The Vatican has returned three fragments of the Parthenon sculptures to Greece in a move that could increase pressure on the British Museum to do the same.
Greece has been campaigning for years to have the sculptures returned from London, saying they are part of the country’s heritage.
The British Museum, however, says that giving them up could undermine museum collections worldwide and that Elgin had acted with the “full knowledge and permission of the legal authorities of the day in both Athens and London”.
I would be surprised. I watched something with it recently and the curator has no intentions of returning any items.
It would need to be a government proposal and I don’t see that any time soon.
How about…. No…
If they want them, come and buy them, we should not be giving national assets up for free
Excellent that the Vatican has returned these Sculpture Fragments, shows moral integrity, and a respect for the history and culture of the Greek people, who have so profoundly influenced our institutions and cultures around the world.
I don’t think the Vatican is in any position to lead by example.
As to why would this add pressure to us?”
​
Greece: “See look they gave something back!”
​
UK: “They also abused children and covered it up, caused holy wars and other general bad shit, what one would you like for us to also copy?”
[deleted]
The Vatican is a treasure trove of history. All monarchy in Europe for hundreds of years looked to the pope for guidence and sent riches and secrets beyond our imagination. But they returned some sculpture fragments? Oh wow.
Nah not really. All the powerful countries won’t get involved cause they have their own stuff in museums.
So we can just ignore it. Unless British public opinion changes its a moot point.
‘Here’s some stones’ now everybody let’s forget about the child abuse
Very telling that you don’t ever see people complain about the Vatican holding objects anywhere near as much as the British museum (or indeed any number of continental museums)
It’s the vouge thing on Reddit and social media to go full England/Britain bad wherever possible so to return the marbles for PR purposes is self defeating.
Having said that I do like the idea of swapping back to Greece in exchanging for revolving temporary exhibitions
I doubt it’ll do any good. The last time the Vatican tried to apply pressure to England, they decided to start their own religion.
I’ll accept the vatican as the arbiters of moral virtue when they apologise for their support of the nazis, centuries of molestation of little boys, the literal sitting on a pile of gold as a result of millenia of oppression, theft, pillaging and torture.
No. Seriously. If there’s *anyone* that you don’t get to point to as a reason why britain should make good on its shady colonial days, it’s the fucking catholic church.
Do the UK need to return them? Those artefacts are well kept for the world to see and most importantly they are in safe zone. Those artefacts also have been naturalized through the passage of time
Greece can have the shiny marbles back when I’m done looking at them!
I have merely one thing that is positive to say about the British pilfering of the world’s riches.
There are ALOT of pieces in British museums that wouldn’t have survived to this day without being taken by the British.
The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus is a prime example of that. Built around 350bc and destroyed between the 11th and 15th century. The only remaining proof of its existence is in the British museum.
Was it good the British stole all of these artifacts? No probably not.
Would we be able to enjoy them and their history today if it wasn’t for the British stealing them? In alot of cases no.
They didn’t return anything. There’s no one alive today who made these sculptures or paid for them to be made.
17 comments
The Vatican has returned three fragments of the Parthenon sculptures to Greece in a move that could increase pressure on the British Museum to do the same.
Greece has been campaigning for years to have the sculptures returned from London, saying they are part of the country’s heritage.
The British Museum, however, says that giving them up could undermine museum collections worldwide and that Elgin had acted with the “full knowledge and permission of the legal authorities of the day in both Athens and London”.
I would be surprised. I watched something with it recently and the curator has no intentions of returning any items.
It would need to be a government proposal and I don’t see that any time soon.
How about…. No…
If they want them, come and buy them, we should not be giving national assets up for free
Excellent that the Vatican has returned these Sculpture Fragments, shows moral integrity, and a respect for the history and culture of the Greek people, who have so profoundly influenced our institutions and cultures around the world.
I don’t think the Vatican is in any position to lead by example.
As to why would this add pressure to us?”
​
Greece: “See look they gave something back!”
​
UK: “They also abused children and covered it up, caused holy wars and other general bad shit, what one would you like for us to also copy?”
[deleted]
The Vatican is a treasure trove of history. All monarchy in Europe for hundreds of years looked to the pope for guidence and sent riches and secrets beyond our imagination. But they returned some sculpture fragments? Oh wow.
Nah not really. All the powerful countries won’t get involved cause they have their own stuff in museums.
So we can just ignore it. Unless British public opinion changes its a moot point.
‘Here’s some stones’ now everybody let’s forget about the child abuse
Very telling that you don’t ever see people complain about the Vatican holding objects anywhere near as much as the British museum (or indeed any number of continental museums)
It’s the vouge thing on Reddit and social media to go full England/Britain bad wherever possible so to return the marbles for PR purposes is self defeating.
Having said that I do like the idea of swapping back to Greece in exchanging for revolving temporary exhibitions
I doubt it’ll do any good. The last time the Vatican tried to apply pressure to England, they decided to start their own religion.
I’ll accept the vatican as the arbiters of moral virtue when they apologise for their support of the nazis, centuries of molestation of little boys, the literal sitting on a pile of gold as a result of millenia of oppression, theft, pillaging and torture.
No. Seriously. If there’s *anyone* that you don’t get to point to as a reason why britain should make good on its shady colonial days, it’s the fucking catholic church.
Do the UK need to return them? Those artefacts are well kept for the world to see and most importantly they are in safe zone. Those artefacts also have been naturalized through the passage of time
Greece can have the shiny marbles back when I’m done looking at them!
I have merely one thing that is positive to say about the British pilfering of the world’s riches.
There are ALOT of pieces in British museums that wouldn’t have survived to this day without being taken by the British.
The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus is a prime example of that. Built around 350bc and destroyed between the 11th and 15th century. The only remaining proof of its existence is in the British museum.
Was it good the British stole all of these artifacts? No probably not.
Would we be able to enjoy them and their history today if it wasn’t for the British stealing them? In alot of cases no.
They didn’t return anything. There’s no one alive today who made these sculptures or paid for them to be made.
They’ve merely given them to someone else.