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The Acropolis, Athens

Who owns the marbles?

The debate hits Sydney
The Parthenon in Athens is one of the worlds most famous and instantly recognisable
buildings. It is an iconic cultural symbol of the modern Greek state, and a reminder of a
shared cultural heritage that reaches back to the 5th century BC; a defining period in the
history of democracy, theatre, architecture, philosophy and more.

During the first decade of the 19th century, Lord Elgin,
the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, was
granted permission by the Sultan to remove decorative
features from what was already a building in ruins.
These marble sculptures and friezes are now in the
British Museum in London.
In response to the growing demand for the return of
these sculptures to Athens, Sydney University Museums
has asked two of the leading figures on either side of
the debate to comment. Dyfri Williams, the Keeper of
Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum,
urges the need for co-operation and collaboration, while
David Hill, Chairman of the International Association
for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, is
more strident in his demand for the British to right
one of historys great wrongs and return the wonderful
Parthenon sculptures to their home. Their articles,
Sharing your marbles and Give us your marbles
appear inside.
In October, Sydney plays host to Professor Dimitrios
Pandermalis, President for the Organization of the
Construction of the New Acropolis Museum, where
the Parthenon Marbles will be displayed should they
ever be loaned or returned by the British Museum.
Also visiting are Maria Ioannidou, the Director of the
Acropolis Restoration Service and Nikolaos Toganidis,
the architect responsible for the Parthenon Restoration
Project. Two of the highlights of their visit are a public
discussion forum, The Parthenon: Who Owns Cultural
Heritage? at the Seymour Centre on 28 October,
and a public lecture by Professor Pandermalis in the
Nicholson Museum on 30 October.
To further highlight issues relating to the Parthenon, an
exhibition of images of the restorations and of the New
Acropolis Museum will be on display in the Nicholson
Museum from mid October until the Christmas break.
For further details on these and other associated events,
see page 14.
Give us your marbles
By David Hill, Chairman of the International Association for the Reunification of the
Parthenon Sculptures

Later this year Athens will see the opening of the doing so permanently destroyed much of the buildings
magnificent new Acropolis Museum, arguably one of the structure.
most significant buildings to be built in the city for the
In some cases Elgin took part of a statue piece, leaving
past two thousand years. The Museum, which is located
the other half in Athens. The shoulders and breast of the
below the south east corner of the Acropolis, will house
magnificent, twice-life-size statue of the god Poseidon
all the surviving ancient artifacts from the Acropolis
from the west pediment of the Parthenon is in the British
including the sculptures of the Parthenon.
Museum; the lower part of the torso remains in Athens.
It has been designed to house the sculptures on the
The Parthenon sculptures are among the worlds finest
top floor and these sculptures will be presented in
surviving ancient art works. Built in the middle of the
exactly the same configuration and position as they sat
5th century BC, the Parthenon is unique in a number
on the Parthenon. The Temple itself can be seen from
of respects and represents a pinnacle of human
the Museum, through vast glass windows, across the
achievement. It is also symbolic of the great cultural
Acropolis.
achievements of the time; in art, architecture, science,
About half the surviving 200-odd pieces of marble mathematics, theatre, philosophy and democracy.
sculptures from the Parthenon are in the British
It was the most decorated of all ancient Greek temples.
Museum, having been stripped from the temple by the
Around the outside and on all four sides there were a
staff of Lord Elgin, who was the British Ambassador
total of 92 sculptured panels, or metopes, depicting
to the region around 1800. Elgin had intended the
a number of scenes reflecting the struggle of good
sculptures to adorn his family estate in Scotland but
over evil. It was the only ancient Greek temple with
in 1816, when facing severe financial problems, he
sculptured metopes on all four sides of the building.
sold the collection to the British Government. The
Government passed them on to the British Museum. On the architrave inside the building sat the magnificent
frieze that ran for 160 metres around all four walls,
Most of the other surviving sculptures are still in Athens,
depicting a procession that culminates with the twelve
although a few smaller pieces and fragments are held
Olympian gods seated on the sacred east end of the
in a variety of European museums, including those in
building.
Paris, Copenhagen, Vienna, Palermo, Munich, Strasburg
and the Vatican. A small fragment from the Parthenon In the triangular pediments at each end of the building
frieze was returned to Athens by the Heidelberg were about 40 statues-in-the- round. At the centre of
Museum last year. the east end was depicted the birth of Athena springing
from the head of Zeus. At the western end the centre
Elgin took the sculptures that were in the best condition,
depicted a struggle between Athena and Poseidon for
leaving those that had been ravaged by time and
control of Attica.
events. He also left the entire sculptured west frieze,
because the Temples heavy marble superstructure was The Greek Government and many supporters around
still intact at this end of the building and too difficult the world have been calling for Britain to return the Elgin
to move. To remove much of the marble frieze, Elgin Collection so that the entire surviving work can
used special saws to cut them from the building and in

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 Give us your marbles
The Parthenon. Continued from page 7... Parthenon sculptures, less than half the number that
Organization for the
Construction of the visit the Acropolis in Athens. With the opening of the
be reunited in its original setting to allow the original
New Acropolis Museum new Acropolis museum we can expect the number of
Archives.
narrative to be appreciated.
visitors to further increase.
Photo V. Vrettos
By not agreeing to return the sculptures Britain is
Throughout Britain and around the world there has
increasingly out of step with modern museum practice
been growing support for the return of the Parthenon
around the world. No one would argue that all the
sculptures. Surveys of public opinion in Britain in recent
objects in museums should be returned to their country
times have consistently demonstrated overwhelming
of origin but there is now almost universal acceptance
support for their return and the parliaments and political
of the principle that items of special significance should
leaders of many nations, including USA, Russia,
be repatriated. In 1997 a survey of the British Museums
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China, Turkey and a
Association revealed that 97 per cent of their members
number of European countries have joined the call for
supported the principle of repatriating cultural property
Britain to return the marbles.
in certain circumstances.
The British Government should be commended for
The British Museum has no reasonable grounds for
having initiated the return of the Nazis stolen artwork
retaining the collection. On their website they say that
to their original owners, and more recently the return of
the British Museum is a universal museum and that
aboriginal human remains to their original communities.
in London more people are able to see the collection.
We now look to the British to right one of historys great
However, less than one million people a year now visit
wrongs and return the wonderful Parthenon sculptures
the Duveen Gallery of the British Museum to see the
to their home.

The Acropolis reflected

in the glass of the new
Acropolis Museum.
Organization for the
Construction of the
New Acropolis Museum
Archives.
Photo V. Vrettos

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Sharing
your marbles
By Dyfri Williams, Keeper of Antiquities at the British Museum
Museums may be divided into two types: those that
attempt to serve one particular location and those that
attempt to serve the world by including all places and
all people. Both types are vital to our understanding
of the material remains of the various cultures of the
world.
The fact that history has shared the Parthenon
sculptures between more than one location and more
than one nation (in fact, seven in all) is particularly
significant. It allows for a plurality of approaches and
an extraordinary diversity of visitor response. The
sculptures can speak in their Athenian context, among
other things wrought, one might say, for an ancient
imperialist city supported by slave-labour (rightly in
the case of ancient Athens). In other museums that do
their best to introduce people from all over the world
to the cultures of others, although they are sometimes
accused of being full of imperial loot (wrongly in the
case of the British Museum), the sculptures help to
reveal interconnections and differences, and to allow
perhaps for a new understanding in a spirit of tolerance.
What is needed now is a greater sharing of knowledge
and understanding of the Parthenon and its sculptures
in order to help everyone to see them better. This is
best done through collaboration not confrontation.
It is hardly a solution to display in a spectacular new
museum veiled (and thus illegible) casts of sculptures
currently elsewhere in a not so veiled attempt at
blackmail. Nor does it seem suitable to destroy a listed
Art Deco building just so that the view from the caf
(not the gallery) of that museum can be unimpeded.
But such are the stories that journalists love. Our aim
should be to make all the pieces everywhere, those Virtual reconstruction of
Parthenon South Metope
in the various museums round the world, those many IV (including heads in
sadly still on the building and, as best we can, those the National Museum
sculptures and parts of sculptures that are tragically Copenhagen and pieces
lost in the explosion of
lost forever (some 50 percent), available to all, in a 1687)
modern fashion and for free.
Much important work has been done in Athens in
recent decades by scholars in piecing together the
fragments of the sculptures found scattered all over the
Acropolis rock, most especially by the current Ephoros
of the Acropolis, Dr Alexandros Mantis, on the metopes
from the south side of the Parthenon. This astonishing
research needs to be better known by all.
With the possibility of inspiring a future collaborative
project, the British Museum began an assessment of
the quality of three dimensional scanning, the basic
tool for reconstructing and manipulating the sculptures
virtually. It was decided to concentrate on one metope
(South IV), which is divided between the British
Museum and the National Museum in Copenhagen,
and, at the same time, make sure there was an end-
product that could be delivered to the public as a short
computer-generated film. In this way, we could both
reveal the potential of the technology and, while telling
the metopes modern history, recreate its original
condition, complete with metal attachments and
painted colour.
A still shot from this new computer-generated film
now on display in London (and shortly also in the
museum gallery in Copenhagen; and at Harvard in the
special exhibition Painted Gods) shows the heads in
Virtual reconstruction of
Parthenon South Metope
IV in its architectural
setting (possible colour
scheme)
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 Sharing your marbles
Continued from page 9...

Copenhagen set in place, the pieces of the figures that was chosen for the otherwise uncoloured exterior of
were drawn in 1674 by Jacques Carr but destroyed in the extraordinary replica of the Parthenon in Nashville,
the terrible explosion of 1687 restored, and the obvious Tennessee. Nevertheless, a white or entirely unpainted
other missing elements reconstructed on the basis of background now seems the most likely solution,
better preserved examples among the metopes. especially on the analogy of the wonderful, painted
Macedonian tombs at Vergina and elsewhere, all fairly
The lost metal wreath on the youths head and the
recent discoveries, which reveal blue triglyphs, white
sword in his hand have also been restored. As for
metopes with a blue band at the top, and red bands
colour, the only actual remains of pigment that have
below and above. This solution has been used in the
been precisely located, independently confirmed and
film to briefly explore how colour affected the viewers
subjected to scientific analysis were found in recent
ability to understand the sculptures from a distance.
years on the triglyphs and on the raised band on the
upper side of a metope. Both were dark blue. The creation of such a didactic film has led us to
question and test many traditional assumptions about
Other visual sources, however, including sculptures,
the metopes. The creation of a larger project would
terracottas and vase-paintings, have been used to
enable further collaborative research and certainly new
provide some sort of a coloured reconstruction. One
and important results. Such an endeavour, combining
specific issue of colour may perhaps be resolvable
scholars from all over the world, could be expanded
the colour of the architectural background to the
to cover the whole Parthenon and form the core of an
sculpture of the metope. A number of nineteenth-
exciting multi-level educational tool. But this requires
century architects and artists, in trying to restore the
collaboration and support. Let us leave behind all the
Parthenons original polychromy, gave the colour of the
posturing and sniping, as discussed and do something
metope ground as either blue or red, the latter being
of real benefit for all.
the favoured choice. For example, a red metope ground

The Acropolis
in the snow #1,
2004.
Photo S.
Paspalas

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