The Elgin Marbles: sending them home

The Parthenon Marbles, or Elgin Marbles, are a collection of roughly half of the marble sculptures which were originally a part of the frieze around the inside of the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, carved by Pheidias, depicting a battle between centaurs and a legendary people known as the Lapith at the marriage-feast of Pirithous. They immortalise moments of great heroism and are a celebration of humanity within the most sacred space. After Lord Elgin removed the sculptures in the early 1800s, he sold them to the British government, who gave them to the British Museum in 1817, where they have stayed since.

The debate surrounding the return of the Parthenon Marbles has raged for over 200 years, and contemporary British public opinion has varied. At the time, although Lord Byron condemned Lord Elgin’s actions as vandalism, lamenting ‘Dull is the eye that will not weep to see| Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed| By British hands’, most people supported Lord Elgin as safeguarding the epitome of Western culture. However, a YouGov poll in 2017 showed that 55% thought that the marbles should be returned, and only 21% that they should remain in Britain.

The dispute received particular attention from the media when, in 2015, Amal Clooney called for the return of the marbles. She was acting as a legal advisor to the Greek government, recommending that they take legal action in the International Court of Justice to reclaim the marbles. However, the Greek government chose not to take legal action, out of concern that a negative ICJ decision might lose the fight to reclaim the marbles for ever.

In 2018, the Greek Culture Minister Lydia Koniordou asked for dialogue with Britain over the Parthenon Sculptures, probing for a possible quid pro quo for giving Theresa May consent to deliver Brexit. Notably, Jeremy Corbyn pledged that any government led by him would return the ‘stolen’ marbles to Greece.

On the one hand, the Parthenon Marbles represent a central part of Greek cultural heritage, and they are the most prominent link between modern Athenians and the greatness of their ancient ancestors, representing the cultural identity of millions of Greek people. They should also be returned in accordance with the intentions of the sculptor: to be fully appreciated, they should be reunited and viewed in their original intended location, offering an unrivalled additional insight. With the new Acropolis Museum designed closely to mirror the original experience of visiting the Parthenon, and its geographical proximity to the Acropolis (only 300 metres), this would provide a viewing experience most similar to Pheidias’ wish. Additionally, since the 2008 recession, Greece has endured crippling debt and high unemployment rates. As tourism is a large feature of their economy, repatriating the marbles could help Greece to grow their economy, leading to greater long-term stability.

However, at the time Greece was not looking after the marbles and so if Lord Elgin had not removed and preserved them, they could have been lost forever, and so the British Museum should keep them as a result of having maintained them for centuries. Moreover, there are more annual visitors to the British Museum than Athens, allowing maximal exposure for these historic sculptures. There is also the idea of this being a slippery slope – if we do not dissociate the past from the present, many of the principal museums globally would be emptied, removing the opportunity for education on a wide range of cultures that they provide, and we will be forever apologising for actions which took place in very different political and social climates. In addition, there is the argument that Greece is striving to establish a national identity through cultivating a specific cultural identity based on antiquity, but ancient Greece and modern Greece cannot be considered the same owing to the political, social and economic changes that have occurred since. This argument can be illuminated by considering similar examples: the Pergamon Altar in Turkey is now housed in the purpose-built Pergamon Museum in Berlin, but there is no similar argument for its repatriation, as modern-day Turkey has forged an alternative identity separate to the ancient Greek values that ancient Turkey comprised.

My own view is that it is imperative that such a focal point of Greek heritage is repatriated and while the Parthenon Marbles are in the British Museum, their presence serves as a physical reminder of imperialism: even their naming as the 'Elgin Marbles' shows the Anglocentric culture in which they were taken.

What do you think of the repatriation debate? Let us know!

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