A response to Emily Sheffield over the Parthenon Marbles. Repatriation and Gifting are NOT the same thing.

A personal verdict seems to have been passed last week in the form of a commentary in The Evening Standard by its former editor, Emily Sheffield, that the Elgin Marbles must ‘simply’ stay in Britain, despite having long been ‘desired’ by the Greeks. But the one thing this is not, is simple, as testified by the countless back and forths on the issue.

The very romantic approach taken by the author was conceived after her “crisp morning walk to the British Museum” to see the sculptures herself. As a Londoner she can do this at any time, unlike the 3 million people living in Athens who cannot. But that is beside the point. Let’s not romanticise about what the Marbles mean to 3 million people. To a big chunk of the population they mean absolutely nothing. So let’s put the romance aside once and for all.

The British Museum, says Ms Sheffield, is prevented by law from returning objects from its collections, even though the word ‘return’ is not mentioned once in Section 5 of the British Museum Act of 1963 (which is still the stubborn barrier to return). The language used in the Act describes the practices and concerns of the British Museum at that time, hence the use of terms like ‘sell’, ‘exchange’, ‘give away’ and so on. No concern with ‘repatriation’ or ‘restitution’ then. There is nothing in the 1963 Act that reflects this generation’s concerns and efforts in cultural heritage laws and protection. It is outdated, and needs reforming.

But as per Sheffield’s comments, “museums around the world, and here in London, are already gifting objects back to their land of origin”. It is highly misleading and disrespectful to many cultures, groups, communities, institutions and entire countries to refer to the great efforts in the field of restitution and repatriation as ‘gifts’ (or indeed loans). It turns a painstaking endeavour of recovery into a passive act of receiving. They are not GIFTS.

The great universal museums around the world did not wake up one day with an extra dose of generosity of spirit and decide to offer gifts to other ‘lands’. Museums are not gifting colonial loot and illegally excavated treasures back to their lands of origin. They are conceding. It is the expression of an understanding that we cannot keep perpetuating the narrative of colonial violence and generational trauma that source countries have suffered and that what Ms Sheffield arrogantly refers to as ‘objects of desire’ can be another culture’s ancestors, or a fragment of their cultural identity.

The enlightenment she witnessed walking through decades (centuries would be more accurate) and civilisations is not universally shared. Many British people believe the Marbles should go back. They are not enlightened by walking through museums. They are enlightened by questioning superficial narratives such as the one about the Parthenon marbles that one reads upon entering the Duveen Gallery at the British Museum.

Ms Sheffield does not offer any facts to help us consider her side of the argument, because in the true nature of the uninformed, she believes that events that took place so far back in the past must be impossible to verify or research; hence when she chose to misinform her readers on January 20th she did so using nothing but scenarios that fit her narrative, such as speculating on Elgin’s well-meaning intentions to save and protect the marbles. The remaining fragments, she suggests, could have been looted, destroyed, or melted for lime extraction. They were, Ms Sheffield, by many people, Elgin being one them, when his architect barbarically carved out parts of the frieze when he was supposed to limit himself to creating moulds and taking fragments from the ground at best.

Ms Sheffield's argument in defence of the world’s great universal museums comes at great expense to the truth, and I speak on behalf of many colleagues when I say we’ve had enough of that.

Casually, in probably less time than it takes to decide whether or not it is cold enough for gloves, Ms Sheffield concludes: “I’m sorry, dear Greeks, but the Elgins remain here.”

Dear Emily, you can keep the Elgins, not sure What those are.

It is the Parthenon Marbles we are after. The looter does not get to give his name to the loot.

Link to original article: https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/greek-elgin-marbles-must-stay-uk-b1054504.html