It’s been quite the year for the British Museum and not in the best way. The 270 year old institution, while having faced this criticism for some time now, experienced added pressure by Greek officials to return the Parthenon Marbles, amidst a number of similar repatriation efforts.
In its defense, the museum claims that on top of “legal ownership” of the ancient reliefs, its reasons for withholding a return is due to a “moral responsibility to preserve and maintain all the collections in their care and to make them accessible to world audiences.” Ironically, the institution was caught in an internal scandal this year when longtime curator Peter Higgs was ousted for stealing over 1,500 artifacts from the museum’s collection.
Alas, Greece has a offered a simple trade solution. In an interview with the Guardian, Greek culture minister Lina Mendoni outlined a proposal which would see her home nation swap out ancient artifacts that would go on tour at the British Museum in place of the Marbles. “[They] would fill the void, maintain, and constantly renew, international visitor interest in the Greek galleries of the British Museum,” Mendoni said, but only on the condition that “any agreement and all its particulars, would have to be in accordance with the Greek law on cultural heritage”. If nothing more, the latest developments come as a step forward from the British Museum’s rejected attempts to offer the reliefs back on loan.
Created between 447BC and 432BC, the reliefs, sometimes referred to as the Elgin Marbles, recount ceremonial processions to the Greek goddess Athena, as well as mythological battles, such as the Centaurs and Lapiths at the marriage-feast of Peirithoos.
