The polite but bitter war of words between Britain and Greece over the ownership of the Elgin Marbles could be about to turn nasty.  These ancient sculptures and stome objects were acquired by Lord Elgin and shipped back to Britain in 1805.
 
Eleven years later the government paid him £35,000, about half the sum he had spent on them, and gave the collection to the British Museum where they remain to this day.  So what's the problem?  The Greeks want them back and are about to pile international pressure on Britain to force us to hand them over.
 
Next month the massive Acropolis Museum opens in Athens just 400 metres from the Parthenon, the sculptures' original home.  The 270,000 sq ft building which cost £115 million to construct has a reserved section ready to accommodate the marble figures and inscriptions now in London.  The opening ceremony on June 20 will be a perfect platform for the Greek authorities to make their case.  They argue that the 2,500-year-old Parthenon is their national symbol and a unique reminder of their cultural heritage.  Pressure groups in 14 different countries have formed to back their argument and the Greek authorities say opinion polls show most British people agree with them.
 
So the right thing to do is make the Greeks happy and send back the Marbles?  Wrong.  The Marbles were purchased 200 years ago by Elgin, an art lover who wanted to preserve them.  Had he not there is every likelihood they would not have survived.  His behaviour may appear politically incorrect to modern eyes but he was a man of his time.
 
Material from the Parthenon was dispersed both before and after Elgin's time in Greece.  The remainder of the surviving sculptures that are not in Athens are in museums across Europe.  While they have been in London the Marbles have been free to visit and study by academics and members of the public.  They are presented alongside treasures from all over the world, many of which were donated during the 19th century when Britain was the trading hub lof the world.  The repatriation of the Marbles would inavitably lead to strings of claims from other countries demanding objects back.  It would amount to the systematic dismantling of the museum and that would be a catastrophe.
 
There is a danger that the British people have lost sight of the bigger picture.  When you visit the British Museum you are somewhere that is like no other building on earth.  It is the only place where you can walk through time and see the whole range of what humans have created.  Only in the British Museum can you begin with the first things that people like us made and compare them with similar items from all over the world.
 
The British Museum is not a collection of works of art although there are artistic works there.  It is not a royal museum, it was set up by Parliament and administered by the first ever Parliamentary Trust.  This means the Government provides its funds but it is controlled independently by a body of 50 or so trustees.  It is, to put it bluntly, a world-class institution of which we are not sufficiently proud.  Any damage to the British Museum would in my view represent a greater loss than the continuing absence of the Elgin Marbles from Athens.
 
Well over 280million people have visited the museum and in a recent lecture its director Neil MacGregor was confident about its role and future.
 
He said: "The British Museum is, I think, the private study collection of every citizen and that is still one of the great traditions: that every citizen can come and look at prints and drawings or cuneiform tablets.  Uniquely it sets out to cover the whole world and so many different aspects of human existence, a place for the private study of every citizen.  It is the museum of the citizen for the citizen."
 
The Greek people who remain our friends may argue their case fiercely but that does not make it right.  Today it would be impossible to create an institution as splendid and important as the British Museum bit it would not be so hard to destroy.  The world would be the poorer for its loss.

Reader letter written in response to the above article, an edited version was published in the Sunday Express on Sunday the 24th of May 2009

Sir,
 
I have rarely seen the case for keeping the Parthenon Marbles in London so badly and so incorrectly argued!
 
I am an Anglo-Greek that has always been able to see both sides of the matter, as I did during the Cyprus affair.  Firstly, Greece is one of Britain's staunchest allies -- remember the two world wars?  On who's side did Greece fight?  It is not likely to turn nasty now, even though the British Museum has procrastinated for almost two centuries!  Greece loves Britain -- some 25,000 Greek students study here.  They, like I have until very recently, looked to Britain for fairness, good governance, generosity and good humour.
 
However, although Greece has invariably indicated that it would like the Marbles removed by Lord Elgin (whilst he was ambassador to the Sublime Porte), to be sent back to Athens, the British Museum has always refused to talk to the Greeks.
 
I recently took a group from the U3A to visit the Parthenon Sculptures in the British Museum and had a "Road to Damascus" moment:  the Museum is a glorified Superstore displaying foreign goods, mostly colonial plunder.  The name of the museum is British, but there is hardly anything British in it!
 
Greece has many good museums, filled with Greek history and Greek art, and yet it doesn't have the arrogance to call any of them a Greek or Hellenic Museum.
 
So, let me set the matter straight:  the British Museum was set up by Parliament in another era, when the British navy ruled the waves and we thought arrogantly to impress the subjects and underline our power and cultural superiority.Things have since changed a bit. . .  we no longer have an Empire, we are a European nation trying hard to survive, notwithstanding a series of dodering governments, multiple scandals both financial and moral.
 
There is of course no doubt that Elgin misappropriated the sculptures by taking advantage of his position.  He was not an art lover as was my very own paternal great grandfather who created the famous Benaki Museum in Athens.  Elgin damaged the Parthenon to adorn his own home in Scotland with his loot.  It was not his intention to donate it to the nation as my family did.  The irony of it all was, that he was even unable to see the priceless sculptures on his home, as he became insolvant when the Royal Navy ship he had used to feret away the loot, sank in the Adriatic Sea, and he had to salvage what he could at great personal expense.  The £35,000 he received from Parliament was a token payment, perhaps because it was unseemly in those days here for an aristocrat to lose face.
 
Neil MacGregor should be talking to the Greeks.  He will find that they are reasonable and would be willing to find a practical solution.  After all, where is the honour in acting as a fence for stolen property?
 

Alexander Benakis
21 Northfield, Hatfield, AL10 0AQ.

|  Return   |