BCRPM congratulate the British Museum for the hugely successful 'Rodin And the Art of Ancient Greece' exhibition (26 April - 29 July 2018) and Janet Suzman, BCRPM's Chair, adds that this is the right time to consider reuniting the sculptures from the Parthenon in the Acropolis Museum. 

12 April 2018, Philip Stephens wrote in the Financial Times:

The west's great museums should return their looted treasures.
He refers to the case of the Parthenon Marbles: "To my mind, it also seems perfectly obvious that Lord Byron was right and the Parthenon sculptures belong to Athens, whatever the deal struck by Lord Elgin and the then Ottoman rulers of Greece. I concede, though, that this is a dispute with some way to run. But "hard" cases should not be allowed to obstruct just settlement in instances of egregious looting. The wider debate may not go away, but restitution in these cases would take the museums on to higher ethical ground."

23 April 2018, Donald Lee for the Art Newspaper, wrote: 

Rodin's debt to Parthenon sculptures explored in British Museum exhibition.

In the exhibition Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece, the British Museum makes clear Rodin's close study and use of the museum's own ancient Greek art for the development of his sculpture.

To read the full article, click here 

24 April 2018 , Melanie Mcdonagh writes in the Evening Standard

Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece Reviewed. The master sculptor meets the Greek greats at the British Museum.

If ever there were an exhibition that plays to a museum's strengths, it's this one. Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece is about the artist's obsession with Greek statuary in general and the Elgin Marbles in particular. So the exhibition is a kind of dialogue between Rodin and the artefacts of the museum, which he first visited in 1881 and loved.

24 April 2018, Jonathan Jones writes in the Guardian:

British Museum, London
The Frenchman made some of the best loved sculptures in the world. But his magnificent work is still no match for the Parthenon Marbles. My god, what art!

26 April 2018, Michael Glover also reveiwed the Rodin exhibition in the Independent. He wrote that there's 'a lovely, easy panache to this show'.

26 April 2018, the Greek Ambassador in London, H E Dimitris Caramitsos-Tziras wrote to Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum, you can read his letter here.

28 April, 2018, Hettie Judah's article entitled: 'Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece, British Museum, review: remarkably handsome and unabashedly sensual'. 

The exhibition is not so gauche as to explicitly suggest the influence of the Elgin Marbles on Rodin as any kind of rationale for keeping them at the museum – more it acknowledges the regard in which they were and are held by artists, and the influence they have had on Western European sculpture.

To read BCRPM's press release, visit here.

The French artist, Auguste Rodin drew inspiration from the headless ancient sculptures. The Parthenon Marbles were his favourite works of art during his 15 visits to the British Museum from 1881 to 1917. Yet this is no argument for the British Museum's director Hartwig Fischer to justify retaining the sculptures from the Parthenon in the British Museum.

The new exhibition Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece (26 April – 29 July 2018) at the British Museum may place the sculptures 'in the context of world cultures' but does not justify the BM's refusal to allow Athens to display the surviving pieces as united as possible, and with views to the Parthenon itself.

'Although the marble stonework of the Parthenon had proven its durability against the ravages of time, it was not indestructible. In 1687, Venetian forces laying siege to Athens shelled the ancient city, igniting a powder magazine stored inside the Parthenon. The resulting explosion was catastrophic, obliterating the cella and the elaborate frieze that had adorned its exterior. Attempts by the Venetians to remove statues from the pediments were similarly disastrous, as multiple sculptures fell to the ground and were shattered beyond repair. Most of the remaining statues and reliefs (known as the "Elgin" or "Parthenon Marbles") were later spirited away in the early 19th Century by Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Controversially, these pieces are displayed in the British Museum to this day. Meanwhile, the Parthenon itself has since undergone rigorous restoration and preservation work, with much of the damaged peristyle reassembled to give modern visitors a glimpse of the temple's ancient splendour atop the hill where it has stood for over two thousand years.' 

If understanding world culture also means understanding history's mistakes, then (where possible) putting right old wrongs can promote cultural and international relations. Reuniting the Parthenon Marbles in Athens ought to be a possibility that supports world cultures for all the right reasons and promotes greater understanding, respect and compassion.

We are certain that Rodin's exhibition at the British Museum will be exquisite and enjoyed by many, however it can never replace the sheer inspiration that would be enjoyed, by many more, if we could hope to see the surviving sculptures reunited in the superlative Acropolis Museum.

Hartwig Fischer, director of the British Museum, is also quoted as saying that although other artists had been inspired by the Parthenon sculptures, Rodin had responded "with a passion that was to last a lifetime". The passion and love for the Parthenon Marbles felt by millions of Acropolis Museum visitors will continue forever. A Rodin's exhibition at the British Museum would be equally possible with a loan from Athens to London too.

Whilst the BM might be trying to recontextualize the sculptures from the Parthenon, a building which still stands - it will never erode the natural thirst of millions of visitors to the Acropolis Museum, hoping to see the unity of this peerless work of art.

Letter from the Greek Ambassador, H E Dimitris Caramitsos-TzirasDimitris Caramitsos-Tziras to Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum, 25 April  2018. 

More articles on this include:

British Museum claims French artist Rodin proves why Parthenon Marbles should stay in Britain

Rodin's work to go on show in London next to Parthenon marbles

Rodin's love of the Parthenon sculptures revealed

Article in the Evening Standard and letter from Chair of the BCRPM to the Evening Standard

Letters Page Evening Standard:

Dear Sirs,

I write as Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, to remind interested parties that although Rodin was much excited by the sculptures he saw in the Museum, and found them inspiring, he nevertheless lamented their exile from the sweet Attic sunlight beloved of Homer: "Toutes les lumières électriques n'ont pas la force de les empêcher de rechercher éternellement la douce lumière d'Homère".

Those sculptures, which we prefer to attribute to the Parthenon from whence they were grabbed rather than to Elgin the grabber, should now be relinquished back to the city they once crowned. They have inspired artists and thrilled the curious in their gloomy rooms in Bloomsbury for long enough and now the country of their origin deserves their glory, in the museum built especially to house them facing the Acropolis and the still miraculously upright building that they once adorned.

Yours sincerely,
Janet Suzman DBE
London NW3 2RN