Welcome to misery tourism – a Gap Yah for Lefties by Damian Thompson of The Telegraph
I’ve never been moved by the Elgin Marbles, despite their grand setting in the British Museum. If they were all in one piece, they’d be breathtaking, but those missing heads spoil it for me.
On the other hand, I’ve always enjoyed the fits of self-righteous rage that our ownership of the marbles has provoked in modern Greeks. First, I’ve never believed that they’re the descendants of the people who carved the marbles. Second, I’ve never trusted Greek assurances that they’d look after them. At any rate, the whole debate is now academic. Far from returning the marbles, perhaps this is the time to take the whole Parthenon off their hands in return for our contribution to the bail-out. Think how splendid it would look in the middle of Bloomsbury.
Three architectural competitions. Twenty three expropriations. Twenty one demolitions. The ensuing removal of one hundred and fifty households. Countless hours of bureaucracy, debates and campaigns. Thirty three years. This (and a lot more) is what it took to complete the purpose-built New Acropolis Museum. One could hardly think of such an effort as indicative of a mere academic debate. On the contrary one could, and should, argue that this debate is very much alive. These modern Greeks are no more, or no less, descendants of the people who carved the marbles than are the modern Britons descendants of the people who constructed the Stonehenge monument. Indeed, one fails to see the relevance of such a statement to the debate on the reunification of the Parthenon sculptures.
The country of Greece in no stranger to tumultuous times as is evident from recent history. It was indeed during such a time that the Parthenon sculptures were removed from the Acropolis and the country. While under Ottoman rule, the Greek people could not prevent this loss, however, they also did not allow their spirit to succumb to the notion of defeat. It would be a mistake for anyone to suggest that current political and financial events have any relevance to the ownership of the Parthenon sculptures. An even graver mistake would be to diminish the value and importance of such great historical artefacts and reduce them to mere trading items. Mr Thompson does, however, make a valid point. The beauty of these sculptures could only be further enhanced by their reunification. And what better place to exhibit these complete structures than in their country of origin, in the city of Athens, a few meters away from the Acropolis, where these modern Greeks go about their day with the same passion possessed by their ancient counterparts. Now more than ever is there cause for the return of the Parthenon sculptures, a point which has been argued by MP Anrdew George in a recent article.