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Jan 12 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
A predictable switch from claiming it's a matter for the #BritishMuseum trustees - to wading right into the issue:
The #ParthenonMarbles "belong here in the UK" & should not be returned to #Greece, Michele Donelan the UK culture secretary has insisted.
bbc.co.uk/news/entertain…
I say predictable - because past actions of this government have indicated that they would be against return of the #ParthenonMarbles - deferring to the British Museum Trustees was always a cheap get-out to avoid answering the question they'd been asked.
And as surely as night follows day, now the trustees are being more proactive the government has revealed their hand - with the exact cards in it that almost everyone had already deduced they'd be holding.
And a good response from @edvaizey.
The government needs to be more imaginative and work out a way to move on. The issue will not go away just because they ignore it.

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More from @elginism

Elginism Profile picture
Jan 12
The deal proposed to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece would be the first of its kind, with the Mediterranean country’s ancient treasures used as “collateral” to secure a final compromise.
telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/0…
Such a deal might be the first of its kind - but the concept is not entirely new.
In 2008, I met with a well known Greek owner of a budget airline (and at that time a cruise line).
From his discussions with people on both sides, he believed he had a plan that would work.
It consisted of the following 3 points:

1. Both parties expressly reserve any legal right to ownership of the Parthenon Marbles.
Read 39 tweets
Elginism Profile picture
Jan 12
This enforcement of imperialism mixed with xenophobia is an utterly ridiculously piece even by the standards of The Spectator.
spectator.co.uk/article/the-el…
Why are they so anti-Hellenic?
Let's not forget that this is the publication whose Greek columnist happily endorsed Golden Dawn in more than one (now deleted from their website) article.
Still pushing the same tired arguments:
"More than 6m visitors a year from across the globe enjoy the Elgin marbles at the British Museum, compared with less than a third that number at the Parthenon museum in Athens."
Read 7 tweets
Elginism Profile picture
Jan 11
This sculpted figure once adorned the west pediment of the "Old Temple" of Athena Polias, and depicted the momentous Gigantomachy.
The Old Temple of Athena or the Archaios Neos was an archaic Greek limestone Doric temple on the Acropolis of Athens probably built in the second half of the sixth-century BCE, and which housed the xoanon of Athena Polias.
The existence of an archaic temple to Athena had long been conjectured from literary references until the discovery of substantial building foundations under the raised terrace between the Erechtheion and Parthenon in 1886 confirmed it.
Read 12 tweets
Elginism Profile picture
Oct 1, 2022
Was intrigued by this image of the Parthenon from 1808 by Frédéric Boissonnas. At first I thought it couldn't be the Parthenon as everyone knows there are no archways there.
François-Frédéric Boissonnas, AKA Fred Boissonnas, was a Swiss photographer from Geneva. His work is considered crucial for the development of photography in Greece, He constitutes a central figure in the transition to a more contemporary approach to photography of antiquities.
I knew of him before, from images of terrifyingly precarious ladders that he used to get the viewpoints he wanted on the Parthenon.
Read 8 tweets
Elginism Profile picture
Sep 30, 2022
Kore (From Greek: κόρη meaning maiden) is the modern term given to a type of free-standing ancient Greek sculpture of the Archaic period depicting female figures, always of a young age. Kouroi are the male equivalent.
Korai (the plural of Kore) show the restrained "archaic smile", which did not demonstrate emotion. They are depicted in thick and sometimes elaborate drapery. Their posture is rigid and column-like, sometimes (like this instance) with an extended arm.
brown.edu/Departments/Jo…
This one clearly shows traced of the once vivid polychromy (multi coloured painting) that we we now know was a feature of ancient Greek statues, even though it is hard to shake off the idea of them as pristine white studies of form in it's purest sense.
newyorker.com/magazine/2018/…
Read 7 tweets
Elginism Profile picture
Sep 29, 2022
Interestingly, the British Museum are unclear what this is - they suggest either a phalera (sculpted disc worn on breast plate of soldiers in parades) or a bowl.
It was excavated from a tomb in 1906.
Presumably it ended up in the British Museum under the terms of the excavation.
Link to BM record.
britishmuseum.org/collection/obj…
One interesting thing to note though is the location of it in the museum.
That's right... You can't actually publicly view it there. Image
Read 6 tweets

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