When Greece defeated the Persians in the Persian Wars, a new style of government had begun to emerge in Athens which is the rule of the people: democracy. In the 5th century B.C., the great king Pericles had commissioned Iktinos and Kallikrates to construct a building that will reflect the new style of government; this was the start of the Parthenon construction on the top of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Iktinos and Kallikrates were merely architects who designed the Parthenon layout but it was Phidias who executed the creation of the luminous and humanistic marble sculptures depicting many prominent deities from the Greek pantheon (Sayre 428).
Parthenon had a turbulent history of ownership; beginning from its original purpose to store the image of Athena, after 1000 years after its creation it was converted to a Christian church. It also served as an explosive storage for the Venetians in 1687 and this became the catalyst for the ultimate destruction of the site. The Church had already scraped away the sculptures and the gunpowder had blown off the roof and other remaining sculptures. For more than three hundred years, the Greek capital of Athens had once been an Ottoman territory. The British government had sent Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin to do some diplomatic talks with the Sultanate. However, it was recorded in the history that after he served his term as an ambassador of Britain; in 1805, he was involved in an alleged ‘plundering’ of the famed Greek artifacts from Parthenon; from then, some Modern Greek scholars have viewed his action as elginism or a crime which means the act of removing a historical artifact from one country and sending it to wealthier one (The British Museum, “The Parthenon Sculptures”; Taylor, “Elginism”). According to the official website of the British Museum in London, the Greek government has been pursuing the custody of the Elgin Marbles since the 1980 so that the sculptures which Lord Elgin had brought from Greece will be returned once again to their original homeland. Based from the appeal of the Greek government, the British Museum needs to return the rest of the Parthenon artifacts to its original homeland since it were a part of the Greek culture and tradition; citing that all items that belong to Greeks must be returned to Greece. Furthermore, the Greek government had argued the authenticity of Elgin’s claim, which had been the subject of the debate because of the doubtful nature of the transaction he had entered with the Ottoman sultanate. Even today, UK’s custody of the controversial marbles has been contested by numerous articles published online. In fact, one article from The Guardian supports and agrees the motion of the Greek government to persuade the British Museum to surrender and return the prized Elgin Marbles to which Jones had reiterated that the famous sculptures has not been fully appreciated in its full glory because it lacks the original environment. Instead, they are stored in a part of the British Museum covered with grey stone walls that only makes the sculptures look dull.
“The great thing about the Acropolis Museum's display of the Parthenon sculpturesIt also has one advantage London can never rival – you can look from the sculptures to the museum's glass wall and see the Parthenon itself, making a sensual connection between the art and its architectural home” (Jones, “The Parthenon Marbles”).
As opposed to the propositions of the Greek government, one scholar named Merryman had argued that although the sculptures originally came from the Greek country, the government must also consider the fact that the British nobleman had already purchased these relics in hopes of preventing utter destruction; hence he made arrangements and purchased the sculptures from Greece and sent them to England where they are still continued to be appreciated even in the 21st century. He argued that whether the Greek government had claimed that Elgin’s transaction with the Ottoman authorities were fraudulent, it was not a convincing evidence to transfer the marble sculptures to the Greek custody. For instance, he explained that Elgin’s transaction with the sultan was considered valid at the time mainly because these were the authorities who once governed Greece for centuries; in other words, the transaction between Elgin and the Ottoman authorities can be considered as legal because they were the ones who had the control of that place. Furthermore, Merryman doubted why the Greeks now want the marbles to be returned; he noted that it was very unfair and irrational to acquire a legally purchased property/relic where in fact, the Greeks had more than a year to dispute its case to the English court (Merryman, 1896- 1902). According to Selwood, the Greek government has finally realized and will no longer pursue the Elgin Marbles’ return. This move of the Greek government was rational because the sculptures was purchased legally and sold in good faith by the actual owners of the land (Selwood, “Greece knows”); although, it is sad to see these sculptures deprived the right to remain in their homes, transporting the Elgin Marbles will only contribute to its ruination since it is already an old work and transferring them from UK to Greece will certainly lead to other worse problems which is the destruction of the work. It might be also possible that the Greeks did not pursue the Elgin Marbles after their independence was the fact that they did not realized before that their culture would contribute to the advancement of the tourism in the country.
WORKS CITED
Jones, Jonathan. "The Parthenon marbles are the world's most beautiful art – and that's why we should give them back." 18 Aug. 2014. Web. The Guardian. 22 Mar. 2016.
Merryman, John Henry. "Thinking about the Elegin Marbles." Michigan Law Review 83.8 (1985): 1880-1923. Web. JSTOR.
"The Parthenon Sculptures." n.d. Web. The British Museum. 22 Mar. 2016.
Sayre, Henry M. A World of Art. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice-Hall, 2012. E-book.
Selwood, Dominic. "Greece knows there is no legal right to the Elgin Marbles - that's why it won't sue the UK." 14 May 2015. Web. The Telegraph. 22 Mar. 2016.
Taylor, Matthew. "Elginism." n.d. Web. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 22 Mar. 2016.
