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Elgin Marbles loan 'affront to Greece'
Topic Started: Dec 5 2014, 05:46 PM (395 Views)
CJ
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A very minor case of serious brain damage

:greece: :uk: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30349730 :russia: :greece:

The Greek prime minister has said the British Museum's decision to loan one of the Elgin Marbles to Russia is "an affront" to the Greek people.

Antonis Samaras added: "We Greeks are one with our history and civilisation, which cannot be broken up, loaned out, or conceded."

He said Britain's view that the marbles could not be moved was now invalid.

A depiction of the river god Ilissos will go on show in St Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum.

It is due to remain on display in the Russian city until mid-January.



I can certainly see why he's annoyed: one of the arguments against returning the Elgin Marbles to Greece is that a lot of them are too fragile to be moved, but clearly this one isn't! Hopefully, this means that this statue, at least, can be displayed in Athens at some point.
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GrieferLord
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Tank Sniper

well thats a bit of an under-handed tactic imo. Saying one thing but then pulling that kind of a stunt. they should be ashamed of themselves but then again people who do this sort of thing never are!
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CJ
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A very minor case of serious brain damage

Yeah. Even people who want the Elgin Marbles to stay in London will probably be annoyed with it.

Now that this has happened, I expect they'll be back in Athens before too long (other than any that really are too fragile to make the journey). There might be some deal whereby the British maintain ownership and/or joint control of maintenance, but I don't know.
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GrieferLord
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Tank Sniper

yeah it could be that some will be returned but chances are they may not, when you look at it what can greece really do to demand them back?
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CJ
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Not a lot, really. They were obtained legally from the administering power of Greece at the time (the Ottoman Empire) - but, obviously, the Greeks themselves weren't consulted. Even if they hadn't been, a priniciple of legal limitation would apply (i.e. the ability to pursue claims like this expires after a set period of time).

Another argument is that if these go back to Greece, then other countries will become more serious about their own repatriation claims (Egypt with the Rosetta Stone and the Bust of Nefertiti, for example), and before we know it, we will have emptied the world's great museums. (Though, I think quite a lot of these things actually were stolen/plundered)
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GrieferLord
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Tank Sniper

i don't think many would start pulling the plug on many of thier priceless relics to come home immediately, most are fine with them abroad. Yes most were looted, especially those of europe when hitler was in power, they still try to find many of the lost relics the nazi's took to this day. I'm sure a U-boat is hidden somewhere with a load of precious cargo.
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CJ
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A very minor case of serious brain damage

Yeah, nobody gets upset about random old swords, coins etc. being in a foreign country; there are plenty of those to go around. Then there are those things that are important to a specific country's history, but a relatively minor footnote in the broader context of world history; artefacts in this category will typically be returned to their 'homes' without much fuss. It's the truly iconic objects - important not only to a region's history, but the world's - that provoke controversy and debate over where they should be stored.

Over the course of this thread, I've been to-ing and fro-ing from one side to the other - but, in all honesty, I can't get fully behind either. If I choose to support keeping these artefacts where they currently reside (i.e. museums in North America and western Europe), then I feel like I'm condoning cultural imperialism - especially in cases where they were plundered/stolen. However, if I support returning them, then I feel like I'm denying history by treating all cultures as self-contained, isolated entities, when in reality they're all inter-related and inter-connected. Visiting a museum housing cultural artefacts from around the world would convey this quite readily, but I don't think visiting separate museums in separate countries, each housing artefacts specific to that country, would do so.

(With that said, the people who work at these museums will be well aware of this, and perfectly happy to carry out mutually beneficial exchanges of items in their collections)
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GrieferLord
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Tank Sniper

True, it could go many ways in that regard and having them on loan is more than likely how they can get around that based on agreements. Although i think the biggest issue with this one in particular was that it was advertised as very fragile when in truth some were not thus in essence the greeks were lied to about the condition of these works.
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