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6/21/2009

Acropolis Museum Opens

As anyone who watches Al Jeezera TV knows, yesterday was the Grand Opening of the New Acropolis Museum. Maybe CNN covered it too. The idea behind it is that hopefully the British will agree to give us back the Parthenon Marbles since their argument that Athens did not have a museum worthy of them has now been shattered and they will have to go back to their old reason, which is that they were legally purchased. But Christopher Hitchens hit the nail on the head, as he so often does, when he casually mentioned that Lord Elgin did not hack the metopes and statues off the Parthenon and bring them back so that scholars could pay tribute to this most glorious period of western civilization, but to decorate his estate. It was only when he ran out of money that he began negotiating with the British government to buy them, which they eventually did. Now I don't know what you call that in your country but in the USA this would be called Receiving Stolen Property and can be a felony.

It is a crime to purchase or accept property that you know or believe was obtained through theft. In order to be convicted of this crime, the prosecution has to prove  that the property was stolen and that the person who received the property knew or should have known, that the property was stolen. The punishment if the person is found guilty can be imprisonment, fines and probation. In some states it must be proven that you intended to aid the thief by taking or in this case purchasing the stolen property. The British government certainly knew that by purchasing the Parthenon Marbles they were indeed aiding the thief, because Elgin was flat broke and had to sell them.

The British government may say that Lord Elgin purchased the marbles from the Ottoman government, however this was not an elected government of the Greek people but an occupying power. This may be an unpopular analogy but it would be like the British buying all the paintings in the Louvre from the Nazis during their occupation of Paris and refusing to give them back after the country was liberated.

Their argument that they were safeguarding the marbles held water, it is true that many of the pieces that adorned the Acropolis and the city of Athens were ground up and used to whitewash the houses, at a time when the Greeks, Albanians and Turkish farmers who lived in a small Ottoman backwater called Athens had no appreciation or understanding of their importance. But those days are long gone. They are no safer in London than they would be in Athens and the British offer to "loan them" just throws gasoline on the fire. Perhaps giving them back would set a dangerous precedent and other countries will ask for the return of their looted treasures. But is the British government going to fight for the right to keep stolen goods and how far will they go to protect that right?

The British Museum should do the right thing and return the marbles to their new home and they should pay for the shipping too. In return they can get the plaster casts that were created to hold the places of the originals in the new Acropolis Museum. No charge.

For more on the history of the Parthenon Marbles see www.athensguide.com/elginmarbles

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