Why the Elgin Marbles matter
The row over ownership is obscuring the sculptures' meaning and value.
I have written a long read on Spiked on the latest skirmish over the Elgin Marbles (and a big hello to my new followers who are here because of it) in which I argue that the seemingly never-ending argument over whether the UK should return the Elgin Marbles to Greece, is obscuring the sculptures' meaning and value.
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THE seemingly never-ending argument over whether the UK should return the Elgin Marbles to Greece erupted again last month.
Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis kicked off the latest round during an interview on the BBC’s political show, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. He said that keeping the marbles in the British Museum, while the rest of the sculptures from the Parthenon are being kept in the Acropolis Museum in Athens, was like cutting the Mona Lisa in half.
In response, British prime minister Rishi Sunak promptly cancelled a scheduled meeting between the two. No10 claimed that Mitsotakis had gone back on assurances that he wouldn’t use his UK visit as a platform to lobby for the return of the marbles.
This latest row over the Elgin Marbles has been as unedifying as ever. Once again the dispute has been entirely about ownership, with both British and Greek leaders shouting ‘mine’. What politicians and the broader media are again failing to discuss is the meaning and value of the marbles themselves. There is no sense that those shouting loudest about ownership are able to express why the sculptures matter so much. No sense that they value the marbles in and of themselves as works of sublime art.
It hasn’t always been this way, however. Yes, the ownership of the marbles has always been an issue, ever since politician and diplomat Thomas Bruce, otherwise known as Lord Elgin, first procured them in 1801. But crucially the key debates at the time were less about property rights than they were about the aesthetic and cultural importance of the marbles. Recalling these debates, remembering why it is that these sculptures were and are so esteemed, is crucial. Not just for understanding why they ended up at the British Museum. But also for understanding why we ought to value them today, and how we might finally resolve the questions over their future…
Below, the Apollo Belvedere, modelled on an earlier Greek bronze sculpture, and the very model of perfection - until it was dethroned by the Parthenon sculptures.
Below, the Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum.