The Parthenon Marbles Dispute: The Art Law Podcast (Al Lewis)
Herman first makes it very clear that when referring to the Parthenon Marbles, one is speaking of statues that were once part of the temple dedicated to the Greek goddess, Athena. It was built on what is known as the Acropolis, which sits on top of a mountain and itself is a citadel, a fortified part of the city that houses many other important structures from ancient history. The most notable is the temple, which is regularly called the Parthenon, as it translates to “Temple of the Virgin Goddess” in connection to the cult of Athena Parthenos. Historically it has been called the Elgin Marbles by the English, but many Greeks have a strong disdain for the title as it doesn’t properly represent the art. Historians report that it was built between the years 447 BC and 432 BC, made by the era's best sculptors, artists, and designers. It consists of a frieze, a band of sculpture that’s usually very long and narrow and is used for decor. It depicts the Panathenaic festival procession, which honors the goddess Athena's birthday. It showcases a sequence of metopes, or sculpted relief panels, illustrating the Centaur-Lapiths battle at the Peirithoo marriage feast, and pediments in the representation of the gods and mythological heroes from the temple's pediments. However, an estimated 50% of the original structure decor such as statues, reliefs, and panels has been lost due to time, war, and questionable means of trade both inside and outside of official law.
As roughly only half of the sculpture has survived, many push for the protection of these precious remnants of an ancient civilization. Because of this, the largest collection of pieces is housed in the Acropolis Museum of Athens and as said before, the British Museum. In the United Kingdom, they display approximately 15 metopes, 17 pedimental figures, and 247ft of the original frieze as stated on the exhibit's webpage. Other scraps of it are spread throughout the European continent in many different museums in places such as Copenhagen, Paris, Vienna, and Würzburg. And that is exactly what the Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum are— a collection of scraps, essentially, and it is what has been the source of discourse since 1983, but the story begins much earlier during the reign of the fierce Ottoman Empire.
The modern-day territories of Greece had been besieged and suffered under military occupation by the Ottomans since 1482. This means that the Greeks had been under their rule for 350 years before gaining independence in 1832. During the unjust residence of the Empire, Turkish officials had taken up office and seized control of all economic, political, and cultural affairs, even turning the Parthenon temple into a mosque, which had also been a church during the Greek Christian period. At the point of time when the Ottomans had taken over, it had already suffered wear and tear from the passage of time and violent destruction, and such activities continued under the occupation— most notably from Venetian cannons in the 17th century. It was perhaps because of this, the Turkish occupants didn’t care much for the ancient past and historical significance of the Parthenon, nor the citadel. The interest in preserving cultural history and antiquity as documented, has always been a passion of the Greeks, as when they gained independence they were the first country to pass laws to protect ancient artifacts. But alas, these laws were not in place when the notorious ambassador of Great Britain, Lord Elgin, arrived on the scene in Athens circa 1800, which was still under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.
While many would delight in arguing that Lord Elgin was but an aristocrat and therefore useless and arrogant, he was still a savvy politic and negotiator. Herman, who has written and studied much about Lord Elgin, describes his journey with Athens Parthenon as an “impressive fleet of negotiations” yet “far removed from the narrative.” He was not in Athens as he was at the start of a new architectural project of redoing his country home in Scotland, which was set to take place after he finished his business with the Ottomans. He stayed in the capital, which during this era, was known as Constantinople, and conducted business by sending instructions and orders through messengers and letters. Instead, it was his chaplain and secretary, Philip Hunt, who had been in Athens with a collection of artists Elgin recruited from Italy on his way to negotiations with the Ottomans. Why go through all the trouble to have one's own posse of a hybrid chaplain-secretary and a gaggle of Italian artists in Athens under Turkish rule? This seems excessive and unnecessary on some level, no? Well, there are three reasons; the first is that Lords like Elgin are filthy rich and used their money to keep artists working for them to make sure everything they owned looked expensive and cultured. There were standards for nobility and he had to meet them. The second was that it was by Lord Elgin’s personal architect's suggestion to send artists to sketch the famous statues and monuments for inspiration; as there was a new fad for all things Greek and ancient. And finally, the third reason was that Lord Elgin originally petitioned the British Parliament to foot the bill for his home renovations and they said, “No, but here’s this other very famous artist! He’s very expensive, you should like him!” And it was one of the few times in his life when Lord Elgin realized something was out of his price range. It was cheaper to send a handful of artists with his secretary to ancient Greecian monuments to create an old-fashioned Pinterest board for his new home project.
There was much to discover on the site of the Parthenon; centuries old art, masterful sculpting, pure and beautiful marble that had been quarried several feet away from where they stood, and the dawning realization that the Ottomans did not really care about any of it. Herman described it as a “blissful indifference” in the podcast. The artists saw that the occupants had used the site as target practice and taken parts of the marble to use in their own structures. An obvious indifference and hostile treatment of the structure was evident, but a blissful one to be sure. It was then Elgin's team began to push the idea of removing parts of the temple. So, vested by the power of one letter from the Ottoman court secured by Chaplin Hunt, they began measuring, painting, taking molds, building scaffolding to reach the frieze, and removing pieces of inscripted stone and figures from the site.
After such affairs were concluded, the marbles eventually made their way to the British Museum, where they were the prized exhibition and are to this day many years after Lord Elgin's expenditures. However, there are many people who wonder if they should continue to remain in the museum for multiple reasons. The first is that due to the British museums policy of free entry and being publicly open, they rely on investors and donors to keep their doors open, but they are still critically underfunded. Podcast host Wilson-Milne even notes that it is falling apart in some areas. As a result, many are concerned with the museums ability to maintain the artifacts such as the Parthenon Marbles. Another reason is that the “legal” obtainment of the marbles was only legal under the Ottoman Empire, which no longer exists. Additionally, the Empire had been a military occupaint and was overthrown by native rebellion roughly a decade after the marbles were extracted, leading many to argue that the so-called legal dealings hold any weight under modern law. The final is that the marbles are part of a historic monument that carries multitudes of importance to Greek history, culture, and art. The surviving odds and ends of the marbles are meant to be seen as a whole, even though only roughly half of the original structure remains. The Art Law Podcast discusses that since they were obtained legally, it’s fine for the British museum to keep them as of now, and hold a lot of respect for the fact that the museum seem open to negotiations with the Greecian government. Many hold the belief that what’s left should be reunited in the Acropolis Museum in Athens, where the remains can be seen as unified as possible, be attended to with the proper resources, and stand in the area in which it was first made while also representing the centuries of cultural heritage and artistic genius. I would like to ask others if they think whether or not the Parthenon Marbles should be returned to Athens and why. After all, with such little of the primordial structure being left, it must be handled carefully, as it holds testament to the centuries of human advancement, art, culture, and skill that has developed since the beginning of our time. Who should make the call on the final place of the Parthenon Marbles?
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