to think it outrageous that Britain refuses to give back the Elgin Marbles

[itwasntme]

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8110010.stm

So Greece has built a museum that it hopes will safely house the Elgin Marbles, and the British Museum still refuses to hand them back.

The marbles are such an important part of Greece's history, they have no place in the British Museum. They were stolen by Lord Elgin, not saved.

I really think that there should be more pressure to give them back. This is the sort of thing that makes me embarrassed to be British.

Should the French return the Bayeux tapestry to England? It’s from Kent originally.
I remember Macron saying he was going to allow it to tour the U.K. but a programme I saw showed the delicate conditions it was displayed in and I don’t think it can travel.

What about the Rosetta Stone? Does Egypt want that? Or any of it’s sarcophagi?

This old thread being resurrected is both funny and a reminder of just how patronising our nation has been. It's embarrassing. "Yes i know you made this but I've taken it and you can't have it back until you prove to me you can keep it nice". Do it my way or else.

I very glad the BM has the Nineveh friezes. I have a friend who is a Kurdish- Iraqi archaeologist and he is happy we have them ( for now) in safe keeping.

The British aren't very good at returning things are they?

<Ireland enters the chat>. @JaneJeffer

😉

I wonder how many of the people who think that British museums should keep a firm hold of their plundered loot think that it's just awful that Austrian museums are clinging on to Picassos and Klimts stolen from Jewish families in the 1930s.

Different when it's dear old Blighty...

Have you ever bought anything made abroad? Would you think it was OK if you were expected to give back your pans, art, clothes or television?

If not, what’s the difference?

It's not just about those sculptures or the BM.

If the BM collection starts to break up, so would the Louvre and NY Met, and you would have no world collections of history and art.

You don't have to view that as a bad thing, but it's certainly a thing.

Although the fact it's so hard to get into the UK for many nationalities, even for short visits, doesn't help the BM's claim that maintaining world art collections is important.

They don’t belong to people, they belong to the place.

@MissHavishamsMouldyOldCake

public museums? I thought they would have had to give them back esp the ones stolen in WW2. It is well known that the Nazis took them from Jewish families - on what grounds are they keeping them?

I remember being at the Acropolis Museum in the summer of 2008 and there was a little exhibit there about the Elgin Marbles and the campaign to get them returned to Greece. I overheard (it was kind of hard not to) a woman with an English accent lecturing her companions about how "we have to keep them, you see, because the Greeks can't take proper care of them". Ouch!

I do agree there are times when things are best protected abroad, but it feels like it should be the country with a claim to the items that asks someone else to safeguard them, not something that's decided by outsiders.

So true 😂

If it wasn’t for the British Museum, many of these artefacts would have been lost.

Many countries make a point of saying that they want these artefacts, but what exactly is their track record on protecting heritage. Let those protect the heritage that do it well. And no one does it better than Britain.

Cue the usual Britain bashing responses.

The 6 counties?

Totally agree with you, OP

We were lucky enough to do a tour of a museum on Crete, with an international group lead by a 'big name' guide, who was absolutely brilliant. Made everything very interesting and could answer any question in a relevant way.

We cringed at his answer to one question, put in a student English voice 'why are all the statues broken. Where are the undamaged statues?'

His answer was simply 'the whole statues were all taken to the British Museum'