British Secretary of State for Culture Lord Parkinson said he welcomed the British Museum’s intention to open discussions about a “Parthenon partnership” with the Acropolis Museum
London, Thanasis Gavos
The British Museum has always said that if its ownership of the Sculptors of the Parthenon would be willing to discuss lending them to Athens, repeated the British Secretary of State for Culture Lord Parkinson in a debate on Tuesday in the House of Lords on the repatriation of cultural objects.
During the discussion positions were heard in favor of reuniting the Parthenon Sculptures, but the government official did not deviate from the fixed British position.
Lord Parkinson said he welcomed the British Museum’s intention to open discussions about a “Parthenon partnership” with the Acropolis Museum, as the London institution’s deputy director Jonathan Williams put it in an interview last month.
The discussion took place on the occasion of the decision of the Horniman Museum in London to return to Nigeria the Benin Bronzes it has in its collection.
Labour’s Lord Dabbs, referring to Greece, urged the Conservative government to change the law to allow the return of objects that have particular significance to the country of origin or are part of a single artistic entity.
The deputy minister argued that museums and galleries in Britain operate independently of the government and that the move by the Horniman Museum does not bring about any change in the government’s positions or the laws that prohibit the dismantling of museum collections.
Baroness Jones of the Greens, who happens to be a former archaeologist, took the floor to comment that Britain does not own the “Elgin Marbles”, as she pointed out there is no proof of their legal purchase from Elgin. “Therefore they have been stolen,” he concluded, which he called a “national shame.” As he added, he visited the Acropolis Museum in the summer and saw a huge void. “It’s time to send them back,” he concluded.
The Under Secretary for Culture countered with the standard answer that while the Acropolis Museum is a wonderful museum with the Parthenon on the horizon, “more people see the Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum every year as part of a great compendium of human civilization”.
He added that the Sculptures “were lawfully acquired by the Museum in 1801, and the managing commissioners are right in invoking that fact.”
A change in the legislation was also requested by the independent member of the House of Lords the Earl of Clancarty and the Liberal Democrat Lord McNally, who even advocated replacing the Sculptures in London with 3D copies, so that the originals could be returned “where they rightfully belong in Athens” .
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