Annex IV: The Parthenon Sculptures
1. THE BRITISH
MUSEUM'S
COLLECTION
1.1 The terms most frequently used are "Elgin
Marbles", "Parthenon Sculptures", "Acropolis
Sculptures". These are not synonymous, but the latter two
are self-explanatory.
1.2 Strictly speaking the "Elgin Marbles"
should refer to the whole collection acquired by Lord Elgin between
1801 and 1805, purchased by Parliament from him in 1816 and presented
by Parliament to the British Museum. The collection includes the
following material from the Acropolis:
| Parthenon | 247ft of the original 524ft of frieze; 15 of the 92 metopes; 17 pedimental figures; various pieces of architecture.
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| Erechtheion | A Caryatid, a column and other architectural members.
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| Propylaia | Architectural members.
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| Temple of Athena Nike | Four slabs of the frieze and architectural members.
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1.3 It should be noted that besides those acquired from
Lord Elgin the British Museum's collection of sculptures from
the Parthenon includes fragments from the Society of Dilettanti
and from the Steinhauser, Cockerell, Inwood, Smith-Barry,
Colne Park and Chatsworth collections, all of which have no connection
with Elgin.
2. OTHER COLLECTIONS
WITH SCULPTURES
FROM THE
PARTHENON
Material from the Parthenon was dispersed both before and
after Elgin's activities. The British Museum holds more than half
of the surviving sculptures. The remainder is divided among the
following locations:
| Athens (various museums and stores) | Extensive remains of the metopes, frieze and pediments.
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| Paris, Musee du Louvre | One frieze slab; one metope; fragments of the frieze and metopes; a head from the pediments.
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| Copenhagen, National Museum | Two heads from a metope in the British Museum.
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| Wurzburg, University | Head from a metope in the British Museum.
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| Palermo | Fragment of frieze.
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| Vatican | Fragments of metopes, frieze and pediments.
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| Heidelberg, University | Fragments of frieze.
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| Vienna, Kunsthist Museum | Three fragments of frieze.
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| Munich, Glyptothek | Fragments of metopes and frieze.
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| Strasbourg, University | Fragment of a metope.
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3. THE LEGAL
STATUS OF
THE BRITISH
MUSEUM'S
COLLECTION
3.1 The "Elgin Collection" was acquired under
the terms of Local and Personal Acts 56 George III c 99 (repealed
by the 1963 Act). In 1816 a Select Committee of the House of Commons
found that the collection had been legitimately acquired by Elgin
as a private individual. It was purchased and vested in the Trustees
of the British Museum in perpetuity.
3.2 The Trustees hold the "Elgin Collection"
under the terms of the British Museum Act 1963. This legislation
prohibits the Trustees from permanently disposing of objects unless
they are duplicates of others already in the collection or are
"unfit to be retained . . . and can be disposed of without
detriment to the interests of students". It does, however,
provide for objects to be loaned for public exhibition, having
"regard to the interests of students and other persons visiting
the Museum, to the physical condition and degree of rarity of
the object in question, and to any risks which it is likely to
be exposed." The Trustees may not make "permanent loans",
although renewable loans are possible.
4. THE DUVEEN
GALLERY
4.1 On arrival at the British Museum at the beginning
of the year 1827, the Marbles were first housed in a pre-fabricated
gallery designed by Robert Smirke. A permanent "Elgin Room"
was constructed on the west side of the Museum in 1832, and the
collection remained there until the Duveen Gallery was built.
4.2 The Duveen Gallery was funded by Lord Duveen and
designed by the architect John Russell Pope. The building was
completed in 1938, but the outbreak of war in 1939 prevented its
opening.
4.3 During the Second World War the Sculptures were fully
protected. The frieze was removed to an unused section of the
London Underground Railway and the pedimental figures and the
metopes were taken down to the Museum vaults. The Duveen Gallery
itself was seriously damaged in 1940. Following repair work, and
the addition of an electrostatic precipitator for cleaning air
in the gallery, it was opened in 1962.
5. THE CLEANING
OF THE
PARTHENON SCULPTURES
IN 1938
5.1 In early 1939 there was considerable press interest
in rumours that, during the process of cleaning the Parthenon
Sculptures for display in the newly constructed Duveen Gallery,
unauthorised methods were used. Contemporary reports, both official
and unofficial, indicate that copper chisels and carborundum were
used in addition to the recommended water and soap on some of
the sculptures over a period of 15 months. The British Museum
held an internal enquiry and as a result the Keeper, F N Pryce,
took early retirement, a young Assistant Keeper, Roger Hinks,
resigned, and all the craftsmen concerned left the Museum's employ.
5.2 An official statement was issued to the press on
18 May 1939 and questions were asked in Parliament. The Trustees
resolved to publish a full report on the effects of the cleaning,
but the outbreak of war intervened. After the war, the Sculptures
did not emerge from storage until 1949, by which time most observers
were happy to herald them as a symbol of the regeneration of post-war
Britain, In 1950, however, Cesare Brandi, head of the Institute
of Restoration in Rome, published an article critical of the cleaning.
There was, surprisingly perhaps, no further published response
on the part of the academic community, either to the cleaning
or to Brandi's article, until 1984, when the private diaries of
Roger Hinks and the Earl of Crawford (a former Trustee) were published
posthumously. In the same year full reference to the cleaning
was made in the Greek demand for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures
through UNESCO. The issue was also discussed by the journalist
Christopher Hitchens in his book The Elgin Marbles—should
they be returned to Greece? (1987).
5.3 In 1996, William St Claire renewed his request to
see restricted papers detailing the 1930s cleaning. Privileged
access was granted, and he made extensive use of them in a chapter
of the third edition of his book, Lord Elgin and the Marbles
(1998). St Claire called for an international enquiry into the
cleaning and the Museum's handling of it.
5.4 The Museum replied by announcing a scholarly conference
in its series of Classical Colloquia, which took place on 30 November
and 1 December 1999. The conference addressed the visual and documentary
evidence for the cleaning with the aim of determining how and
to what extent the surface of the Sculptures may have changed.
It also looked at wider issues concerning the history and ideas
of conservation. It is intended that the papers delivered at the
conference and the reports by the distinguished panel of experts,
together with all the documentary evidence, will be published.
6. ACCESS TO
THE PARTHENON
SCULPTURES
6.1 The British Museum aims to make the Sculptures from
the Parthenon accessible to and understood by the widest possible
audience. To this end, the side galleries to the Duveen Gallery
re-opened in June 1998 after complete refurbishment. They now
include a video display using computer graphics to explain the
positioning of the Sculptures on the building, a full-scale reconstruction
of the upper part of the north west corner of the building, new
audio guides and a special programme for visually impaired people.
The Museum continues to seek ways of improving its displays.
6.2 The Museum is also committed to maintaining its long-standing
status as a centre for Parthenon studies. This it does by organising
conferences and seminars, by publishing scholarly and popular
books and articles, and in facilitating the studies of others
through access to the unique collection of books, photographs,
manuscripts and plaster casts. As part of this commitment, the
Museum maintains close links with the Centre for Acropolis Studies
in Athens it has advised on and in a number of ways facilitated
the current programme of Conservation of the Acropolis Monuments.
In 1985 it hosted a special exhibition on the conservation programme
on the Acropolis. There have been several recent exchanges of
plaster casts and the leading architectural historian of the Parthenon,
Professor Manolis Korres, advised on the new model of the Acropolis
specially made in Greece for the British Museum in 1998. The Museum
holds the work of its colleagues in the Greek Archaeological Service
in very high regard and will continue to promote good relations
with them.
7. REQUESTS FOR
THE RETURN
OF THE
PARTHENON SCULPTURES
7.1 The suggestion that the Parthenon Sculptures be returned
to Athens is not new. It was first mooted in Britain by Hugh Hammersley
MP in the House of Commons on 7 June 1816. Greek calls for their
return began in 1833. Although the Greek Minister of Culture in
1965 demanded the return of all Greek antiquities to Greece, the
current wave of interest dates back to 1982 and the appointment
of the late Melina Mercouri as Greek Minister of Culture.
7.2 At the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies
in Mexico of 1982, at her instigation, a vote on a resolution
calling for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures and their reincorporation
on the building was passed, although there were many abstentions,
including Italy and France, and many absentees. In October 1983
a formal bilateral request for the return was made by the Greek
Government—the first ever made. This request was formally
rejected by the British Government in April 1984, but it was followed
in September by a further submission of a claim through UNESCO,
which was similarly rejected in 1985.
7.3 In May 1997, following a further direct appeal by
the Greek Government, the Secretary of State in the Department
for Culture, Media and Sport, the Rt Hon Chris Smith MP, declared
that the "Elgin Marbles" are an integral part of the
British Museum and the Government would not seek to have them
returned to Greece. This position has been re-inforced by both
the Prime Minister and subsequent cross-party statements, most
recently following the 1999 Conference on the Cleaning of the
Parthenon Sculptures.
8. COLLABORATION
8.1 The British Museum has a long history of collaboration
with Greek colleagues in Athens throughout the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. Indeed, the modern scholarly understanding
of the Parthenon and its sculptures is based on just this. In
addition to the collaboration with Professor Korres mentioned
above (paragraph 6.2), Dr Alexandros Mantis, the senior Greek
scholar of the Parthenon Sculptures, spent two months in the British
Museum studying them on a grant given by the British School at
Athens.
8.2 The collaboration may also be charted by the British
Museum's repeated supply of casts to Athens. In 1844-46, a full
set of plaster casts of the Sculptures of the Parthenon were presented,
together with cement casts of the Caryatid, architectural pieces
from the Erechtheion and reliefs from the Temple of Athena Nike.
Similar gifts occurred in 1912 and in 1932. Between 1976 and 1978
various moulds and casts were provided for the new Committee for
the Preservation of Acropolis Monuments. Further presentations
of casts have taken place between 1993 and 2000, both of material
in the British Museum and elsewhere, while facilities were provided
for a Greek workman to make moulds from casts in the British Museum
of the whole of the west frieze of the Parthenon for the production
of cement casts to go on the building.
9. POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS
9.1 The British Museum calls the Parthenon Sculptures the
"Elgin Marbles"
In the nineteenth century the term "Elgin Marbles"
was used for the contents of the Elgin Saloon, ie the entire Elgin
Collection. It has also been used popularly to describe the Parthenon
Sculptures. The Museum term, as carved on the wall of the Duveen
Gallery, is "The Sculptures of the Parthenon".
9.2 The collection was "stolen" by Lord Elgin
9.2.1 Lord Elgin took up his post as Ambassador to the
Sublime Porte (Constantinople) in 1799. Greece was then part of
the Ottoman Empire and had been since 1453. (The Greek War of
Independence started in 1821, and Greece became independent in
1829.)
9.2.2 Elgin's intention was to improve the arts of Great
Britain by making available casts and drawings of Greek monuments
previously known only from drawings and engravings. To this end,
he assembled a group of architects, painters, draughtsmen and
moulders under the Italian Lusieri, which began work in Athens
in 1800.
9.2.3 The continuing destruction of the classical sculptures
in Athens, however, persuaded Elgin to endeavour to remove for
posterity what sculptures he could. In 1801 he was granted a firman
(licence) as a diplomatic gesture following the British defeat
of the French forces in Egypt, then an Ottoman possession. The
firman required the Turkish authorities in Athens not to
hinder Elgin's employees in their drawing, modelling, erection
of scaffolding and also allowed them to "take away any pieces
of stone with inscriptions or figures". It is sometimes asserted
that Elgin exceeded the terms of this firman, but whatever
truth there is in such claims, the further firman secured
by Sir Robert Adair in February 1810, from the same authority
as the first, instructed the authorities in Athens to allow the
embarkation of all the remaining antiquities collected by Lord
Elgin.
9.2.4 The opinion of the 1816 Select Committee of the
House of Commons, after examining a series of witnesses, was that
Elgin had acted with the permission of the Turkish authorities
and as a private individual (although it was suggested that such
powers might only have been given to an Ambassador).
9.3 Lord Elgin "bought" the Marbles, using "bribery,
pressure and corruption"
The firman was granted in 1801 as a diplomatic gesture.
The money expended by Elgin was largely on the salaries of his
team, on transport and on the recovery of a consignment sunk off
Kythera (see 9.6). Presents were given to the Turkish officials
in Athens according to the custom of the times.
9.4 "More damage was done to the Parthenon in 1801-02
than in the previous 2,200 years" (Melina Mercouri, The Times,
15 January 1983)
9.4.1 This is patently untrue. The worst damage to the
structure occurred in 1687 when a Turkish powder-magazine in the
temple exploded after a direct hit by the besieging Venetians.
Previously the Parthenon was almost complete as a structure; afterwards
it was a ruin.
9.4.2 Significant earlier damage to the structure resulted
from the conversion of the Temple into a church about AD 450,
including the construction of an apse at the east end. At this
time the Sculptures of the Parthenon suffered their worst calamity.
The whole of the middle section of the east pediment was removed,
entailing the destruction of a dozen statues in all; part of the
east frieze was taken down to enable the apse to be built and
the heads vandalised; and almost all of the metopes on the east,
north and west sides of the Temple were deliberately defaced.
Compared to this, only minimal damage was inflicted by Elgin's
agents in removing some of the remaining sculptures from further
risk.
9.4.3 Furthermore, the sculptures left by Elgin have
greatly deteriorated since the early nineteenth century and this
destruction was noticed to have accelerated as early as the 1920s,
with the immense growth of Athens, accompanied by industrial pollution
and increasing motor traffic. As a Greek scholar commented after
the remaining pedimental sculptures were lifted down in 1977,
"the industrial pollution of modern Athens had wreaked havoc
upon their delicate surface". Similar observations are made
in a recent report by a Greek team of archaeologists and conservators
following the eventual removal of the slabs of the west frieze
in 1993.
9.4.4 Finally, the stability of the Parthenon itself
and the condition of all its parts were greatly endangered by
the restoration work carried out by Nikolaos Balanos in the 1920s
and 1930s, especially through his use of iron bars that have now
corroded and swollen, causing the marble to split and shatter.
This use of iron bars, unprotected by lead casings, ran counter
not only to contemporary conservation practice but even to ancient
Greek methods of construction. Balanos' work has in recent years
been firmly condemned by Greek experts. For example, in 1994 Charalambos
Bouras (Architect to the Committee for the Conservation of the
Acropolis Monuments) described the work of Balanos (in The
Parthenon and its Impact on Modern Times) as "truly catastrophic
for the monuments".
9.5 "Part of the collection was lost at sea"
There was a consignment of 17 crates on Elgin's ship "Mentor"
when it sank before Kythera harbour. Every single crate, however,
was salvaged at Elgin's expense and nothing was lost.
9.6 Lord Elgin "sold" the Marbles to the British
Museum
The collection was sold to the Government, not to the British
Museum. On his return to England Elgin suffered severe financial
problems. In 1810 he began informal negotiations with the Government
for the sale of his collection, In 1815 the collection was eventually
offered for £73,600 with the proposal that, if this were
refused, Elgin would abide by the value to be determined by a
special Committee of the House of Commons. The Committee held
that the value of the collection was £35,000—a valuation
which Elgin had no option but to accept—and because of his
financial problems the sale went through.
9.7 "The Marbles would look much better on the building
for which they were intended"
9.7.1 This romantic notion, embedded in the UNESCO Resolution
of 1982 and still occasionally repeated, is no longer held by
anyone with a proper understanding of the environmental issues.
9.7.2 Members of the Greek Archaeological Service long
ago realised that the Sculptures on the Parthenon needed protection
from the elements and in particular from the polluted air of modern
Athens. Nevertheless, it is true that not all of the architectural
sculptures have yet been removed from the Parthenon to exhibition
or storage in the Acropolis Museum in fulfilment of plans announced
in September 1983 by the Committee for the Conservation of the
Acropolis Monuments. These plans envisage the substitution of
casts for all the sculptures once on the building.
9.8 "In Athens a new museum has been built to accommodate
the Marbles" (Isabel Hilton, Guardian 10 November 1999)
9.8.1 No new museum has yet been built. In May 1989 Melina
Mercouri announced an international competition for the siting
and planning of a new museum to house the material from the Acropolis
(similar competitions were held in 1976 and 1979). In 1991 the
first prize was awarded to the Italian architects Lucio Passarelli
and Manfredi Nicoletti and a completion date of 1996 announced.
Argument between the political parties, however, overturned the
result. Problems were also encountered in purchasing the required
land. When archaeological excavation of the site eventually began,
it revealed extremely important new information on the city of
Athens in late antiquity.
9.8.2 In November 1999, the Greek Government announced
a new architectural competition, with the intention of preserving
the archaeological remains below the new museum. The deadline
for the competition is the end of 2000 and the building is due
for completion in 2004 to coincide with the Athens Olympic Games.
9.9 "Open an outpost in Athens—the Sculptures
can remain the property of the British Museum"
9.9.1 This suggestion was made in July 1999 by a group
of MEPs and members of the British Committee for the Restitution
of the Parthenon Sculptures to the DCMS. It has never been proposed
directly to the British Museum.
9.9.2 This proposal would seem to envisage the creation
of another new museum in Athens. Considering the Greek plans for
a new "Acropolis" Museum, this would lead to the ridiculous
situation of two separate museums in Athens, both holding objects
from the same monument, and both separated by some distance from
that monument.
9.9.3 Mr Alekos Alavanos, a Greek MEP and one of the
proposing group, is reported to have commented that it would be
very difficult for the Sculptures ever to be returned to Britain
in this situation.
9.10 "We only ask for the Parthenon Sculptures—they
are a special case"
The claim by the Greeks that the Parthenon Sculptures are
a special case and their only target in terms of restitution claims
is not matched by their actions. Since the 1965 demand for all
Greek antiquities, there have been requests from Greek politicians
for the return of the Bassai sculptures (British Museum), the
Nike of Samothrace (Louvre) and the Venus de Milo (Louvre).
9.11 "The best solution is to have all the Sculptures
back together as a coherent whole"
9.11.1 Putting the Sculptures back together would not
create the coherent whole which restitutionists claim it would.
This could only be achieved by restoring the Sculptures to the
building which is rendered impossible on environmental and conservation
grounds. The "best solution" is, therefore, to place
casts of all the surviving pieces on the building itself and this
is achievable.
9.11.2 Failing a better argument, restitutionists claim
that at the very least the Sculptures should be seen all together,
close to the Parthenon. Restitution of the "Elgin Marbles",
therefore, means no more than the transport of the Sculptures
from one museum into another. There can only be limited archaeological
advantages in having the Parthenon Sculptures together in a museum,
for they will always remain incomplete, being a partial survival
of the original whole, and will continue to be seen out of "context".
But the disadvantages are the great harm that such a transfer
would do to the British Museum and the cultural principles that
it embodies. In the British Museum the sculptures are a vital
part of a world museum, where they are shown not simply as relics
of ancient Greek civilisation but also in a context that invites
intellectual and visual comparisons with the art of other cultures,
ancient and modern.
10. A SUMMARY OF
THE GENERAL
DEBATE
10.1 The arguments used to further the return of the
Parthenon Sculptures in the British Museum centre on three main
themes. The first seeks to discredit Lord Elgin and his actions,
the second promotes the Parthenon Sculptures as a symbol of Greek
identity, the third labels them imperialist spoils.
10.2 In reply to the attacks on Lord Elgin, it cannot
be stressed too much that without Lord Elgin's intervention the
Sculptures of the Parthenon would be in a very sorry state and
that the modern removal of the west pediment figures and the west
frieze demonstrate this absolutely. Lord Elgin can only be judged
by the mores of his own day and, despite attempts to bring
Lord Byron's abuse to bear (Byron, in fact, believed that the
Parthenon should slowly melt into the landscape; he had no concept
of preservation and himself brought Greek sculpture back to Britain
for sale), his actions withstood the close scrutiny of the Parliamentary
Select Committee.
10.3 The second position is much more emotive. The right
of the modern capital of the modern state of Greece to claim its
most spectacular ancient building as a symbol of national identity
cannot be gainsaid. Other parties, however, with an interest in
the Parthenon and the Sculptures do not have to share in this
nationalism and the symbolic role of the Parthenon in Greece does
not extend to all of its dispersed fragmentary sculptures may
seem somewhat dubious.
10.4 What should, however, be stressed is that the acquisition
of the Parthenon Sculptures in 1816 helped to promote the surge
of philhellenism in Britain that led to the involvement of the
European powers in the freeing of Greece and the ultimate creation
in 1833 of the modern Greek state. The Sculptures from the Parthenon
now in the British Museum have thus been in London longer that
the modern state of Greece has been in existence. As a result,
they have become part of this country's heritage and have acted
as a focus for western European culture and civilisation. They
have found a home in a museum that grew out of the eighteenth
century "Enlightenment", whereby culture is seen to
transcend national boundaries.
10.5 The third position is the most overtly political
and seems to spring from a narrow, nationalistic concept of culture.
Many people feel that modern Greece could have no better ambassador
abroad than the Parthenon Sculptures in the British Museum, well
displayed in a free museum and viewed by more than five million
people every year.
10.6 Ultimately, however, the argument revolves not around
the question of the "Elgin Marbles" but around the much
larger issue of whether collections like that of the British Museum
are seen to have a valid role to play in world culture. It calls
into question the whole notion of a single museum in which visitors
can learn about all the cultures of the world, ancient and modern,
and through this, learn about themselves.
March 2000
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