The poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn", with its opening lines “Thou still unravished bride of quietness,/Thou foster child of silence and slow time”, was inspired by John Keats’ viewing of the #ParthenonMarbles in the Elgin Room of the #BritishMuseum in 1817. 1/6
A panel in the #Parthenon frieze arouses Keats’ attention where the procession features "that heifer lowing at the skies", with its upturned tilt and stretch and silken flanks. Keats’ sylvan historian can only but enquire: “What men or gods are these?" 2/6
What the imagination seizes as beauty in the case of the Elgin Marbles is a reflection of the paramount importance of aesthetic integrity. Truly, the Parthenon Sculptures are a "thing of beauty is a joy for ever” as John Keats wrote in the memorable first line of "Endymion". 3/6
The faithfulness of the Marbles to nature in all its sublimity and beauty inspired Keats to equate beauty and truth. But the fragile Romantic poet remained burdened by an “undescribable feud” and a sense of tension caused by the sculptures’ loss of their classical identity. 4/6
The symbolic urn is constructed of historical materials that are made up of fragments of an appropriated culture. Keats' Romantic imagination sees in the Parthenon sculptures that which epitomises all about the enduring human spirit: beauty is truth; truth beauty. 5/6
#Keats laments the dislocation and uprooting of these sculptures from their ancient past and the realisation that these scattered classical fragments, now locked in the British Museum as museum pieces, are not immune to the “rude wasting” of old time. They transcend history. 6/6

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More from @VardasGeorge

25 Nov 20
The full article (behind the paywall) by @antheecarassava on the return of the #Eikosiphoinissa gospel manuscript is here. 1/3
The background story of the return of the gospel manuscript by the @museumofBible can be accessed here museumofthebible.org/eikosiphoiniss… 2/3
The stolen manuscript was auctioned at Christies New York @Christies in 2011 and the catalogue entry is not unsurprisingly notable for lack of any real provenance detail: christies.com/lotfinder/book… 3/3
Read 5 tweets
10 Oct 20
"You Hide Me Still: 50 Years On"- An iconic film shot in 1970 in #BritishMuseum by Nii Kwate Owoo which exposed the theft and concealment of African artefacts in the basement of the British Museum. In 2020 the spirit of #restitution beckons. eventbrite.co.uk/e/you-hide-me-… @EventbriteUK
The seminar Lost Heritage was held at Africa Centre London in 1981. A #UNESCO spokesman noted that it was ironic that the conference was being held in UK, a “country which has given a great deal to the world and to other peoples but which has also taken a great deal from them”
The film "You Hide Me" is the filmmaker's recording of a very important segment of African history: the pillage and the plunder of African cultural artefacts by Europeans by reference to what he uncovered in the #BritishMuseum, much of which is stored out of public view.
Read 5 tweets
27 Jun 20
A Benin Bronze With Fishy Provenance Goes to Auction hyperallergic.com/573457/fishy-p…
The plaque was part of a large cache of Benin decorative plaques looted during the British punitive military expedition of 1897. This plaque, cast in brass, depicts a mudfish, not dissimilar to a plaque currently in the collection of @WeltmuseumWien which was 'acquired' in 1899
Doubts have been cast by scholars @artcrimeprof and @profdanhicks as to its provenance as described on the auction house website at christies.com/lotfinder/lot/… Frederick Knize was an Austrian collector whose descendant sold the plaque to the New York art dealer John J Klejman
Read 7 tweets
18 Jun 20
The #AcropolisMuseum in #Athens is a striking museum completed in 2009. Designed by the renown architect Bernard #Tschumi the museum was built to be in harmony with the Sacred Rock and the #Parthenon itself. #Museum #architecture #MuseumsUnlocked @profdanhicks @cultureGR 1/4
Tschumi and his Greek collaborator, Michael Fotiadis, came up with a design based on movement and light, embodying an ethos that this museum needs to consider its role both as a repository for its collections and as an influential context for the Classical art of its time. 2/4
The essence of the architects' brief was to construct a museum that would establish a unique visual experience with the #Parthenon, not as destination museum, but in a sensual dialogue between the #ParthenonSculptures and the Parthenon itself that would reach across centuries 3/4
Read 5 tweets
6 Jun 20
The Director of the #BritishMuseum Hartwig Fischer has issued a statement that the British Museum "stands in solidarity with the Black community throughout the world." #BlackLivesMatter." That is to be applauded. blog.britishmuseum.org/a-message-from… via @britishmuseum 1/4 Image
However, the #BritishMuseum has never apologised for its shameful part in the British Army's brutal conquest and looting of rare Ethiopian artefacts at the Battle of Maqdala in 1868, in a clear case of officially sanctioned plunder and murder 2/4 Image
Or its part in acquiring the looted #BeninBronzes, some of Africa’s greatest treasures, after a British punitive military expedition in 1897, and maintaining to this day that they were lawfully 'purchased' and will not be returned. 3/4 Image
Read 5 tweets

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