More than half of the sculptures in the Parthenon on the Acropolis Hill ended up illegally in London in the 19th century, and the British Museum has refused to discuss their permanent reunification.
ATHENS Greece demands the permanent reunification of the sculptures of the Parthenon temple with the Acropolis Museum of Athens.
A major support concert will be held on Monday night at the foot of the Acropolis Hill. The Finnish band The Rasmus is involved.
We compiled nine questions and answers about the sculpture controversy.
1. Why has the British Museum not negotiated the return of the sculptures?
The museum claims that the Parthenon sculpture decoration was legally acquired.
It also invokes the Museum Act, which should be amended to hand over sculptures. According to the British government, the law is not going to change.
The British Museum announces that it cherishes the cultural heritage of the whole world, of which the Sculptures of the Parthenon play a significant role.
2. Why is the reunion of sculptures so important to the Greeks?
The sculpture decoration of the Parthenon is intended to be a unified work of art and it creates an overall picture of history only in its original place.
Greece emphasizes that it will not reclaim its other ancient artefacts. Only sculptures of the Parthenon that belong to the monument.
Greece hopes that all existing sculptures will be combined with the Acropolis Museum. Opened in 2009, the museum was built for this purpose.
3. What is the Parthenon Temple?
The Parthenon is a building dedicated to the Acropolis at the highest point of the Acropolis, the goddess of Athens, Pallas Athena.
In 438 BC. the completed temple had sculptural decorations, including a 160-meter-long and one-meter-high frieze depicting the great Panathenaia procession of the Athenians. The decoration also included end triangle sculptures and metopolis tiles with relief decoration.
4. What happened to the sculpture decoration?
The temple was badly destroyed in 1687 when the Turkish powder warehouse in the building exploded and the roof and much of the walls collapsed.
In the early 19th century, when Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire, the British Ambassador to Constantinople, Lord Elgin was allowed to conduct research on the Acropolis.
The authorization did not involve damaging buildings or removing sculptures. Elgin’s team still removed the sculptures and chopped them into pieces. More than half of the surviving sculpture decoration was chartered to London. Some of the ships loaded with marble sank on the way and no cargo lists have been found.
Smaller parts of the Parthenon’s picture decoration have also ended up in other European museums with the robbers.
5. Are there official mediators in the sculpture dispute?
Yes, the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is trying to get states to the same negotiating table.
The UNESCO ICPRCP Committee seeks to promote interstate cooperation for the return of property. The committee treats the Sculptures of the Parthenon as an interstate issue, and not as inter-museum as the British Museum would like.
6. What are the Greek strengths in the dispute?
Parthenon marbles are the most internationally known cultural heritage issue.
Unesco does not intend to remove the issue from its list until the issue is resolved. In addition, in the sculptures, Athenian democracy describes its ideology. The reunification of the sculptures would be a gesture from the British government that respects the strengthening of democracy in the current world.
British mainstream newspapers, some MPs and a majority of ordinary Britons are in favor of reuniting the sculptures. This is evidenced, for example, by the British Museum expression (moving to another service).
Greece emphasizes that Elgin did not have a formal decision to export the sculptures. This is evident from the Ottoman archives.
7. Would borrowing sculptures in Athens be a compromise?
The British Museum is open for borrowing, Greece no.
For Greece, sharing sculptures is not the answer. Returning the works on loan would be like Greece accepting ownership of the British Museum.
8. Can the small part of the Parthenon frieze just restored from Italy set an example?
At least that is what Greece hopes for.
The Acropolis Museum recently received back to fragment (switch to another service), which had ended up in a museum in Palermo. The reunification of the song is considered important as it is the first interstate restoration and was successful with the cooperation of the Sicilian Regional Government and the Greek Government.
The German University of Heidelberg has also previously donated a small piece of frieze from its collection to the Acropolis Museum.
9. What is the significance of Monday night’s Rock the Parthenon concert?
The event seeks to convey information to the general public.
According to The Rasmus, different cultural sectors can naturally work together to support the preservation of cultural heritage.
In addition to the Finnish band, the famous Herodes Atticus Theater will take the stage, among other things Alice Cooper and Bonnie Tyler. The main character of the concert is an American composer and producer Desmond Childwith which The Rasmus has previously collaborated.
Part of the concert proceeds will be directed to the Acropolis Museum.