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Friday, June 12, 2009
MUSEUM TALK AHEAD
Dear British Museum,
Why y'gotta be such haters*?
I shouldn't come out swinging, all crazy like that, with what appears to be an uncritical and knee-jerk opinion to yet another piece to this long-running drama. It's not, really. TO ME. Let's talk about it.
1. 200ish years ago, Greece is occupied. Our good friend Lord Elgin swoops in and politely asks the Ottoman empire if he could just take a little chisel and collect a few bits of that little ol' thing called the Parthenon for his humble collection. Ottomans reportedly say "No biggie." He grabs a huge chunk of the frieze and about half the statues.
2. Lord Elgin gets back to England and says, "CHECK OUT WHAT I GOT, GUYS!" People cringe. After a bit of hand-wringing, everyone closes their eyes and the British Museum forks over the cash for the stuff. They build an entire new gallery just for the marbles.
3. Lots of time passes, Parthenon marbles become a symbol of the British Museum, people love that shit, etc.
4. Athens is kind of pissed off.
5. British Museum subtly changes its deaccessioning policy, stating that the only reasons anything can ever, ever, ever leave the museum (besides a loan) are because a) the object is a risk to the rest of the collection, or b) the object is too damaged to be of any worth. I think that's it. When Athens gets ready for another round of "HEY THAT'S MY STUFF" the museums says that their hands are tied, IT'S LEGAL POLICY. i.e. nobody can have their shit back, ever. EVER. Too bad for you, everyone that Britain has ever fucked up.
6. What a bunch of dicks.
7. Right, so, one of oft-quoted arguments for leaving the marbles in London is that if they had never been taken from Athens, they would now be ruined by air pollution. How many times have we heard that one before? 'Sup, I am a Trusted Anthropologist, and I'm saving your stuff from yourself because you don't know how to take care of it, and besides, your culture's going to be overtaken by McDonalds and Romantic Marriage in about 45 seconds anyway.
I suppose that during a certain time period, this would have seemed like a justified argument (ignoring the terrible air pollution in Britain in the 19th century), but is that any excuse now? Athens has really cleaned up its air and has made great (by Western standards) efforts to preserve its cultural heritage. The Acropolis Museum is opening on June 20th, actually. It's weak, that's what it is. Really weak.
8. And yes, there's also the idea that the Parthenon Marbles are now a part of British culture just as much as they were in Greece, so who is Greece to say that they deserve them more, etc? This jives with me more than other arguments, but I'm just not sure it flies. Clearly the Parthenon marbles are an interesting symbol of a subset of "Greek identity"--traditional "Greek identity" I guess--moreso than British identity, unless you want to say it represents a whole lot of jerkwad moves on the part of the friendly historical Great Britain.
Although, you know, I do appreciate the idea. That cultural groups are not so clearly defined, etc. Yeah, you've heard it from me before.
9. Q: But, if they are given back to Greece, they will be depriving people of the world of a chance to view, study, and appreciate them! If the museum gives in, then what's stopping other museums from repatriating lots of important historical objects to groups that want them! WHAT ABOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD?!
A: Get bent. I hate that Enlightenment garbage, especially the brand of Englightenment garbage that the British Museum (and others) buy into. Let's ignore the power and politics of every situation and distribute Truth for the greater good. Cool. I'M IN.
I think I'm just pretty pissy about repatriation issues, no matter who the countries/groups involved are. And, if there's an organisation I hate based on their institutional attitude (based on a reading of their policies), it's the British Museum. Come on, guys.
(Regarding that story I linked to, the British Museum gallantly offered to loan the Parthenon Marbles to the soon-to-open Acropolis Museum for three months. The condition of the loan was that Greece had to acknowledge the museum as the legal owners of the sculptures. Because really, how could they loan something to someone who did not recognise their title? Man. They basically dangled a carrot in front of Greece's nose and hoped they were desperate enough to grab it without considering the consequences. That's sly.
*Imperial, colonial assholes?
I mean, not that Greece is without its faults. But I'll take any opportunity to hate on the B.M.
I'm just full of it today.
3:26 PM
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