The Greek restitution case is romantic, sure, but doomed – and false. Imagine the chaos if all countries, from Italy to Turkey, started demanding treasures back“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” wrote Tolstoy in Anna Karenina. It’s the same with the relationships between museums and the treasures they hold. Works of art in museums all belong to a single category of disinterested universal value, until someone asks for them back. Then suddenly their history is scrutinised, and each time that history is unique, tangled, painful.Greece’s demand for the return of the Parthenon sculptures, popularly known as the Elgin marbles, from the British Museum is one such story. It has just entered a new phase, with the Greek government’s decision not to persist with legal action to get the 5th-century BC masterpieces back. I predict this is the start of a slow retreat, a gradual acceptance by Greece that it will never be able to reverse the history that began when Lord Elgin shipped these sculptures from Athens in the early 19th century. As the British Museum has proved with its terrific current exhibition of Greek art, it can and does display these works as part of humanity’s heritage, a global property, and therefore no one’s. Related: Greece drops option of legal action in British Museum Parthenon marbles row Continue reading...
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