By (Jelly) Jellanai Tongpaitoon - Thailand
In 2009, a peculiar building was constructed. Less than 900 meters away from The Parthenon in Greece stood a hyper-modern museum set to house and preserve archeological findings from the Athenian Acropolis in its native land. However, the building’s modern facade against the centuries’ worth of architecture is not the most jarring sight one would see as part of the museum’s visit. On the third floor of the museum, the Parthenon sculptures lie fragmented, supported by cold metal rods and plaster copies that reconstruct most of the piece, which is retained in the British Museum or other foreign museums.
The Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, was built to counter Britain’s persistent argument that the Greeks did not have a suitable museum to display the collection of sculptures named the Elgin Marbles, an argument that defended Britain’s right to keep most of the Elgin Marbles displayed in the British Museum in London (Curry, 2023). The construction of this museum supports many arguments at once. This shows how unnatural it is to view only a fragment of artwork so significant to the native country’s history, knowing the rest are kept in foreign locations. Alongside this, the backdrop of The Parthenon also allows visitors to view the artwork as intended, in its original location. The focus of installing glass surfaces in the museum was “because the major requirement was the visual link to the Acropolis. You can see the monument and at the same time the sculptures from the monument”, according to archeologist Naya Charmalia (Poggioli, 2009).
The fate suffered by the Greek Elgin Marbles is not unique. Rather than viewing the spectacular Ishtar Gates against the blue Iraqi sky surrounded by lush green trees, one of the historical gates is confined to the limits of a small room surrounded by pale yellow walls in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany. This room is so small and claustrophobic that the ceiling hits the top of the gates almost exactly, accentuating the incongruity of the artifact's location.
In recent times, there has been an influx of restitution of colonial products as Western museums begin to send back some of the artifacts previously displayed in their museums. In 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron addressed a crowd at Ouagadougou University, Burkina Faso that “[he] cannot accept that a large part of cultural heritage from several African countries is in France” and promised that “in the next five years, [he wants] the conditions to be created for the temporary or permanent restitution of African patrimony to Africa” (Hunt, 2019). Similarly, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum recently announced that they would be sending 32 Ghanaian crown jewels back to Ghana 150 years after looting them (Razzall 2024). However, both of these cases come with exceptions.
Five years after Macron’s contentious promise, the number of artifacts restored by the country amassed to a total of 28 pieces. As of 2022, 90,000 African objects are still kept in France (Mohamed, 2022). Although the number of pieces Britain is returning to Ghana barely exceeds this, people would come to find that “loan” would be a more proper term to use than return. They will realize that the 32 jewels will be loaned to Ghana on a 3-year loan agreement before likely being sent back to the UK (Razzall 2024). This concept of a loan implies that the UK is allowing Ghana their jewels back for some time rather than making reparations and returning objects to their rightful country.
Although many Western countries are beginning to make changes by promising to look into returning foreign artifacts to their rightful owners, many of these endeavors prove to be difficult and time-consuming. While it is true that transporting such fragile artworks can be risky, cases like France returning to African countries a mere 28 of their tens of thousands of looted artifacts imply a sense of reluctance from museums to let go of objects that were not theirs to begin with. As German politician Helge Lindh puts it, “Restitution with conditions is neo-colonialism” (Hickley, 2023). The hypocrisy of countries who claim to “seek reparations” by returning stolen artifacts only under limiting conditions or refusing to speed up said process shows hints of superiority. This power dynamic has persisted through centuries, shown hundreds of years ago when the artifacts were first brought over to Western museums.
Many argue that museums such as the British Museum that display an array of artifacts from different cultures across the globe provide glimpses into windows of the world within one building. However, the countries that the artifacts originated from remain incomplete and scarred by these Western countries’ colonial endeavors.
Bibliography
Razzall, Katie. "Asante Gold: UK to Loan Back Ghana's Looted 'crown Jewels'." BBC, 25 Jan. 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-68066877 Accessed 28 Jan. 2024.
Hunt, Tristram . "Should Museums Return Their Colonial Artefacts?" The Guardian, 29 Jun. 2019, www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/jun/29/should-museums-return-their-colonial-artefacts. Accessed 28 Jan. 2024.
Curry, Andrew. "Are Museums Celebrating Cultural Heritage—Or Clinging to Stolen Treasure?" National Geographic, 23 Feb. 2023, www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/museums-stolen-treasure-feature. Accessed 28 Jan. 2024.
"Mitsotakis: Greece ‘Will Insist’ on the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles." Ekathimerini, 25 Jan. 2024, www.ekathimerini.com/culture/1230034/mitsotakis-we-will-insist-on-the-reunification-of-the-parthenon-marbles/. Accessed 28 Jan. 2024.
Poggioli, Sylvia. "Greece Unveils Museum Meant For 'Stolen' Sculptures." NPR, 19 Oct. 2009, www.npr.org/2009/10/19/113889188/greece-unveils-museum-meant-for-stolen-sculptures. Accessed 28 Jan. 2024.
"Why Macron's Radical Promise to Return African Treasures Has Stalled." The Art Newspaper, 3 Feb. 2022, www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/02/03/why-macrons-radical-promise-to-return-african-treasures-has-stalled. Accessed 28 Jan. 2024.
“The Parthenon Gallery - Exhibit Areas.” The Acropolis Museum https://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/en/exhibit-halls/parthenon-gallery Accessed 28 Jan. 2024
Mohamed, Feiza Ben. “5 years on, where are the objects looted from Africa that France's president promised to return?” Nov 19. 2022, Anadolu Ajansi https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/5-years-on-where-are-the-objects-looted-from-africa-that-frances-president-promised-to-return/2742087
Hickley, Catherine. “Restitution with Conditions is Neo-Colonialism: German Ruling Parties Defend Return of Benin Bronze in Parliament.” 12 May. 2023, The Art Newspaper https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/05/12/german-ruling-parties-defend-return-of-benin-bronzes-in-parliament
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