The Parthenon and its missing Marbles: A possible reunion?

This amazing Horse is part of the Elgin Marbles exhibited at the British Museum.

The Parthenon without its marble decorations...

Greece recently opened a new mega structure it calls the Acropolis Museum in Athens, located near the historical hill. This new museum seems stunning in every aspect with very modern and well designed halls and corridors with state of the art technology. The obvious purpose is the long term preservation of the priceless findings and artifacts related to the Acropolis.

Bernard Tschumi (a post modern ''decontructivist'' school swiss architect) has done everything to allow light and landscape merge perfectly into the vast and modern museum creating a fabulous ensemble of the old and the new.

The new Acropolis Museum will display plaster copies of the missing Marbles waiting for the return of the originals...

But there is a very famous and most important absentee from all the displayed exhibits: The Parthenon's decorative Elgin Marbles. They were taken away by the British two centuries ago. These series of wonderful marbles consist of roughly of 15 original decorative metopes, 17 pediments from the Parthenon itself as well as a caryatid from adjacent Erechteion along with some other pieces from the temple of Nike and the Propylaia. An incredible collection of original items that were carved around 447 BC and 432 BC under the guidance of master architects Pheidias, Iktinos and Kalliktares. These massive construction works on the Acropolis were undertaken at the time after some serious damage caused by the wars with the Persians. Athens was then rising from its ashes to new and unprecedented heights in world civilisation.

The Elgin marbles Exhibition Hall (British Museum, London)

It is no secret that the main reason behind the palnning and the construction of this new costly museum was to finally have a custom made home for the Elgin marbles. These Marbles were "removed" (stolen may be a more appropriate word) by the British Lord Elgin by around 1812 and eventually "sold" to the British Museum where they are exhibited since 1815.

The removal (i.e.theft) of these masterpieces was done under very dubious circumstances. The British claim they had the approval and the consent of the then Ottoman rulers who had a firm grip on Greece in 19th century. The legend says that the occupying Turkish administrators or military commanders had indeed given their consent to Lord Elgin to practically remove whatever he desired from the Acropolis and take them with him to London. Lord Elgin at the time was the British ambassador to the Sublime Porte (Ottoman Empire), and claimed that he had received an official permission from Istanbul to remove these marbles. This is very difficult to prove and there are no such original documents to prove it!

In any case the removal was a truly shameless robbery by any standard. It must have been a really nice archaeological orgy, a big corrupt party involving two sets of undesired guests of the Greek capital: the Turks and the British! How about breaking in into your neighbour's house and then allowing some distinguished imperialists to come and help themselves to whatever they like!

Naturally Greece has been asking for the return of these marvels since a very long time. Even an "international Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon sculptures" has been established to exert more pressure on London. So far the British have refused any repatriation possibility claiming that these marbles were bought legally and that anyway Greece did not have an appropriate structure or museum to house them in case they are returned to Athens.

Hence the importance of the new Acropolis museum. It is like shouting loud and clear to the British Museum: "Now, we Greeks, we do have an appropriate and custom made house for our Marbles. And they belong to us. Send them back home with no further delay and no more absurd excuses!"

The Elgin Marbles are surely not the only dubiously appropriated artifacts. Museums around the world are full of stolen or illegally appropriated archaeological findings, paintings, jewelery, furniture etc. All major museums and even universities and private collections possess art acquired through suspect transactions and manoeuvres. Military conquests and unauthorized archaeological expeditions by colonial powers have resulted in all sorts of looting or other forms of illegal removal. From China to the Near east, Africa and Meso-America, no ancient culture has remained immune to these practices of unilateral and unauthorized removals by the rich and not so well- intentioned foreign powers and their proxies.

Stunning statues of the Elgin Marbles ''collection" at the British Museum.

How would The Louvre feel like without its "Venus of Milo'', the Hammurabi code stele or the Nike of Samothrace statue? How about Berlin museum without Queen Nefertiti's wonderful bust? Or the Istanbul Archaeological museum without the Qadesh Peace Treaty clay tablet and the Alexander the Great sarcophagus? The New York Metropolitan without the Babylonian or Assyrian treasures? Will the British Museum lose prestige without these Elgin Marbles or the Rosetta stone?

If the British were to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece, they would certainly set a very serious precedent and open a Pandora's box. A bonanza and anarchy for international jurisprudence lawyers and lobbyists will surely follow. Will then Iraq claim back all Sumerian or Babylonian artifacts scattered around the world? Will Turkey demand the return of any object related to the Hittite empire? Will Lebanon and Syria fight over the ownership of every Phoenician object displayed around the globe? The list is endless.

In the meantime and awaiting the potential return of these Elgin Marbles, the Acropolis Museum will adorn these specially built exhibition halls with copies of the Marbles. The Greek authorities hope that one day, maybe one day, they will be able to swap these plaster copies with the originals marbles. Wishful thinking? most probably.

I visited the Acropolis in 1972. I remember being told vaguely about the missing Marbles by our Greek tour guide, but I was too young to fully grasp the issue. It was only some 35 years later in 2007 that I finally had the chance to see them at the British Museum. Making the imaginary link between the Parthenon and its distant decorations was indeed a very interesting mental exercise.



The Parthenon has been waiting for over 200 years for the return of its orphaned crown jewels. I am afraid it may take another 200 years unless common sense prevails on that front in the power corridors of London. Meanwhile, the Acropolis museum will exhibit the plaster copies and pray for a miracle.



But as we all tend to agree, miracles do happen from time to time!!!

© Krikor Tersakian