Amal Clooney should back off. Lord Elgin was a hero who saved the marbles for the world

The Telegraph ^ | 10-21-14 | Dominic Selwood

[afraidfortherepublic]

In February 2014, while promoting his World War Two film, The Monuments Men, Hollywood A-List actor George Clooney declared that Britain should send the Elgin Marbles back to Greece. Despite claiming they came from the Pantheon in Rome rather than the Parthenon in Athens (and also that they had been taken by Lord "Eljin"), he felt that returning them was now appropriate.

This was fiercely controversial territory. However, once the furore had died down, most people wrote it off as a kooky PR stunt.

Until last week, when it emerged that George Clooney’s new wife, Amal Clooney, a lawyer specialising in human rights law (but not as far as we know the law of museums or antiquities), declared she was advising the Greek government on the return of the marbles to Greece.

Speaking publicly to the media about the matter, Amal Clooney said that Greece had “just cause” to demand the return of the marbles, which she said had been taken illegally by Lord Elgin early in the 19th century, a fact Britain should be embarrassed about.

However, her assertion that Elgin took the marbles illegally is plain wrong, and flatly contradicts all serious histories of the marbles, as well as the reasoned findings of legal experts, and a parliamentary select committee which examined the matter in minute detail.

Furthermore, any art lover who has read up the real story will know that the collection of marbles in the British Museum simply would not exist today without Elgin because they were being systematically destroyed in Athens. If Elgin had not intervened, they would be a mere memory, like the Afghani Buddhas at Bamiyan, dynamited into oblivion by the Taliban in 2001.

[Verginius Rufus]

If Britain ever gives the marbles back, they won't be replaced on the Parthenon--they will be put in a museum in Athens.

They are in better shape now than if they had remained on the Parthenon, given the serious air pollution in Athens.

For those who can't make a trip to London, the Nashville Parthenon has replicas of the Elgin Marbles.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks afraidfortherepublic. This could be bloody. :')

[SunkenCiv]

:’D

[SunkenCiv]

...her assertion that Elgin took the marbles illegally is plain wrong, and flatly contradicts all serious histories of the marbles, as well as the reasoned findings of legal experts, and a parliamentary select committee which examined the matter in minute detail. Furthermore, any art lover who has read up the real story will know that the collection of marbles in the British Museum simply would not exist today without Elgin because they were being systematically destroyed in Athens. If Elgin had not intervened, they would be a mere memory, like the Afghani Buddhas at Bamiyan, dynamited into oblivion by the Taliban in 2001.

However, the Greeks are no longer under Turkish Mohammedan occupation, and have constructed a facility to display and protect the artifacts from Athens' atmospheric pollution. Regarding potential vs actual damage, while these pieces were in British custody, the original 5th century BC paint job remnants were sandblasted off, because some twits, inbreds, and idiots thought they would look better that way.

[SunkenCiv]

Tell you what Mrs Clooney. If Greece repays its $240 billion EU loan, we’ll return the Marbles
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/culturehousedaily/2014/10/tell-you-what-mrs-clooney-if-greece-repays-its-240-billion-of-emergency-eu-loan-well-return-the-marbles/

[eleni121]

Actually they are in far worse shape by being part of the loot in London. They were acid "cleansed" by the dumb Brits... causing irreparable harm ...far more than a few years of air pollution in Athens.