Current Affairs The Conservative Party

[Eggs]

….regardless of who you vote for, the Covid enquiry is essential watching for anybody interested in defining the worst Government this country has ever known. It’s genuinely amazing these individuals got to hold high office, it’s a lesson in how the electorate can be duped.

 

[mightymoyes]

According to info in the modern Acropolis museum (so accept some potential for bias), the story goes that Elgin bribed the local governor of Athens (Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire so ruled from Constantinople) for permission to remove unspecified materials from the Acropolis Hill (bits were falling off the ruins and so the floor of the area was covered in bits of marble). Once permission was obtained for general removal he then forcibly removed the sculptures from the Parthenon (destructively, hacking the sculptures off the stone) and had them packed up to be shipped back to his Scottish mansion.

So it's not even as simple as "Elgin bought them legally from Greece's Occupiers at the time", if you believe the Greeks.

The ottomans had no right to sell them in the first place

 

[Alan Whittle]

STOP THE GREEKS!

 

[Rita_Poon]

Hardly Helen of Troy...

 

[Xizor]

The ottomans had no right to sell them in the first place

Well no, but it's not like he's supposed to have asked the actual Ottoman Emperor for permission or anything, it was just some local official that rubberstamped the removal for a bung. Basically like asking the Tower Hamlets council if you can tidy up basements a bit around the Thames and making off with the Crown Jewels in a bin bag.

 

[Xizor]

Hardly Helen of Troy...

She wasn't the face that managed to stop a thousand (small) ships either.

 

[tsubaki]

….my understanding of the ‘Elgin Marbles’ is that they’re parts of a bigger Parthenon held in Greece. The Greeks have the jig saw with pieces missing. I’d have thought it’s in everybody’s cultural interest for pieces of history to sit where they have the greatest reward for the people of the world.

A bit petulant of Sunak to pull the plug on a meeting with the PM of an ally with so much going on in the continent. Sunak’s action might prove popular with his right wing but Insulting the PM of Greece is an insult to the people of Greece.

This is where the solution to this should lie - personally, I'd like to see the Acropolis Museum and the British Museum (and all major global museums) unite into a global museum with branches everywhere. Access would be free at each site, knowledge and techniques freely shared between staff and exhibits which are of regional or global importance viewed in a proper context rather than narrow modern nationalist interest.

The Elgin Marbles could therefore stay in the same museum, but in its Athens branch. The whole history of the Parthenon could be shown, rather than a sanitized version of what 19th and 20th century people felt was important.

 

[JimmyJeffers]

This is where the solution to this should lie - personally, I'd like to see the Acropolis Museum and the British Museum (and all major global museums) unite into a global museum with branches everywhere. Access would be free at each site, knowledge and techniques freely shared between staff and exhibits which are of regional or global importance viewed in a proper context rather than narrow modern nationalist interest.

The Elgin Marbles could therefore stay in the same museum, but in its Athens branch. The whole history of the Parthenon could be shown, rather than a sanitized version of what 19th and 20th century people felt was important.

Would never happen unfortunately. National museums tend to be propaganda platforms.

 

[Kurt.]

It’s as plain as the nose on your face… them marbles belong in Greece … simple as.

 

[Rita_Poon]

It’s as plain as the nose on your face… them marbles belong in Greece … simple as.

wool in your fleece?

 

[edge]

This is where the solution to this should lie - personally, I'd like to see the Acropolis Museum and the British Museum (and all major global museums) unite into a global museum with branches everywhere. Access would be free at each site, knowledge and techniques freely shared between staff and exhibits which are of regional or global importance viewed in a proper context rather than narrow modern nationalist interest.

The Elgin Marbles could therefore stay in the same museum, but in its Athens branch. The whole history of the Parthenon could be shown, rather than a sanitized version of what 19th and 20th century people felt was important.

Why not ask the Greeks to make exact copies of them for the British museum .
We give the real things back
Same for anything else we have as long as the can safely be returned.

 

[tsubaki]

Would never happen unfortunately. National museums tend to be propaganda platforms.

Indeed, and that one (in Athens) especially.

When Greece won the war of independence the Acropolis was cleared of everything that had been built there over 2000 years since classical times.

 

[summerisle]

Mispronounces Elgin, the law is the law forever more, except, for example when it's the Rwandan immigration 'policy'. Well qualified to be our Education Secretary it seems.

 

[Wizard]

Mispronounces Elgin, the law is the law forever more, except, for example when it's the Rwandan immigration 'policy'. Well qualified to be our Education Secretary it seems.

What a ridiculous argument. "Couldn't do anything even if we wanted to"

 

[summerisle]

They've emasculated the one programme that sometimes holds them to account.