House of Commons - Culture, Media and Sport - Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence

Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence

APPENDIX 29

Memorandum submitted by Lindsay Tanner MP, Petro Georgiou MP and others

We understand that the Culture Media and Sports Committee will shortly call for submissions to its inquiry into Government and publicly funded museum policy on the restitution of cultural property.

You may be aware that the issue of the restitution of the Elgin or Parthenon Marbles to Greece has attracted significant public interest in Australia.

In particular, the issue has enormous cultural and emotional significance for the Greek Australian community. The issue of the restitution of the Parthenon Marbles has also attracted much support from a cross section of prominent Australians including former Prime Ministers the Rt Hon Malcolm Fraser and the Hon Gough Whitlam, former Victorian Premier the Hon Jeffrey Kennett, and the New South Wales Premier Bob Carr.

On behalf of 43 of our Federal Parliamentary colleagues from all of Australia's major political parties, we forward the attached submission for consideration by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

It is the view of the undersigned that the Parthenon Marbles are part of a unique cultural treasure that is an intrinsic feature of the Parthenon in Greece. It is also the view of the undersigned that every effort should be made by Her Majesty's Government to facilitate the return of these items of immense cultural value to the people of Greece.

Natural justice would dictate that every effort be made to restore to the place and the people from which they were taken one of the most significant cultural icons of our time.

As this submission has been forwarded in advance of the inquiry's advertised terms of reference, we reserve the option of amending the attached submission subject to the eventual advertised terms of reference.

This submission is presented by Lindsay Tanner MP, Federal Member for Melbourne and Petro Georgiou MP, Federal Member for Kooyong, on behalf of the undersigned members of the Australian Parliament. The signatories include members of all of Australia's major political parties.

The Parthenon represents a unique achievement of Athenian architecture and one of the great symbols and monuments of western culture and society.

As Professor Robert Browning notes "when work on the Parthenon began Aeschylus was recently dead, Sophocles and Euripides were at the height of their powers. Socrates as a young man watched the Parthenon rise . . . it was to be an everlasting monument to a unique and dazzling society."

We are aware of almost two centuries of claim and counter claim over the validity of the acquisition of the Parthenon Marbles. Without wishing to become mired in the lengthy intricacies of the debate we are of the view several realities have clearly been established:

That there remain fundamental doubts as to the legitimacy of the firman employed by Lord Elgin in the appropriation of the Greek artefacts.

That in the course of the appropriation of the property significant damage was inflicted on the Parthenon Marbles by individuals acting under the instruction of Lord Elgin, and that subsequently upon their "preservation" in Britain further damage was inflicted on the Marbles.

That as a result of the removal of the Marbles the Parthenon was despoiled in one of the most serious incidents in its two and a half thousand year life.

That the architectural and cultural integrity of the Parthenon continues to be compromised by the fact that the Marbles cannot be viewed in close proximity to the Parthenon.

And that the Government of Greece has guaranteed the safe preservation of the Parthenon Marbles should they be returned to Athens.

As members of the Australian Parliament we are aware of some concerns that the return of the Marbles could create an international precedent for the return of art, artefacts and cultural property the subject of historical dispute. We are also cognisant of the fact that despite the removal of substantial quantities of other cultural treasures from Greece, the Government of Greece has only requested the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

Further, depending on the merit of a claim, the restitution of property from the collections of modern museums are a contemporary and ongoing feature of the art world. It is hard to envision a more substantial and legitimate claim than that which the people of Greece have over the Parthenon Marbles.

Similarly, it is hard to imagine that the exception which the international community considers the Parthenon Marbles to be, would give rise to excessive claims for cultural restitution. In any event, it remains open to the British Government to return the Marbles to Greece as a gift, perhaps in recognition of the holding of the Olympic Games in Athens, thus avoiding the difficult issues of legal title and precedent.

Her Majesty's Government cannot be aware of the enormous significance the Parthenon and its Marbles continue to hold in modern Greece. It is hard to imagine a similar example of artefacts that are of such value to an existing culture, that are such an intrinsic, aesthetic and historical part of a national monument and yet continue to remain in exile in a foreign museum.

We are mindful of the sentiment in the international community that the Parthenon is an exceptional cultural icon that deserves in its most complete form to be returned to Athens. The Parthenon remains unique in the cultural life of the world and it is hard to imagine any nation—let alone one with such a commitment to art and archaeology—continuing to impede its restitution.

We are conscious of the fact that the Parthenon Marbles have come to enhance the British Museum and as such play an important role in the cultural life of the United Kingdom. However, we are also conscious of the fact that the contemporary thinking of the international community welcomes the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece. The President of the United States Bill Clinton reflected the mood of the international community when he reportedly said last month "if it would be me I would give them back immediately".

Indeed, there have over the years been a number of proposals originating in the United Kingdom to return the Parthenon Marbles to Athens. As early as 1681, during the course of the House of Commons debate over the purchase of the monuments from Lord Elgin it was proposed by Hugh Hammersley MP that the Marbles be held "only in trust till they are demanded by the present, or any future, possessors of the city of Athens". In 1941, at the height of hostilities with Nazi Germany it was again proposed that in some recognition of Greece's valiant war effort the Parthenon Marbles be returned after the conclusion of hostilities.

We do not accept suggestions that climatic conditions in Europe today militate against transferring the Marbles from the British Museum to Athens. We are mindful of the significant effort the Government of Greece has expended in the conservation and restoration of the Acropolis as well as plans to construct a new museum that would allow for the display and preservation of the Parthenon Marbles.

In his work "Lord Elgin and the Marbles", William St Clair argues "with the building of a new museum in Athens, the opportunity exists to correct what some regard as the worst aspect of the present situation, the fact that the surviving pieces of the Parthenon, which are fragmentary enough, cannot be seen or studied together".

For both the people of Greece and the international community, the undersigned members of the Australian Parliament believe that the return of the Marbles at this juncture is a moral, cultural, and historical imperative.

The undersigned share the view of Robert Browning who argues "the Parthenon has been and is for almost all Greeks the symbol par excellence of their national identity, of their links with the past, and of the contribution that they and their forefathers have made to the civilisation in which we all share".

Natural justice would dictate that every effort be made to restore to the place and the people from which they were taken one of the most significant cultural icons of our time.

February 2000



© Parliamentary copyright 2000	Prepared 25 July 2000