Ghosts of the British Museum is a newly published narrative non-fiction book based on testimony gathered from scores of current and former museum workers, from senior curators to overnight security staff, who tell of unquiet artefacts, holy plunder and restless human remains inside world’s oldest national museum. Through these ghost narratives, Noah Angell guides the reader through The British Museum’s galleries, corridors and vast, labyrinthian storage chambers, disclosing the spectral and material traces of colonial acquisition, and the profound psychic unrest at the core of one of Britain’s most popular tourist attractions.
Chapter six, “Songs of a Murky Prison” focuses on the Greek and Turkish galleries, particularly on the internal lore surrounding the Nereid Monument, the “Lost” Caryatid, and the Parthenon Sculptures. As Angell writes, “Today the display of the Parthenon sculptures at the British Museum is marred by the eyesore of their prolonged exile.” Ghosts of the British Museum reframes the well trod repatriation debate – perhaps it’s not merely the Greek people moaning about the reunification of their heritage – rather it is the sculptures themselves, crying out for home, to assume their place in the land where they rightfully belong.
You can hear Noah talk about his book on Thursday 21 November, 18:30-20:00 in London's Shepherd's Bush Market, W12 8DF. To find out more and attend follow the link here.
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