Treasures – they must be handed back

"Treasures – they must be handed back"

"The colonial view of ownership challenged"

"One of the most common arguments when the British museum and its promoters shall defend, to The Elgin marbles, sculptures and bas-reliefs from the Parthenon, is still in London and not in Athens, is that more people can see them in London."

"So here, one can think of: Parthenonskulpturen is a part of a common european cultural heritage and should therefore be available to as many people as possible. Why is London a better place. In addition, there is a context in London, which can not exist in Athens, namely to the art from both older and younger cultures can be seen in the same place. The museum is encyclopedic."

"From the Greek press claimed that the sculptures is their, more or less stolen from Greek soil and to the for context's sake, to return to their original homeland. The key word is context: international or national, which weighs the heaviest?"

"In Ove Brings högintressanta Parthenonsyndromet analyzed like the title says, this case, and several other related. Related in the broad sense of the word, for this is a thought provoking portrayal of cases as diverse as the spoils of war go by, the illegal sales, contraband, skelettstölder in the name of science, the taliban's destruction of the famous buddhas of Bamian."

"international cooperation is regulated gradually, and Brings the production, we live still in a world that keeps on getting better. Ever since 1899 have cultural property is protected in public international law and the spoils of war go by has since then been considered to be illegal. It is comforting to so many artifacts and works of art also returned in the last few decades. However, not the core: the parthenon sculptures and reliefs."

"works of art ”were stolen” or ”rescued” – depending on which opinion you want to hårdra – long before there was any international agreement. Thomas Bruce, lord Elgin, was the years 1799-1803 stationed as ambassador in Constantinople. This was before the war of independence broke out in Greece and the greeks together with antikvurmande northerners and englishmen were able to drive out the ottoman occupation, so it was not with the greeks that the ambassador negotiated, but with the ottoman authority."

"Lord Elgin was lucky, just after the turn of the century 1800 were the ottoman rule all reasons to keep in with the mighty united kingdom, and when the diplomat was working himself up with his wishes to take with them the Parthenons sculptures and bas-reliefs, the doors were opened. Ove Bring brings to life a piece of history that is very exciting. How the English bought up the houses and properties in quest on the coveted marble, how the cargo after the cargo was shipped from Piraeus. How lord Elgin eventually ends up both in jail and in the case of insolvency, and how in the end he sells the whole lot of them to the state, represented by the British museum. £ 35 000. So little was there that is a large part of Europe's cultural heritage worth."

"the Parthenon is not just an edifice from Athens's heyday in 400 bc, the temple is a symbol also of today's Athens and has been a dream since the city's ”rediscovered” in the late 1700s. When the temple was in a sorry state, not least thanks to the Swedish admiral Otto Wilhelm Königsmarck that under the venetian flag, in 1687, had fired the building, for the moment krutförråd."

"The poor condition and a view of both the turks and the greeks as unable to take care of cultural artifacts was the basis for the pillaging. Just like when German archaeologists more than a century later succeed snika to Nefertiti, right under the noses of the authorities. Colonial mentalities then, and of course there is something in these that is still active when either the British museum or the Neues museum (where Nefertiti has her current residence) intend to leave anything back at all."

"Ove Bring has made some findings in the study of, in particular, Nefertiti cases. It is clear that the journey to the German mark was based on that false had described the completely remarkable bust which is slightly soiled, a little uninteresting. The German archaeologists were able to get their finds home, despite the fact that there were rules around the management when Nefertiti was found in 1912."

"the parthenon sculptures were sent as said out of Greece before the country was an independent nation, and before international agreements had been reached regarding the spoils of war go by and the other the prey. It is, of course, an argument that works of art should remain in London. But already in 1835, just five years after the Greek nation has been recognized, came the first Greek demands in return. Nation-building was going on and cultural artifacts along with the pitch of the key tools for creating a national identity."

"Ove Bring, writes that it happened in the early 1800s, and probably even today would be considered legal. But there is a ”moral deficit” in the form of bribery and övertolkade state, and this deficit should the british government now consider. The argument that the artwork feel better in the safer and cleaner London is no longer true since the new Acropolis museum was completed. The entire museum is a propagandanummer and a prayer to Elginmarmorn come back. The site is secured, and prepared."

"the Second argument, like the English ”rescued” works of art from the turks and the greeks, that they hardly remained, otherwise, fall on the fact that the left is preserved. And even if the works would have ”bailed out”, is it really reasonable that it hence will follow a two centuries long holdings?"

"The solution Bring, but is rational and well thought-out: the originals should be in Athens, where they belong and where they are exposed the better. At the British museum, one can view the copies, as a part of the own museihistorien. No other museum in the world is such a memory of colonialism: here is possible to admire the most rövats more or less legally, thanks to the military power and trade routes."

"the British museum's right to The Elgin marbles is based on a universalistic view, on the possibility to create the encyclopedic museum, while the Athens law can be formulated nationalistic."

"But of course there are not any razor-sharp distinction here. It universalistiska flowing into the Greek requirements, and enough, there are nationalist fervor in the british reluctance to disturb the history you perceive as his. The history where the colonial superpower still there."

"the Fight on the kulturskatterna"