The United Kingdom has rejected the UNESCO call to reconsider its position on the Parthenon Marbles and to negotiate with Greece on the return of the cultural treasures. It reiterated the claim that the 2500-year-old were acquired legally and said that the issue is one of the British Museum, not the government.
“We disagree with the Committee’s decision adopted in the closing minutes of the session and are raising issues relating to fact and procedure with UNESCO,” a U.K. government spokesperson said in an email to Artnet News on Wednesday.
In a statement last week, the UNESCO Return and Restitution intergovernmental committee (ICPRCP) urged the United Kingdom to enter talks with Greece and to find solutions for the return of the Parthenon Marbles in a government-to-government solution of the decades-long dispute.
The ICPRCP had taken such a decision at a session in Paris in late September..
Greeks saw a possible “game-changer” in this decision
During the UNESCO meeting, the Greek delegation said that the British government has been rejecting an invitation to an open dialogue as the British side has been viewing the matter on an institutional level, and that the British Museum is a legal entity independent from the state.
“One should perhaps remind all concerned, that, as far as international law is concerned, the obligation to return state cultural artifacts lies squarely on the government and not on a museum,” the Greek delegation said.
The Greek delegation also argued that new historical data deriving from the Ottoman era showed that the sculptures were illegally acquired by Lord Elgin at the time, alleging that the British Museum’s possession of the Parthenon Sculptures was against the law.
Historically, it is very clear that the British Parliament was highly sceptical about the legality of Elgin’s acquisitions. Specifically, he had no permit from the Turks, and presented an uncorroborated translation of the supposed permit in Italian. Even if one accepts the claim that the permit written in Ottomanli had somehow been lost (!!), the Italian translation did not permit Elgin to do any more than pick up archaeological remnants from the ground. It most certainly did not give permission for his employees to use powerful saws and hack off the friezes from the Parthenon, nor to violently remove one of the caryatids. The British Parliament merely dealt with what had been done, and bought the Marbles from a bankrupt and foolish Elgin to place them in the British Museum. They made the best of a very bad situation: they did not state that Elgin acted lawfully.
Johnson’s idea of “legality” is the same idea of legality that underlay the creation of the British Empire — namely, that military power and forceful possession give the right to “legal” ownership. Of course, this is nothing to do with law: from beginning to end it is criminal violence dressed up with political propaganda about legitimacy. We are talking about arrogant and very dirty rich people here — nothing at all to do with the law.
I agree with this analysis completely. The problem today is that Brexit will not allow the return of the marbles. It would be seen (or at least spun by the rabid Brexiteers) as the UK ‘giving in’ to the EU. That can never be allowed to happen.
I believe that there might be a middle ground here. I think Greece should move the argument away from the issue of ownership, because that’s the sticking point. As long as both countries claim ownership of the marbles nothing will ever change.
What Greece most wants is the marbles back in Athens. What the UK most wants is recognition that they own the marbles legally.
If Greece were to pursue a permanent or even long-term loan of the marbles based on recognising the UK’s ‘ownership’ of them then both countries could save some face. Greece would be able to display the marbles where they belong and the UK would be able to claim that Greece has finally recognised their ‘ownership’. The rabid Brexiteers would be able to claim that as a win for example.
Whilst this would not satisfy the die-hards in either country, for whom the principle of ‘ownership’ is more important than where the marbles are displayed, it would satisfy the main objective of both sides. Greece would get the marbles and the UK would get ‘ownership’.
In addition, once the marbles are back in Athens, even on a long-term loan, it’s going to be next to impossible for the UK to ever get them back again. I suspect the UK knows this and would quietly leave the marbles in Athens and let the matter of ‘ownership’ fade into history. Ultimately the only winner would be Greece.
I think most Brits are in agreement with us. The problem (as always) is with politicians. In the mid-1990s in Athens I was privileged to have a 2 hour discussion with the then Director of the British Museum, late at night and with more than a glass or two of Napoleon brandy. I learned a lot!
One of the more interesting things was the statement that the Pasok government had turned the debate into a political issue, making it impossible for the BM to do anything at all. His claim was that if Pasok had not done this, the BM which actually accepted the strong claim from Greece would have returned the Marbles on long-term loan, possibly with a contract that they should be lent back to the UK every 10 years or so for special exhibitions. But with this politicisation of the issue, the whole world was looking on — and the BM could not concede anything at all, without starting hundreds of similar claims and potentially losing half the contents of the museum. Moreover, the Director was clear that they could not allow Greece to keep the Marbles without conditions that would be honoured, simply because of the precedent it would set.
Of course, the Pasok position was a win-win gambit. If the Marbles were not returned, they would get the support of the Greek population for standing up to the colonial Brits and their historical crime. If the Marbles were returned, they would simply claim a political victory. The one thing that the Greek government was not interested in, was what happened with the Marbles!
This is why so many Greek archaeologists do not support return of the Marbles to Greece. They know it is a political game, and in reality Greek politicians (of all parties) couldn’t give a f**k about historical artefacts or even the Parthenon. We have seen how ND treats the Akropolis — as a money-making set for films and fashion shows, and also of course with mass tourism and concrete paths for the millions of tourists bringing their filthy lucre to Greece.