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A contrarian take: The Acropolis Museum gets 1.4 million visitors a year and a ticket costs $10 to $20 depending on season. The British Museum is free and gets

A contrarian take: The Acropolis Museum gets 1.4 million visitors a year and a ticket costs $10 to $20 depending on season. The British Museum is free and gets 4 million visitors per year. Thus if the aim of any museum is to provide access to the most and widest range of people, rich or poor, the sculptures are seen and appreciated by many many more people and for free if they remain in Britain than if they were taken back to where they were removed. A counter-contrarian and tech optimist take would be that digital museums technology, high-res photos, VR, video etc would vastly increase the outreach of any object in any museum anywhere in the world. So the actual objects could never see the light of day again, be replaced by high quality reproductions and still more people will see it. One might even say it doesn't matter where they are or if a museum has it, if its properly served by the internet!

i386 3y ago
Are you from the UK? This “contrarian” opinion sounds very much like the little sign at the British Museum that excuses looting other cultures artifacts and never returning them.
- stg22 3y ago
  No British crime report ever: "Well, the thief lets more people watch my television for free than I did, so it rightfully belongs to him."
atoav 3y ago
So if I just have more people watching it, e.g. because I have a bigger population, I am morally in the right to steal things? Curious how you'd see this if the Chinese use that one on the US one day.
coderatlarge 3y ago
The British display the antiquities they took from other nations in colonial times and benefit by presenting their own institutions as cultural beacons and tourist destinations - all the while hiding behind the fig leaf about this being the way for more people to see the works. If this were in a work of fiction, it would be criticized as crass and simplistic. At least British influence continues to decline apace.

i386 3y ago

Are you from the UK? This “contrarian” opinion sounds very much like the little sign at the British Museum that excuses looting other cultures artifacts and never returning them.

stg22 3y ago
No British crime report ever: "Well, the thief lets more people watch my television for free than I did, so it rightfully belongs to him."

atoav 3y ago

So if I just have more people watching it, e.g. because I have a bigger population, I am morally in the right to steal things? Curious how you'd see this if the Chinese use that one on the US one day.

coderatlarge 3y ago

The British display the antiquities they took from other nations in colonial times and benefit by presenting their own institutions as cultural beacons and tourist destinations - all the while hiding behind the fig leaf about this being the way for more people to see the works. If this were in a work of fiction, it would be criticized as crass and simplistic. At least British influence continues to decline apace.