26 February 2013

Cameron's views on returnism not supported by BCRPM

Prime Minister Cameron's views on 'retunism' not supported by BCRPM and others too.

Sharon Heal for Museums Journal :

http://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/26022013-cameron-condemned-for-lack-of-understanding-over-returnism-restitution-elgin-parthenon

PM's concept is simplistic and inadequate, say critics Prime minister David Cameron has been condemned for a lack of understanding following his statement last week about restitution of cultural objects.

Cameron was answering questions on a state visit to the site of the Amritsar Massacre, where British troops killed 379 Indians, when he was asked if he thought that the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which is part of the Crown Jewels, should be returned as goodwill gesture. The prime minister said he didn’t believe in “returnism” and that wasn’t the right approach.

He added: “It’s the same question with the Elgin Marbles and all these other things. I think the right answer is for the British Museum and other cultural institutions in Britain is to do exactly what they do, which is link up with museums all over the world to make our collections, all the things that we have and look after so well - are properly shared with people around the world.”

But the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles has censured the prime minster for conflating the two cases.

Eddie O’Hara, Chairman of the BCRPM, said that each case must be judged by its merits.

 “In the case of the Parthenon marbles it is the probably unique demand for the reunification of the integral sculptured components of a Unesco world heritage monument, acquired in circumstances that were at best dubious, in an act of cultural vandalism.”

 He added: “The fact that he conjoined two such widely differing cases as the Koh-i-Noor diamond and the Parthenon Marbles, and the fact that he called the latter the "Elgin" Marbles suggests that he does not appreciate what a simplistic and inadequate concept ‘returnism’ is.”

 Additional notes:

1. "By the way, did Mr Cameron not notice the simultaneous outburst of "returnism" in the popular press at the removal in dubious circumstances for sale abroad  of a Banksy mural from a London building whose only cultural pretension was this spray on addition?" Questions Eddie O'Hara Chairman for the British Committee for the Reunification of the Partrhenon Marbles
2. Decolonising Culture by Christopher Price, Vice Chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (updated by Marlen Godwin)

Time was when European imperial powers assumed that theft and despoliation of cultural treasures from more fragile countries could be carried out with immunity.This is why in the 21^st century, the issue of looted art from the colonial era, refuses to go away.

Thankfully in the last decade we have had ‘movement’ starting with Tony Blair and the initiative to return the human remains of the Aborigines back to Australia. Italy has used the extent of their legal powers to promote arrangements with US museums to return disputed objects. At the same time initiatives and amendments to the Museum Law  also produced positive results for Holocaust looted objects being returned to ‘first peoples’ to whom they are meaningful and precious. UNESCO and ICOM continue with their efforts for a  global code of conduct over restitution of disputed cultural objects. More recently the European Commission is also planning to help Member States recover national treasures, which have been unlawfully removed from their territory by amending its current legislation.

Yet UK and the British Museum are sadly ‘stuck’ and this was reinforced by Mr Cameron’s comment that he doesn’t support ‘returnism’.

The majority of the surviving pieces of the Parthenon sculptures are mainly divided between Athens and London, between two superb museums: the recently opened Acropolis Museum and the long established British Museum.

In order to safeguard the ‘new’ reasons for keeping this peerless work of art divided between two major European cities, Neil MacGregor, the charismatic Director of the British Museum launched his History of the World and he has emphasised in interviews that the Marbles ‘tell a different story’ in the British Museum. A story that only suits the British Museum's narrative? Surely and as a sign of respect for what the ancients left behind, the best story that these sculptures ought to narrate is that which can be understood when they are viewed as closely as possible to the Parthenon, which still stands!

Research on museum visitors has concluded that the average visitor does not make meaningful connections between the randomly acquired objects held by ‘encyclopaedic’ museums. Indeed, given the choice between viewing the Parthenon Marbles within the artificial contexts applied to them by British Museum curators and experiencing them in the city of Athens from which they originate, the overwhelming evidence is that the majority of the public would prefer to see them returned to Athens.

Sharon Waxman in my opinion was the person that got closest to the core of the problem. She insisted in her book “Loot” that current “political possession” should and could  be replaced by “cultural cooperation”.

Although the British Museum trustees are not convinced, the British public (to whom the trustees are responsible) disagree. Polling results including the Museum Journal’s poll prior to the BCRPM’s International Colloquy in London last June, clearly show that there is a strong belief that the fragmented Parthenon marbles deserve to be reunited and seen as a whole in context  and with views to the building they were created for.

The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles now in its 30^th year of campaigning  believes that a solution can be found. A solution which would earn the respect  for both museums and would not be seen as a victory or defeat for either. This solution needs imagination from the museums and support from their respective governments.

The worldwide support for reunification would recognise that progress can be achieved and abandoning the relics of cultural colonialism will improve cultural cooperation, which in turn may have a far reaching effect on other sectors . Mr Cameron’s goal of increasing trade relations and improving  the economy and indeed earning him and his party more votes, starts here. It isn’t about ‘returnism’ Mr Cameron but about cooperation - a word that would instantly enhance David Cameron standing, not just in this country but globally.

Congratulations to Chris Froome on winning this year's Tour de France. 

Chris also won the 2013 and 2015 races and is the first to successfully defend his title in more than 20 years. He finished this years epic race, arm-in-arm with his team-mates behind the peloton after Andre Greipel won the final sprint finish.

Cycling has also featured in the campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. Three very different and very dedicated individuals, share their passion for cycling with a deep desire to see this peerless work of art reunited in the Acropolis Museum, in Athens, Greece.

Currently the surviving Parthenon marbles are mainly (and almost equally) divided between two great museums - the British Museum in London, where their collection has been displayed for 200 years and the Acropolis Museum in Athens, which recently celebrated it's seventh year. It is in Athens, that the sculptures can be seen in the context of the Parthenon itself.  

Decades of campaigning and centuries of requests to do the 'right' thing and return these fragmented sculptures has resulted in the main reason stopping the British Museum  from doing the right thing. In the BM, these sculptures form part of world history. Over six millions visitors  to the British Museum are  shown how they should 'see' history in the context of other objects and their stories.

Back to cycling. Healthy past time for many (of all ages) and a leading sport for many more. But how did three individuals bring cycling into the campaign for the reunification?

We have to start with the outstanding Dr Christopher Stockdale, a long serving BCRPM member, inspired by Anne Mustoe. He bravely cycled from the courtyard of the British Museum on 15 April 2005 to the foot of the Acropolis in Athens and made his way with his bike all the way to the Parthenon. It took Chris 3 weeks, 3 days, 5 hours and 26.6 minutes to complete this cycle. More on this story here.

On Tuesday 01 July 2014, Dr Luca Lo Siccoembarked on his first bicycle trip from the British Museum, across Europe to Greece and the Acropolis Museum, where he donated his bicycle to the museum. Professor Pandermalis, President of the Acropolis Museum sent him this letter. 

Luca continued his cycling the following year to Copenhagen, Denmark. It is here, in the National Museum of Denmark, there are two heads missing from a metope, which is in  the British Museum in London.

On 02 July 2014, the edition of the Yorkshire Post Life & Style Magazine, carried an article on formidable octagenerian, Michelle Patrax Evans. Also a keen cyclist, Michelle lives in Leeds and was looking forward to the tour de France of 2014 but she has been passionate about the sculptures from the Parthenon for decades.

Before her interview with journalist Sarah Freeman, Michelle frantically made contact to ask, was cycling a part of the campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles! And was delighted to find out that its is.

Cannot describe Michelle's response when we did exlain that Dr Chris Stockdale had made an amazing trip in 2005 before the Acropolis Museum had opened and that Luca, a University lecturer living in Britain was embarking on the same journey on the 1st of July 2014.

The Yorkshire Post Life & Stylemagazine can be viewed on line and a small selected part of the article can be viewed here

And with cycling playing a significant role for campaigners of the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, we would like to add our heartfelt congratulations to Chris Froomeon winning the Tour de France yesterday and for the third time. A great achievement.

 Yannis Andritsopoulos, London Correspondent for Ta Nea, Greece's daily newspaper visited the Tate Reading Rooms to see Kenneth Clark's original letter.

Kenneth Clark, a British art historian and Trustee of the British Museum, was in favour of the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece in the 1940s, it can be revealed.

Ta Nea, Greece’s daily newspaper, has seen and photographed a letter written by Clark in which he states explicitly that the so-called 'Elgin Marbles' should be sent back to Athens, with the aim of reuniting them with the rest of the Parthenon sculptures in one place.

"I am, quite irrationally, in favour of returning the Elgin marbles to Greece, not to be put back on the Parthenon, but to be installed in a beautiful building on the far side of the Acropolis, which I think the British Government should pay for. I would do this purely on sentimental grounds, as an expression of our indebtedness to Greece," the letter reads.

Clark wrote this letter on 3rd September, 1943. He sent it to Thomas Bodkin, then director of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and Barber Professor of Fine Art at the University of Birmingham. At the time, Clark was Director of the National Gallery. His letter is currently kept in Tate Britain.

This is the only time that a British Museum Trustee has gone on record as being openly in favour of the Parthenon Sculptures’ reunification, a view standing in stark contrast to the position of the British Museum that the Elgin marbles should stay in London.

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos told Ta Nea: “The request for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures had found, since 1943, an "unexpected" ally in Lord Kenneth Clark, who is included among the most important 20th-century art historians and who, in this capacity, participated in the administration of the most relevant British Institutions, such as the British Museum, the National Gallery, the National Theatre, the Royal Opera House.”

“This example clearly evinces the gentility and nobility of Kenneth Clark’s character as well as the strength and conviction of his ‘cultural morality’. These elements, in conjunction with the expression of his respect for the World Cultural Heritage and the roots of our Civilisation, make him a great representative of Britain’s tradition. Clark’s case also evinces how "miserable" and completely unworthy of Britain's tradition as outlined above is the attitude of the British Museum's officials today, who thus end up appearing inferior to the circumstances and the necessities pertaining to the defence of World Cultural Heritage and our common Civilisation and, furthermore, unrepentant accomplices of Elgin's cultural crime,” Pavlopoulos added.

Professor Anthony Snodgrass

“Kenneth Clark’s (slightly unexpected) support, for a position now widely held in the U.K., is one pleasant revelation. More important, however, is his perceptive emphasis on the need for separate solutions to individual cases; and, yet more striking, the uncanny accuracy of his prediction, for the Marbles “to be installed in a beautiful building on the far [that is, South] side of the Acropolis”,” said Professor Anthony Snodgrass, Emeritus Professor in Classical Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, Honorary President of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

“More than sixty-five years later, the greater part of this prophecy was to be precisely fulfilled; it only remains for the natural sequel, the 'reintegration' of the Marbles, to be enacted too," he added.

Professor Judith Herrin

“How splendid that Kenneth Clark's 1943 vision of the reunited Parthenon marbles has been perfectly realised in the New Acropolis Museum,” said Professor Judith Herrin, Constantine Leventis Senior Research Fellow Emeritus at King's College London, and one of the longest serving members of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

“On 20th June the superlative Acropolis Museumwill celebrate its 10th anniversary, having welcomed over 14 million visitors from all over the world and one can but imagine how elated Kenneth Clark would have been. Not only to see the top floor of the museum, the Parthenon Gallery but also the floors below and the opening of the area that has been painstakingly excavated to reveal 4,000 metres of homes, workshops, baths – an entire Athenian neighbourhood that existed from classical to byzantine years. What a pity that he is not alive to physically see all this and yet he too would have continued to have added his voice to the reunification of the Parthenon marbles. Britain has not paid for this museum and yet what is still missing are the many pieces that Lord Elgin so crudely removed from a building, currently displayed in the British Museum, the wrong way around, miles away from their other halves. Here’s to the day when they can be reunited in Athens and with views to the Parthenon, which still stands,” she added.

The Parthenon Sculptures have been displayed in the British Museum since 1817. They were removed from the Acropolis in Athens in the early 19th century by British diplomat Lord Elgin. Greece has challenged claims by the British Museum that Lord Elgin had obtained permission to transfer the Marbles from Athens to London and has demanded Britain open negotiations over their return.

Kenneth Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. He was the National Gallery’s youngest ever Director. He achieved international fame as the writer, producer and presenter of the BBC Television series Civilisation.

Published in Ta Nea, Greece’s daily newspaper (www.tanea.gr)  . To read the origial article , follow the link here. 

Publication date: 14 June 2019

27 January 2021

'The Armada maps belong in Britain, along with the Elgin Marbles – nothing hypocritical about that', writes Simon Heffer in the Telegraph.

Simon Heffer makes a clear plea: "too many vital pieces of our national heritage have already been lost to overseas buyers. We must keep them, whatever the cost."

His opening paragraph asks: should we rejoice that the Government has banned the sale, to a collector in America, of a series of ink and watercolour maps from the late 16th century that depict the defeat of the Spanish Armada, or is it an act of shocking hypocrisy from a nation that steadfastly refuses to allow Greece to have the Elgin marbles back?

Professor Anthony Snodgrass, rightly points out: The salient point is that there's just no comparison between the two petitioners, in one case "a collector in America" and in the other, “the Greek nation."

Janet Suzman and Perter Thonemann sent letters to the Editor of the Telegraph  in response to Simon Heffer's article. Peter's letter was published in the Telegraph on 30 January 2021 and also in The Week on 06 February 2021.  

Sir,

Simon Heffer on the Elgin Marbles 27th January 2021

I fear Simon Heffer is comparing apples and pears; the Armada maps have a great deal to do with British history, but the Parthenon sculptures were conceived in the time of Pericles & are integrally part of the building that still stands above Athens. Far from being 'perfectly preserved'; they are much damaged by violent detachment from that building by Elgin’s servants.

Heffer fails to tell the BM has one half of the marbles looted by Lord Elgin, and the other half in Athens - neither making any sense without its absent half. Our lot were not kept to 'the most rigorous standards of conservation', once clumsily scrubbed to make them look whiter. They were not meant to look white as driven English snow, but showing up brightly painted in warm Greek sunlight.

Heffer is correct that no written permission has been found giving Elgin the right to steal the Parthenon’s carvings; they are here without the consent of Greece. Demands for their return have been constant since Greece became an independent state. The carvings are as meaningful to the story of Greece as the dolmens of Salisbury plain are to ours. More so.

Sure, they maybe they were saved from further accidents, but the figures left in Greece are pretty fine too. But be it noted Elgin wanted to save them, not for the nation, but for himself in his lordly pile in Scotland. Only when he later got ill and bankrupt he bethought him of selling them to the British Museum.

After two hundred years of captivity in gloomy Room 18 of the British Museum, the Marbles have done their work in reviving classical studies & inspiring the aesthetic, philosophic and political thinking of the West. Their beauty will hardly be diminished by beingby being in the world-class museum awaiting them in Athens . It is high time that the incomplete and inaccurate story told by Simon Heffer and friends was expunged from British urban mythology.

Sincerely,
Janet Suzman DBE
Chair British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Mables

23 October 2018

The debating society at UCL schedule a debate for the evening of the 23rd October with the motion 'This House believes the Elgin Marbles should be repatriated'. The evening, part of  society's weekly debate series, will be held at the Bloomsbury campus in London at 19:00.

Speakers for the motion are: William St Clair, Tom Flynn and Alexi Kaye Campbell, a member of BCRPM since October 2017. Speakers opposing the motion include Dominic Selwood, Nick Trend, Deputy Travel Editor for the Telegraph and Jonathan Jones art critic for the Guardian. 

Pictured above are the speakers supporting the motion from left to right: Tom Flynn, Alexi Kaye Campbell and William St Clair, supported by BCRPM's Chair Dame Janet Suzman.