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It cracks me up but there's a funny little sign in the British Museum near the marbles that addresses the controversy over returning the marbles that basically

by a2tech 4y ago

It cracks me up but there's a funny little sign in the British Museum near the marbles that addresses the controversy over returning the marbles that basically says 'as soon as Greece gets its shit together and proves they can care adequately for their artifacts we'll gladly return them'. Its very patronizing and VERY British.

FridayoLeary 4y ago
It reminds me of a joke; Why are the pyramids in Egypt? Because they were too heavy to carry to the British Museum.
- fmajid 4y ago
  There are more Egyptian obelisks outside Egypt (and Italy alone has almost as many as Egypt).
twmiller 4y ago
It's also a bunch of horseshit, because the Acropolis museum in Athens is absolutely phenomenal and clearly shows that Greece is capable of caring for them adequately.
- jfengel 4y ago
  Indeed. That was not the case 20 years ago (when I first saw those pamphlets on "Why we're not giving these back"), but today the Acropolis Museum is absolutely stunning. It sits at the base of the hill, and the top floor is oriented the same as the Parthenon. It contains all of the meropes and other art, laid out as if you were able to walk right up to it in its original site. It's an extraordinary exhibit, and your appreciation of the Acropolis will be vastly enhanced by visiting. Some pieces are original; others are reproductions of pieces held elsewhere. (It's not just the British Museum, but also the Louvre and Berlin Museum.) Those museums should do a 1:1 swap: the reproductions for the originals. The originals should all go back to where they belong. I do actually respect the British Museum as a museum of British Empire, which was a noteworthy historical event in itself. The theft of artifacts is itself history at this point. But they have plenty of pieces to display that, which interfere less with Greece's need to recover from colonization -- including connecting to its own great past.

by a2tech 4y ago

FridayoLeary 4y ago

It reminds me of a joke; Why are the pyramids in Egypt? Because they were too heavy to carry to the British Museum.

fmajid 4y ago
There are more Egyptian obelisks outside Egypt (and Italy alone has almost as many as Egypt).

twmiller 4y ago

It's also a bunch of horseshit, because the Acropolis museum in Athens is absolutely phenomenal and clearly shows that Greece is capable of caring for them adequately.

jfengel 4y ago
Indeed. That was not the case 20 years ago (when I first saw those pamphlets on "Why we're not giving these back"), but today the Acropolis Museum is absolutely stunning. It sits at the base of the hill, and the top floor is oriented the same as the Parthenon. It contains all of the meropes and other art, laid out as if you were able to walk right up to it in its original site. It's an extraordinary exhibit, and your appreciation of the Acropolis will be vastly enhanced by visiting. Some pieces are original; others are reproductions of pieces held elsewhere. (It's not just the British Museum, but also the Louvre and Berlin Museum.) Those museums should do a 1:1 swap: the reproductions for the originals. The originals should all go back to where they belong. I do actually respect the British Museum as a museum of British Empire, which was a noteworthy historical event in itself. The theft of artifacts is itself history at this point. But they have plenty of pieces to display that, which interfere less with Greece's need to recover from colonization -- including connecting to its own great past.