Last time I heard a deal talked about in serious terms (which was some years ago), I believe the plan was for a “permanent loan” to Greece in exchange for a rotating selection of loans in return. Greece has a pretty impressive collection of ancient artifacts, and it would give British museum-goers a chance to see them.
There’s loads of British stuff in the museum. All of Darwin’s collections for one thing, plenty of artwork, lots of mediaeval and Roman finds, the famous dinosaur fossil collection, there’s quite a bit of masonry in there from the Great fire of London.
Also a lot of stuff is from other countries but is on loan, such as all the Egyptian stuff.
I think the toilets were made in Britain. Yes, I know there is a lot of British stuff in there, but there is also quite a bit that has been basically looted from other countries during our colonial period.
Oh for sure, I was being tongue in cheek.
I do think they should make a system for returning things stolen that would be appreciated more where they came from (I’m fine with guarantees of quality preservation and public display, but I think that’s as far as can be justified).
We really can’t justify keeping things that we couldn’t buy today because they mean more than money to the people we stole them from.
Isn’t there a conspiracy theory that everything on show at the British Museum is a replica anyway and that the real artifacts are carefully stored elsewhere?
For me it’s a conspiracy theory (and most likely untrue) - but it’s quite an interesting one rather than “stupid”. Raises ideas about authenticity and what people are doing when they go to look at artifacts in museums. There HAVE been paintings, for instance, hung in galleries for years that have turned out to be forgeries but - for a long time people were happy staring at the “art”. Also, ones that have been restored beyond a point where they are pretty much not the original piece. How much would it alter things if the Marbles were all replaced with exact replicas at the British Museum?
How much would it alter things if the Marbles were all replaced with exact replicas at the British Museum?
What would be the point in doing that? There are lots of replicas in museums but they tend to get labelled as such and they serve a purpose beyond just looking at them. The truth is the British public don’t really care about the Marbles, so if they went back to Greece I don’t think the museum would really need to put up a replacement.
Look at York Museum practically everything in there is replica, it’s all for the purpose of demonstrating history.
I should hope that they’re right. We should return what was stolen.
If we returned all the things we stole the British museum would be empty.
Last time I heard a deal talked about in serious terms (which was some years ago), I believe the plan was for a “permanent loan” to Greece in exchange for a rotating selection of loans in return. Greece has a pretty impressive collection of ancient artifacts, and it would give British museum-goers a chance to see them.
There’s loads of British stuff in the museum. All of Darwin’s collections for one thing, plenty of artwork, lots of mediaeval and Roman finds, the famous dinosaur fossil collection, there’s quite a bit of masonry in there from the Great fire of London.
Also a lot of stuff is from other countries but is on loan, such as all the Egyptian stuff.
To be fair, I’m sure there’s some British things in the British museum, I assume those could be kept.
I think the toilets were made in Britain. Yes, I know there is a lot of British stuff in there, but there is also quite a bit that has been basically looted from other countries during our colonial period.
Oh for sure, I was being tongue in cheek. I do think they should make a system for returning things stolen that would be appreciated more where they came from (I’m fine with guarantees of quality preservation and public display, but I think that’s as far as can be justified). We really can’t justify keeping things that we couldn’t buy today because they mean more than money to the people we stole them from.
Yes. It would.
Isn’t there a conspiracy theory that everything on show at the British Museum is a replica anyway and that the real artifacts are carefully stored elsewhere?
There’s a lot of unfounded stupid conspiracy theories but the thing about stupid conspiracy theories, is that they’re stupid.
For me it’s a conspiracy theory (and most likely untrue) - but it’s quite an interesting one rather than “stupid”. Raises ideas about authenticity and what people are doing when they go to look at artifacts in museums. There HAVE been paintings, for instance, hung in galleries for years that have turned out to be forgeries but - for a long time people were happy staring at the “art”. Also, ones that have been restored beyond a point where they are pretty much not the original piece. How much would it alter things if the Marbles were all replaced with exact replicas at the British Museum?
What would be the point in doing that? There are lots of replicas in museums but they tend to get labelled as such and they serve a purpose beyond just looking at them. The truth is the British public don’t really care about the Marbles, so if they went back to Greece I don’t think the museum would really need to put up a replacement.
Look at York Museum practically everything in there is replica, it’s all for the purpose of demonstrating history.