Marbles Reunited launched a new campaign on 14 January to return the Parthenon Marbles – also known as the Elgin Marbles – to Greece.
The stones were acquired by Lord Elgin in the early 1800s and transported to England during the Ottoman occupation of Greece. They were then sold to the British Museum in 1816, where they remain today.
The Marbles Reunited campaign, which has both British and Greek members and includes distinguished academics, museum curators and politicians, has so far been met with indifference by both the British government and the British Museum.
The official Greek government position on the restitution of the Marbles is that, while the Marbles cannot be considered a moveable monument, a long-term loan could be agreed between the British Museum and the New Acropolis Museum, an ambitious new structure specifically to house the complete Marbles, currently under construction at the foot of the Acropolis.
The combination of the upcoming Athens 2004 Olympics and the construction of the New Acropolis Museum has added a new impetus to the re-launched campaign.
However, the British museum has said that the Greek government is not asking for a loan of the marbles ‘in the ordinary sense’, but that its aim has always been ‘the perpetual removal of all the fragments now in London’. As a consequence, the position of the Greek government ‘makes it virtually impossible’ for the museum trustees ‘to have serious discussions’ with them.
Two polls recently carried out by Marbles Reunited and the British Museum have delivered contradictory results.
The Marbles Reunited campaign claims that its opinion poll shows 80 per cent of the British public support reuniting the marbles in Athens while a separate Exit Poll they commissioned outside the British Museum indicated that only one in five visitors said they had come to see the Marbles when asked what they had come to visit at the museum.
The British Museum has retaliated with its MORI visitor surveys, which have consistently shown that the Parthenon Sculptures are seen by approximately 60 per cent of all visitors. It also says the MORI survey shows that the sculptures are the second most popular display in the museum, after the Egyptian Galleries.
The museum believes that, because the original Parthenon Sculptures work of art can never be reconstituted due to centuries of damage, the current division of the sculptures between 10 museums, with roughly equal quantities present in London and Athens, is the best arrangement for maximum public benefit.
Drector, Neil MacGregor, said: “The British Museum is the best possible place for the sculptures from the Parthenon in its collections to be on display.
“The British Museum is a truly universal museum of humanity, accessible to five million visitors from around the world every year entirely free of entry charge. Only here can the worldwide significance of the sculptures be fully grasped.”
Speaking at the launch of the Marbles Reunited campaign, Professor Anthony Snodgrass responded: “For 200 years Britain and Greece have been locked in argument over the question of who owns the sections of the Parthenon Sculptures currently housed in London.
“The time is right to reunited the Marbles. 2004 is the year when the Olympics return to their home city of Athens. 2004 is also the year when the British Government and British Museum should agree to reunite the Marbles on display in Athens, its original home city.” Details: www.marblesreunited.org, www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk, www.culture.gr
