There is an ongoing debate on whether the Parthenon Marbles, now located in London, England, should be returned to their original homeland of Athens, Greece. The marbles were removed from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin from 1801-1812 and transported to England. They were sold to the British government in 1816 and put in the British Museum where they have been for the last 200 years. I believe that the marbles should now be returned to Greece, not only because of the method and circumstances surrounding their removal, but because they are original pieces of the oldest and most symbolic structure in Greek history that epitomizes the pinnacle of Ancient Classical Greece and the beginning of western democracy through artistic ingenuity.
According to Andrew George, chairman of Marbles Reunited, “Returning the marbles would be the right thing to do.” The marbles were questionably taken illegally by Lord Elgin. Elgin requested and claims to have received permission from the Ottomans, who were currently occupying Greece, to make castings and draw sketches of the sculptures and artifacts in Athens. According to George, the firman granting permission only authorized Elgin to make castings, sketch, and gather fragments scattered around, “not to amputate and to butcher and to demolish the structure of the Parthenon itself.” I remain skeptical of the legality
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of the excavation, however, a British court of law exonerated Elgin of any wrong doing a few years later. Furthermore, Greece has yet to challenge the legality of ownership in a court of law. Another champion for returning the Parthenon Marbles to Greece is actor, writer, and broadcaster, Stephen Fry. He claims that the British owes Greece a debt that can never be repaid for “taking away the stones of the temple that absolutely characterized and personified the greatest civilization the world had yet seen.” Fry recommends that the British replace the real Parthenon Marbles with castings and show a film on how they were cast and of their journey back to Greece. I propose that multiple castings be made of the extraordinary Greek sculptures, friezes, metopes, and various other pieces to be displayed in museums around the world for greater exposure. An English historian, Tristram Hunt, argues that the Parthenon Marbles should remain in the British Museum as they “are a vital conduit for the cosmopolitan interchange of culture and ideas and must remain so.” He emphasizes that the excavation was legal and not in dispute.
Hunt insists that returning the marbles to Greece would create a precedent for other restitution claims. This in turn would rob all museums of their ability to provide a multicultural presentation of history. He declares that “we need the sharing of cultures.” I assert diversity can be achieved with castings, similar to the Romans copying Greek
sculptures. Like Hunt, Professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto at Notre Dame University, also believes that the marbles should remain in the British Museum where “every great civilization is represented.” He claims that the British Museum is “the great archive of the history of the world.” He suggests that the marbles would not be appreciated for their greatness if they were not displayed in contrast to other civilizations of that era. He proclaims that in Greece, they would just blend in with the other great sculptures. I disagree. The atmosphere in Athens coupled with its history and legacy provide the perfect backdrop for appreciating the true magnificence of the marbles. Another solution would be for England to engage in a rotation agreement, as suggested by George and Fry, providing the ability to randomly display significant pieces of Greek history, including the marbles. This would allow more people the opportunity to see extraordinary pieces of Greek history, culture, and artistry that they may never see otherwise. Museums around the world already successfully participate in rotations. This is evidenced by the “Mummies of the World” exhibit coming to the Orlando Science Center next summer for a limited time. Despite its severe damage, the Parthenon remains one of the world’s greatest cultural monuments. The unification of all the surviving pieces would create a spectacular display of Greek history. Although if returned, the marbles will not be put back in their original positions in the Parthenon; they would be displayed in their original layout in the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, which is equipped with state-of-the-art technology designed to preserve and protect them for generations to come. The marbles must be returned!
Imagine that one piece of history that is taken from a town. This piece of history tells l people how this town was built and all the important people that were apart of the community. “Returning Antiquities to Their Countries of Origin” by Joyce Mortimer can many people about how objects are getting taken from Museums. They should be returned immediately. There are so many artifacts out there that could be so important to people, and if someone can just imagine what it would feel to have one of the most important object taken from a museum and to be never returned again. Many people enjoy seeing these objects so why are they being taken?
The controversy began almost one hundred years ago. Between 1801 and 1812, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, removed several sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens and shipped them to England, where he sold them to the British Museum in 1816. 167 years later, Melina Mercouri, Greek Minister of Culture, requested that the “Elgin” Marbles be returned. This request sparked one of the greatest debates the art world has ever known. For the past two decades, people have argued over who has the rights to these Marbles. The Greek position is certainly understandable from a cultural and emotional point of view. However, from the standpoint of legality and logic, it is hard to make a solid case against the Marbles’ continued presence in Britain.
Marble statue of a kouros (youth), Greek, Attic, ca. 590-580 B.C. Fletcher Fund, 1932. Accession number: 32.11.1
"Should Britain Return the Elgin Marbles?" The Week UK. N.p., 14 Feb. 2009. Web. 13 Feb.
...though, today a current restoration project has been continuing in order to reconstruct the Parthenon and is almost finished.
Although Eichendorff’s story displays religious elements, the pious facets take on a different form than in Psyche. In “The Marble Statue”, Sunday remains a holy day where evil subsides. God and Satan manifest into the metaphysical through characters, settings, and motifs. Fortunato is a pure character directing Florio towards the path of the righteous man while Donati is a sinister man leading the boy into temptation. The seductress is the embodiment of evil while Bianca is the good. The aspect of religion is demonstrated in a more direct manner in Psyche. The artist abandons a life of art to become a brethren of the covenant where it is proclaimed the Goddess of Art is “a witch who carries towards vanity, towards earthly pleasure”. The good and evil is left to interpretation in “The Marble Statue” while religion in Andersen's tales contains a straightforward portrayal of faith and sin.
For years on end, countries have been fighting with big museums from other countries for ancient artifacts that belong to the original countries. The argument of whether or not the museums should be able to keep them still remains. It is the right of the country to have their own artifacts. It is imperative for countries to be able showcase their historical artifacts, therefor museums should return them to their rightful owners.
...ity in Classical Athens. New York, NY: Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA) in Collaboration with the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, 2008. Print.
Duncan’s (1991) analysis of western museums is defined through the theme of “durable objects” as a criterion to judge the heritage of American and European art as a ritual of the modern state. In this manner western art museums are built like “temples” as a symbolic and figurative representation of greatness of western culture throughout the world: “[They] are more like the traditional ceremonial monuments that museum buildings often emulate—classical temples” (Duncan 90). This interpretation of American/European museums defines a dominant source of cultural heritage that ritualizes
The philosophical ideas of Plato that relate to the Parthenon include whether the structure is an element of the Visible World or the Intelligible World. In my opinion, Plato would view the Parthenon as an object in the Visible World. The Parthenon is a one of a kind monument that is tangible and exists in our real world. The Parthenon is an architectural project and deals with forms of science and mathematics. Plato's view of science and mathematics are categorized as forms in the Intelligible World, which are intangible. Through analysis of illusory tactics, the Tripartite Soul, the simile of the line, and the artistic qualities of architecture, Plato's, as well as my view of the Parthenon will become evident.
In “Whose Culture Is It, Anyway? ”, Kwame Anthony Appiah begins by pointing out that some of the museums of the world, particularly in the West, have large collections of artefacts and objects which were robbed from developing and poor countries. He then raises a question: who owns these cultural patrimony and properties? Our first answer may be that since they make up the cultural heritage of a people, they belong to the people and culture from whom they were taken. Appiah has doubt about this and argues that if some cultural artefacts are potentially valuable to all human beings, they should belong to all of humanity. He thinks that when they make contribution to world culture, they should be protected by being made available to those who would benefit from experiencing them and put into trusteeship of humanity.
Stonehenge is a statue that had been placed on Wessex, England and was not known pre-cisely who built it or for what purpose it was built. As it was told in Caroline Malone and Nancy Stone Bernard’s Stonehenge book “the meaning of the name of Stonehenge is ‘hanging stones’ because people thought the stones were hanging from the uprights” (10). Stonehenge was de-clared as World Heritage Site by United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organiza-tion (UNESCO) (Malone, 8). Unfortunately Stonehenge was affected badly by negligent people and much of that bad effect are tourist erosion. Even though deterioration on surface of stones, many archeologists and historians made numerous researches about it. Today one of the facts that we gain is Stonehenge’s age. Thanks to the 21st century technology, we learned that Stonehenge is some 5.000 years old (Malone, 10).
The construct of the ‘Roman copy’ in art history has deeply rooted and extensive origins. Whilst this prejudiced was attached to Roman sculpture from an extremely early time in modern archaeology and art history, the construct viewed in a current context reveals issues with both its development and contribution to historical understanding and education. The construct is formed upon several main factors that have recently been called into question by revisionist historians. Firstly, the development of the construct by conservative historians during the 18th century, a context that valued artistic originality and authenticity, lead to it’s popularisation and circulation as a respected model. Secondly, the construct rests entirely on the presumption that Greek art is in fact aesthetically and artistically superior, insinuating a negative predisposition towards Roman artistic workmanship and aesthetics. Lastly, technological advancements aiding historiography have asserted the fact that many conclusions drawn by conservative historians through their methodology are in fact irrefutably incorrect. While the basis for much of the conservative historians argument has been seen as flawed, or otherwise seriously questioned in terms of accurate and reliable history, the construct of ‘Roman copies’ of Greek originals has remained a legitimised understanding and interpretation of Roman art for centuries. The question can then be raised as to whether the attention given to this aspect of history is worth the fact that much of the history being taught is now being heavily questioned.
I think the Marbles should be returned to Greece. They should be placed in their original home so people can see them in the location of origin. Though some of these artifacts were bought, some were also stolen from the Greeks. Many Englishmen and women argue that possession is nine-tenths of the law, and therefore the Elgin Marbles now belong to England. This, however, is a preposterous idea because Greece initially already had possession of them.
The Parthenon is an amazing Greek temple that was built 2,500 years ago. Even the architects of today have numerous questions about how it was constructed and how it has held up through its eventful past. The Parthenon's detailed appearance is not its only meaningful quality. The Parthenon was constructed as a temple to the goddess, Athena, and as an icon of the Greek people themselves. The Parthenon represents the Greek ideals of humanism, idealism, and rationalism.