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There is an article on Answerbank answering your question - just click article 2678
Further to the excellent feature on this question, I would like to add my voice to the 'Return' lobby in this argument. It may be true that the Greeks' history of looking after its artefacts is a little dodgy, but this really doesn't justify the retention of such a major piece of Greek cultural history. The Parthenon Marbles (only the British refer to them by the name of their 'collector' Lord Elgin) were said to have been 'collected' at the time, but a dispassionate view might be that they were collected in the same way that young men enter houses other than their own and 'collect' the video and TV! An argument for an expert copy to be given to Greece to put in their new museum is surely missing the point - shouldn't the British Museum have the copy, and Greece the original? What do other people think?
Whether the UK intends to do so or not, I cannot say - but I hope that the Marbles stay put. The record of UK governments in defending the interests of the UK since September 1945 is urine-poor, to put it mildly. As for the argument that the Elgin Marbles were "stolen": they were not. Lord Elgin sought and obtained permission from the Sultan of Turkey to remove them (Greece, at the time, being a province of the Turkish Empire). To those folk who speak of the "oppression" of Greeks by Turks: it was no worse than the continuing oppression of true (i.e. pre-Columbian) Americans by those who have usurped those two continents, then raped, tortured, mutilated, and killed their way through the native peoples. I don't hear anyone calling for the New World to be vacated of the descendants of Old Worlders...? Make the President of the USA give up his place in favour of an "Injun"? Much as I would applaud the move, it would be a cold day in Hell...
If we give them back it should be on the basis that all non-indigenous articles in all museums worldwide should be repatriated to the countries from which they came. Will anyone (including the Greeks) agree to that? I think not. Two additions: Lord Elgin bought the marbles from the landowner at the time. It was then a legal transaction. What other transactions will we annul because later generations disagree with them? The Greek government can't even claim direct descent from the original builders, as this was the govenment of ATHENS, not Greece.
The other point is that without Lord Elgin they would not exist. The damage we see to the Parthenon is not the result of time, or English lords, but the result of 18th and 19th century vandalism by Greeks using it as a quarry (the same thing happened to Pompeii and the Colosseum) and the Greeks using it as an explosive store, and accidentally blowing it up.
The Greeks want them back because they represent the only bit of Greek history they are proud of. They are trying to ignore the last few thousand years. We should keep them because their presence here is part of history. All of it, not just the pretty bits in togas.
The other point is that without Lord Elgin they would not exist. The damage we see to the Parthenon is not the result of time, or English lords, but the result of 18th and 19th century vandalism by Greeks using it as a quarry (the same thing happened to Pompeii and the Colosseum) and the Greeks using it as an explosive store, and accidentally blowing it up.
The Greeks want them back because they represent the only bit of Greek history they are proud of. They are trying to ignore the last few thousand years. We should keep them because their presence here is part of history. All of it, not just the pretty bits in togas.
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