

The next stage of the talk took us on a whistle-stop tour through some of the major spaces in the new museum. It truly is a stunning building with some genuinely new approaches to how museums should interact with the objects inside them as well as the cityscape around them and, in this case, the archaeology under them. Check out this interview with the architect, Bernard Tschumi, on how he approached the task of creating a home for the missing marbles.

During construction of the museum a large archaeological site was excavated, necessitating the balancing of the museum on top of 100 columns; delicately placed so as not to disturb the uncovered antiquities. The archaeological site can be viewed through transparent panels in the museum’s floor. Elsewhere in the museum transparent walls connect the museum with the city outside, in contrast to the traditional aim of museum architecture to create a sanctuary in which artefacts and art can be viewed in their own space.

This interaction with the outside world reaches its zenith in the Parthenon hall. Orientated parallel to the real thing, which can be clearly seen through the large windows (if only on one side of the hall), the room attempts to re-create the orientation and narrative effect of the original sculptures. Apparently the original intention was to leave voids for the exiled statues, metopes and friezes scattered around Europe, but the jarring effect of floating heads and limbs alongside the loss of the frieze’s narrative integrity led to the decision to fill the gaps with plaster copies of the missing pieces.

Other parts of the museum showcase some unorthodox but successful decisions. On the first floor, archaic period statues are displayed amongst large columns intended to evoke their original contexts and encourage movement through the room and around the sculptures. There is also a departure from the usual slavish adherence to chronology found in traditional museums. This allows the use of comparisons to illustrate sculptural styles and techniques. Finally, and one of my favourite elements of the museum, is the inclusion on the roof of the Parthenon hall of a ground plan of the Acropolis that can be seen by visitors to the rock looking down onto the new museum.

Re-unification of the Parthenon Frieze?

An underlying theme throughout the lecture was the spaces left in the museum for the marbles taken from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin. Professor Pandermalis was careful to avoid talk of reclamation, or ‘getting back’ the marbles.

Instead he framed the issue as one of re-unification and the restoration of the integrity of the original artists’ composition. He suggested that the marbles belong to the world, and particularly to Europe, serving as a unifying symbol of European civilisation which aren’t owned in a legal sense (since they can’t in reality be bought or sold) but are really the cultural property of humanity.

This is surprisingly close to the view of the British Museum who also see the marbles as the property of humanity but who are adamant that their legal ownership is very real. The argument that the Parthenon marbles should be re-united is hard to fault but if they truly are the property of humanity it could almost be argued that the best place for them is in London: one of the most accessible and visited cities on the planet. Is there a case for the Greeks sending their remaining marbles over to London?

In reality the near future holds no hope of uniting the remaining marbles in either London or Athens. The professor visited Dublin as part of a tour of European cities which seems rather transparently to be a kind of canvassing drive to gain the support of other European countries for Greece’s goal of the ‘re-unification’ of the Parthenon sculptures. Appealing to modern European notions of unification and civilisation is certainly a clever tactic but despite Professor Pandermalis’s entertaining and earnest efforts I think the wall will not come down for the Parthenon marbles for some considerable time. Still, at least we have one more spectacular museum in the world.

About The Author

Brian Dolan is a PhD student studying Irish archaeology with a big interest in technology – ancient and modern. he has published and edited a number of academic books and articles as well as his own personal blog at http://www.seandalaiocht.com