The marble issue has escalated – Kommersant FM

Greece has proposed to Britain to resolve a long-standing dispute over ancient sculptures. We are talking about ancient Greek artifacts from the Parthenon, which are kept in the British Museum. Athens insists that sculptures and statues must be returned to their historical homeland. Now Greece is ready to provide other historical treasures in exchange for them, in order, as Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said, “to fill the void in the British Museum.” The Guardian writes about this.

Britain has already returned hundreds of artifacts to Greece in May of this year: a marble torso of a girl in a tunic, a bronze statue of Alexander the Great, as well as amphorae, goblets and vases. It is currently unknown what exhibits Athens is ready to offer, says Kommersant FM art columnist Dmitry Butkevich: “This is a very long-standing dispute between Greece and Great Britain, it is already several decades old. Greece asks for the return of the Parthenon marbles, but Great Britain refuses, justifying this by the fact that the National Museum, where, in fact, these things are stored, has its own special status, and it is not subordinate to the government. That is, this issue can only be resolved by the British Museum itself.

Now many countries of the world are returning valuables that were once taken from the colonies, and Greece is trying to return its marbles to this end.

Indeed, they were exported in a dubious manner in the 19th century, but they were then saved from destruction by the Turkish authorities, who at that time controlled Greece. Then the ideas were noble, but now the situation has completely changed. What Greece offers in return is not entirely clear, and this exchange is not very natural, because, let’s say, now they give some of their things to Britain, they will return the Parthenon marbles to them, and after a while time Greece will demand everything back. International law says nothing on this topic. In general, this is the decision of every government; someone returns. As far as I know, Austria returned, Germany and America are very actively returning valuables to different countries of the world, to Nigeria and elsewhere.”

The dispute over the Greek artifacts dates back to the 1980s. The British Museum’s collection includes almost half of the 160-meter frieze of the Parthenon, 15 sculptural panels and 17 pediment figures. In 2002, the institution’s management stated that the return of the exhibits “would tear out the heart of the museum’s collection, which demonstrates the development of civilization.” The Greek Ministry of Culture notes that London has not yet requested specific works for exchange.

Most likely, this time Athens’ strategy will also not lead to the desired result, suggests Maria Kravtsova, editor-in-chief of Artguide magazine: “These are not just figurines, not even just any statues, these are reliefs and sculptures of the Parthenon. The Parthenon is one of the most important and outstanding monuments for the entire world cultural heritage.

All the activity around these marbles shows us the position of the world hierarchies.

That is, Greece is trying to return its treasures and fails over and over again. What are London’s arguments? In Greece, there are no decent storage and display conditions for these treasures, climate control, or restoration systems. The Greeks accepted this argument. An ultra-modern museum was built in Athens specifically to store these things, it is called the Acropolis Museum. It seems that the conditions were fulfilled, but this did not become an argument for the British.

Since then, the Greeks have been looking for new, primarily diplomatic, ways to resolve the issue. Greece has tried various ways, such as through UNESCO and other museums. Time and time again these attempts fail, the present proposal will also fail, because Great Britain is one of the world’s hegemons. Greece has no leverage to put pressure on this country.”

Last month, the British Museum’s ancient Greek collection sparked a diplomatic row. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak canceled a meeting with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The reason was the latter’s interview with the BBC. The Greek Prime Minister compared the presence of the artifacts in the museum to cutting the Mona Lisa into two parts.

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Maria Shirokova