To return, or not to return, that is the question…
More than half a century ago, as a teenage classicist at Northampton Grammar School, I recall (if memory still serves) being taught not only that the ‘Elgin Marbles’ were extraordinary sculptures that I should go and see at the British Museum should I get the chance to visit London, but that the sculptures – from the Parthenon and other buildings on the Athenian acropolis – had been saved from neglect and devastation in Ottoman Greece by the 7th Earl of Elgin, who had them shipped to Britain in the early 19th century. While they certainly are fabulous works of art, and among the highlights of the Museum’s collections, the facts surrounding Elgin’s removal of the sculptures are considerably more complicated than any tale of altruistic rescue; indeed, while a parliamentary enquiry in 1816 ruled that his acquisition of the collection was legal, there have been many – Lord Byron famously among them – who felt his actions were tantamount to looting, which is why there has long been disagreement between the British and Greek governments as to whether they should be returned to Athens.
There are persuasive arguments on both sides of this question, and filmmaker David Nicholas Wilkinson makes space for them in his new documentary The Marbles, which opens next week. He himself, while confessing his otherwise great admiration for the Museum, is quite open about his belief that the Marbles – or ‘Parthenon Sculptures’, as others who share his belief prefer to call them – should be returned to Greece. But he does invite the opposition, as it were, to speak up – most notably historian Dominic Selwood – while giving voice to actors Brian Cox and Janet Suzman and many rather less well-known folk who would like the British government and the Museum to let Greece once again have the stones located in the city which generated them.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given its seemingly niche subject, Wilkinson’s documentary will receive a pretty limited release, but if you do have any interest in the past, present and future of these astonishingly beautiful sculptures and can get to a screening, you should probably try to see the film. True, it includes some padding – there are a few too many soaring aerial images and shots of the filmmaker striding about – but Wilkinson and his co-writer Emlyn Price present the various arguments about the legality, ethics and consequences of Elgin’s actions clearly and with plenty of illuminating detail. The debate is not only, of course, about the titular Greek sculptures, but also about the wider issues associated with museums holding materials removed from their original homes; so even if you think the Marbles controversy might be of little or no relevance to your own interests, if you enjoy visiting museums either here or abroad, The Marbles movie actually touches on a range of intriguing concerns. And it offers another welcome opportunity to feast the eyes on these marvels of classical Greek art.
The Marbles plays at the opening night of the Central Scotland Documentary Festival on 30th October. UK screenings follow from 6th November. You can watch the trailer for the film here.
notes and observations by Geoff Andrew 