Blogs and Stories
Greece's Modern Wonder
Petros Giannakouris / AP Photo
Bernard Tschumi’s state-of-the-art Acropolis Museum opened in Athens this week. Linda Yablonsky tours the ancient treasures and revisits the debate of how the Parthenon lost its marbles.
The Acropolis Museum opened in Athens last weekend amid controversy that Greek officials did everything possible to stir up. It wasn't enough that, after years of delays, Greece finally had a gleaming $200 million container for its most treasured antiquities. What mattered was what wasn't there: the sections of the Parthenon frieze known as the Elgin Marbles, which have resided in the British Museum for the last 200 years. At a press conference before the opening, Greek Minister of Culture Antonis Samaras minced no words describing his government's attitude toward England's refusal to repatriate the marbles, high reliefs depicting battle scenes between gods and humans. Now that we have a proper place for them, Samaras said, no Greek can be happy until they are returned. As if the British today should be so consumed with guilt, they couldn't wait to give the things back.
CLICK TO VIEW OUR GALLERY OF THE NEW ACROPOLIS MUSEUM
The marbles have been in England since 1801, when Thomas Bruce, the 7th Lord Elgin, was ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Concerned for their condition—and possibly obsessed by them—Elgin had them removed at his own expense. It bankrupted him, compelling the marbles' sale to the museum.
To whom do they belong? The question is larger than Greek or British egos. Museums everywhere, especially those that began as ethnographic institutions dedicated to educating their constituents about distant periods and cultures, have objects taken from other parts of the globe. Many were spoils of war. Still, most of us get our first experience of the breadth of history among them.
It's not possible to travel to every country in order to get a sense of it. That's why museums loan precious objects to each other for temporary shows that travel between nations. Early last week a spokesperson for the British Museum held out at least a twig of an olive branch by proposing a 90-day loan of some of the Parthenon sculptures—but only if the Greeks publicly acknowledge that institution as their legal owner.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Pinault Fetes Venice
Linda Yablonsky is the US art critic for Bloomberg News and a Scene & Herd columnist for Artforum.com. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Art in America, and Art + Auction. She is the author of The Story of Junk: A Novel.
Yale's Peabody Museum recently agreed to return artifacts to Peru that were "taken" by Hiram Bingham during his field study of Machu Picchu. Italy is suing the Getty museum for return of sculptures acquired illegally. And the nephew of a Holocaust victim seeks the return of his aunt's portrait painted by Gustav Klimt which is currently hanging in a museum in Vienna. If I were to view a plaster cast of the Elgin marbles, I more than likely wouldn't know. Nor would I, for that matter, feel I had been cheated by now seeing the originals. Therefore, it's the curator's pride and the museum's vanity that conflates in refusal to return the panels. As for the Acropolis Museum, I, too, found it and its galleries to be sterile, monotonous and cold. The static displays reminds one that when art is removed from its original context it becomes, primarily, content.
England needs to return the artifacts to where they belong originally.
Was Linda Yablonsky in Athens? The Acropolis hill is not the highest point in Athens. Mount Lykavittos is. And yes the British should repatriate the Parthenon marbles.
Dear, Linda Yablonsky,
I knew from the first sentence you were going to be critical of Greeks and their museum.
Your article reeks of the same condescending attitude, that the British Museum has taken, towards returning the stolen Elgin Marbles.
I don't know you personally but your thoughts are as clear as day. As far as you are concerned, the Greeks can never be good enough.
They: Build a new, and very beautiful, museum to house their heritage.
You: Ugly modernistic monster. Real world wannabees.
They: Ask that their property be returned.
You: They wouldn't know what to do with them.
I am sorry but I missed the memo where the Greeks had to submit to you (or anyone else for that matter) before proceeding with any public works.
And what is this bull about knocking down houses to build the museum? Huh? Who is Robert Moses again?
The Greek government did what was needed to create the museum. It is telling that the neighborhood that museum was build in was an affluent one. This was a decision that had to be made.
I wonder if your "outcry" would have been the same if the neighborhood was a slum.
You are an elitist and I will go as far as to say "imperialist sympathizer". The Greeks have suffered enough in the hands of American and British interests.
Do us a favor, for once, and mind your business.
You have a little mind. Go away. You are beginning to really annoy us.
Yes, I am 100% Greek and I live in New York City. So don't tell me about culture either.
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.
Please log in to leave comments.