Posted by
Olympia, WA, USA
6713 posts
Thanks for posting this link, Prophet. I read the story this morning and it reminded me of seeing the "marbles" in London and their facsimiles in Athens. My instinct (not that anyone was asking my opinion) was that they should go back to Greece. But I also noticed how very degraded the original pediment sculptures in Athens were after a couple of centuries' exposure to air pollution before they were moved into the (wonderful) Acropolis Museum. For all his "sins" by 21st century standards, Lord Elgin and the British Museum saved the pieces he acquired from that degradation by getting them inside before the industrial revolution poisoned the air in big cities.
It's good to know that good-faith discussions are happening and I hope they bear fruit. Now that Greece has a very suitable place to show and protect these treasures, it would be great to see them returned, even on a long-term-loan basis. And people in London could benefit from experiencing other Greek art in return.