Supplementary memorandum submitted by
Marbles Reunited
THE BRITISH
MUSEUM AND
THE SELECT
COMMITTEE OF
THE DCMS
According to the November number of the Museums
Journal, at a hearing of the Select Committee last month Neil
MacGregor, questioned by MPs John Whittingdale and Adrian Sanders,
replied to the former that "there was no need to return the
Marbles as the BM would be giving the Greeks a video of them";
and to the latter, that only in the BM could one see "the
cultural achievements of the whole world".
This last is the currently the favoured track
(No 7 below) on the British Museum's album of arguments. Other
recent items have included:
1. "It would be a different matter if
the Marbles could be replaced on the Parthenon". Performed
once or twice in 2003, this track is so patently insincere (since
throughout the years when that seemed a conceivable possibility,
it turned out not to be "a different matter" at all)
that it has now been dropped.
2. "Bought and paid for". This
has the defect of being historically false, as applied to Elgin's
dealings with the Ottomans.
Last officially performed as the headline for
a Times leader in 1961, it still appears occasionally in letters
to the right-wing Press.
3. "The poor Greeks couldn't look after
them properly". This once popular hit has become too risky
to play, with the imminent completion of the New Acropolis Museum
(NAM) and the story of the 1938 London "cleaning" more
widely known.
4. "It would open the floodgates".
This is everyone's favourite except, oddly, for the BM itself
which seldom plays it. Its appeal is weakened with each of the
restitutions from UK museums that have quietly taken place without
repercussions.
5. "More people see them in London than
in Athens". This again was very popular in 2002-2003, until
evidence from opinion polls showed that it was probably already
untrue today, let alone what will be the position when the NAM
opens.
6. "It wouldn't do any good, because
eight other European museums have pieces too". Always a weak
track, this was not surprisingly dropped soon after its launch
in 2003. As many people know, the eight have since become seven
and may soon be six or even five.
7. "Only here can you see them against
the background of world culture". Based on the 2002 classic,
"Declaration on universal museums", this is clearly
now seen by Neil MacGregor as his best hit. It may prove to be
a better tune than the others, even though the "universal"
standing of the Museum would be greatly enhanced by the major
exhibitions, in fields where the BM's collections are relatively
weak, which have been offered by Greece in return for a relocation
of the Marbles. Despite the public spectacle since offered by
two of the Declaration's signatories (the Getty and the Metropolitan),
we can expect it to run and run.
When people constantly seek new arguments for
doing what they've already decided to do anyway, one may suspect
them of having no good argument at all.
30 November 2006
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