The British Museum

We went to the British Museum on Sunday, our last free day in London. The museum is absolutely massive, and we definitely did not get through to see everything that we wanted to see. However, I really wanted to see the Parthenon exhibit, and we were able to go there! I had been to Greece before, and I had seen the Parthenon on the Acropolis, so I was really excited to see the marble reliefs and metopes which had been removed from the original building.

            I was very aware before I went there that the marbles on display were rather controversial. They had been removed from Greece by the British, who were more intent on gaining these great treasures rather than simply preserving them. I had been upset when I was in Greece because none of these amazing works of marble had been in their proper location or even in a museum in Greece. It was weird having to come to a completely different country in order to see a part of something that I had already seen. The displays around the marbles were very careful in their language about the marbles, saying things like “Lord Elgin removed the marbles in order to preserve them” or “There are parts of the Parthenon displayed in many different countries”. There were other signs like this around for other exhibits, like a room full of Assyrian reliefs with a caption reading something like “These pieces were bought at auction by both the British and French a long time ago, so that is why Britain has the highest number of Assyrian reliefs outside of Iran”. The British Museum was very careful about their wording in order to not come off as too colonialist. These colonialist ideas have pervaded in British society because that has always been the norm for them—expanding the empire. They believe that they were preserving the marbles, and while they might be, it is probably time that they return them. Greece is obviously capable of housing these exhibits, and shouldn’t the marbles of the Parthenon be actually at the Parthenon?

            These are complicated questions that have complicated answers depending on who you ask. The story changes with whoever you ask. My opinion is probably shaped from my American ideals of freedom and independence—that Greece should do with the marbles what they want as well as my prior experiences in Greece. An average citizen of Britain may or may not agree with me, but their reasoning will most definitely be shaped by years of British ways of thinking.