COLUMN:
Returning the Elgin Marbles
Updated 12:00 PM ET December 7, 1999
By Chris Timmerman
The Student Life
Washington U.-St. Louis
(U-WIRE) ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- A recent conference in London on the fate of the Elgin Marbles, a group of 17 figures and 56 panels of a giant frieze taken from the Parthenon in Athens by the British in 1801 was meant to be a gesture of hospitality and friendship, an attempt to mend the hard feelings between the Greeks and the British about the ownership of the frieze. Instead, the symposium merely amplified the hostilities between the two groups, again raising questions of rightful ownership and unlawful theft. The issue is a perfect example of the quandary about great works of art and historical relics and who rightfully owns them.
The history of the Elgin Marbles is storied. Thomas Bruce, the seventh earl of Elgin, took the frieze and the figures from the Parthenon in 1801 while he was serving as British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which controlled modern-day Greece at the time. In doing so, the earl of Elgin believed he was helping to preserve one of the most valuable and famous pieces of Western history. He believed that the British Museum would be able to protect the marbles from further neglect and deterioration with modern preservation techniques. The marbles first went on display in London in 1816, and are now viewed by upwards of six million people yearly. The magnificence of the carving in the frieze and the figures caused a great sensation in London, and are one of the more popular offerings that the British Museum displays.
Meanwhile, Greeks would like the marbles back, and believe that they were stolen when the earl of Elgin took them. They are national treasures which they hope to have in their possession again in time for the Summer Olympics of 2004, which will be held in Athens. They accuse the British of faulty treatment of the relics, referring to a cleaning of the frieze 60 years ago which unfortunately stripped the marbles of their original patina. The conference in London was organized to discuss the issue of this mistreatment and whether or not the relics were appropriately paid for when they were taken from Athens.
So, at this conference, when Greek officials entered the room where the marbles were displayed, their first outrage was with the display of ham and cheese sandwiches flanking the relics. The use of the marbles as a backdrop for hors d'ouvres marginalized their importance and discounts their meaning as important parts of Greek history, the Greeks said.
The discussion that the Earl of Elgin may have bribed the Ottoman officials in charge in Athens at the time in order to take away more relics than he was entitled to heartened the Greek delegation at the conference, but the recognition that Elgin may have more or less robbed them from the Parthenon was overshadowed by further outrage.
Soon after came announcements by a professor of history at Cambridge, along with others who have studied the flawed British restoration efforts, that while he did indeed find the cleaning of the marbles 60 years ago flawed and damaging to the relics, the damage caused by their mistreatment was really nothing compared to the amount of graffiti and other neglect that many other relics all over Greece currently display. In fact, he said, two of the finest other carvings are still "rotting" on the Parthenon.
Justifiably, the director of the Acropolis Museum, where the Parthenon is located, was outraged by that pronouncement. How other relics in Greece today look is a separate topic that implies that the Greeks cannot and do not care for their own historical relics, a condescension that merely confirms a continuation of an imperialistic attitude on the part of the British. The Parthenon, emblematic of the magnificence of Greek history, is incomplete without the presence of the marbles. With the Olympics approaching, Greeks wish to present the most impressive and complete cultural face to the world that they can.
The presence of the Elgin Marbles in London is going to continue to do nothing more than cause a further international fuss. Regardless of whether or not the Greeks can preserve the marbles to the standards of the British, moving the marbles to Athens will soothe the concerns of the Greeks. Recent polls indicate the British public no longer really care whether or not the marbles stay in Britain, and even Prince Charles has reportedly told King Constantine of Greece that he thinks the marbles should return to their original home.
Greeks argue that the marbles can be professionally replicated so that the originals can return to Greece and the replicas can continue to impress people in London. If that is the case, the British should return them. Most likely the Greeks are aware that the preservation of their history is essential not only for themselves but for the rest of the Western world, and would be willing to invest substantially to ensure the marbles' protection. If anyone should be entrusted with the preservation of these marbles, it should be those who are intimately familiar with Greek history in a way that British archaeologists aren't.
(C) 1999 The Student Life via U-WIRE