British Museum
The strongest argument for the British
Museum is the importance of the
Parthenon Marbles being in Britain;
providing extensive knowledge on
classical Greek sculpture and history. The
Museum argues that the sculptures are
open to the widest possible audience and
bring in untold numbers of tourists and
visitors every year, who benefit from the
ability to witness these beautiful artefacts
first-hand in their original form.
The well-termed British Museum Act of
1963, which covers the entire Museum
collection, also helps its defence against
calls for repatriation as it outlines that
should there be any negative result
to the interests of students, no object
should be removed from the collection.
However, the Act allows for the loan
of any object for public display, taking
into account certain conditions. It is this
86
that encourages the Government of the
Hellenic Republic to continue in their
efforts for the return of the sculptures.
Controversial topics often attract
speculation, through the media and
personal interpretation of information.
One of the arguments supposedly put
forward by British officials (the Museum
denies arguing this) against the
repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles
is that Greece has no appropriate
space to keep the sculptures should
they be returned and that their
condition could be compromised if
placed back into open air.
Greece erected the New Acropolis
Museum in 2004 for the purpose of
housing the returned artefacts and has
continued to request the objects to fill it.
It is also, if it were the case, careless for
British officials to question the condition
of the Marbles, following a notorious
cleaning of the Parthenon Marbles
in 1939 by the British Museum using
wire brushes that left the surface of the
marble irreversibly damaged. All parties
involved in this fiasco were later released
from employment by the Museum.
Despite speculation and controversy,
the legal action taken by the Greek
Government continues today and the
legality of the request and the question of
rights brought a renewed surge of media
interest this year when human rights
lawyer Amal Alamuddin-Clooney, who is
an active supporter of the reunification of
the Marbles, married George Clooney, a
surprise event that caused talks between
Greek Culture Minister Kostas Tasoulas
and Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to
be postponed.