THE Prince of Wales has told leading members of the Greek community in
Britain that he believes the Elgin Marbles should be returned to
Greece in time for the Olympic games to be staged there in 2004, write
Christopher Morgan and Michael Prescott. Prince Charles is also
understood to have told King Constantine of Greece of his wish.
Constantine, who wrote to Winston Churchill in childhood urging the
return of the marbles, was described as "delighted" to learn of
Charles's views.
The two royals are in an unwitting alliance with one of their leading
critics. Ken Livingstone, who hopes to be Labour mayor of London from
May, said yesterday that he would use the post to campaign for the
return of the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum.
"I support the idea that the Elgin Marbles should return home once
there is a proper place for them there," Livingstone said. "The
British Museum should replace them with replicas, especially as most
visitors wouldn't be able to tell the difference."
Chris Smith, the culture secretary, is opposed to sending the marbles
home.
Prince Charles, by contrast, has made clear that he favours the return
of the marbles in numerous private contacts with leading London
Greeks.
He is a supporter of the Friends of Mount Athos, which raises money
for Greek monasteries there, and several Greek shipowners are generous
supporters of his Prince's Trust. John Latsis provided Charles with a
yacht for his summer cruise in the Greek Islands.
The 56 panels of the frieze were taken from the Acropolis in 1801 by
the 7th Earl Elgin, former British ambassador to the Ottoman empire.
In 1816 bankruptcy forced Elgin to sell the marbles to the British
government.
It was revealed recently that the British Museum's cleaning of the
marbles with chisels during restoration in 1938 caused them serious
damage. This has undermined the British government's argument that the
marbles would be better protected if they were to remain in the
museum's care.
The Greek government initially raised fears about damage to the
marbles in 1982 when it asked for their return through Unesco. Now the
British Museum has admitted the extent of the damage.
There was more controversy this month after it was discovered that the
British Museum had allowed fancy dress diners to have parties next to
the marbles for a fee of GBP.35,000, excluding the cost of food, drink or
staff.
Last week Bill Clinton, the American president, made it clear that he
was in favour of the return of the marbles to Greece and is believed
to have said that he would discuss the issue with Tony Blair.
The British Museum has always maintained that any decision on the
future of the marbles should be made by politicians.
THE row over the Elgin Marbles intensified yesterday when a historian said that
he had new evidence about bribes paid by Lord Elgin that cast doubt on Britain's
legal claim to them.
William St Clair, who alleged that the British Museum damaged the Elgin Marbles
by overcleaning them in the 1930s, believes that a detailed breakdown of Elgin's
payments for the sculptures - which he says has never been adequately studied or
published - "undoubtedly weakens" Britain's case.
"We always knew there had been bribes, but not the full extent of them or the
breakdown of just how much was paid for individual pieces," he said. Nor, he
added, did we know how much went to the Governor and the Military Governor. The
latter "received bribes equivalent to 35 times his official annual salary in
return for turning his eyes aside".
He said: "This transaction wasn't a ritual exchange of gifts between nations,
but a commercial concession to dig up antiquities. There are two implications of
this new material. It casts doubt on the legal claim of Britain to own them.
That is a matter for a court. "The British Government bought them from Elgin,
believing he had good title to them. Under Ottoman law, these people were
breaking the local law and so Elgin's title might not be secure."
He drew parallels between the Marbles and art looted all over the world today.
"What we have here is a similar case study. There are good parallels." Mr St
Clair said that, although Lord Elgin's archive has "been gone over many times
since 1916", the details of the financial accounts had been ignored because they
are "in all kinds of languages" and in the Ottoman currency - piastres.
In 1801 when a house servant was paid GBP.6 a year and the entire costs of the
British Museum were GBP.3,000, Elgin paid more than GBP.4,000 in bribes, Mr St
Clair said. When there were about nine piastres to the pound, documentary
evidence shows that he paid the Military Governor 90 piastres "for part of the
frieze from the south side, a beautiful fragment", 155 for a figure from the
pediment of the Parthenon and 100 for horse heads.
Mr St Clair's claims were dismissed by a British Museum spokeswoman who said:
"It doesn't affect the legal entitlement." Elgin's payments have been known
since he referred to them in his negotiations with Parliament, she said.
Michael Daley, director of ArtWatch UK, which campaigns on restoration issues,
noted that Elgin had "performed a surpreme act of cultural rescue".