I am usually in favor of Colonial powers, and have no doubt that their being in the British Museum was a good thing. Still I think they should be returned to Greece.
I also think South Carolina should return the body of Osceola to Florida.
I always think of a quote from an old Three Stooges short.
Larry Fine: “Is he crooked”
Moe Howard: “Crooked! the guys done more chiseling than Rodin!”
That is probably the lamest PC explanation of the year. They return to Greece, they will end up destroyed by islamists as European culture is once again erased. Of course, if we pretend that there are no borders and no culture is permanent, and all populations should be fluid, then Greece has little real claim to any ancient treasure. One world vs nationalism collides with reality again.
There’s a wonderful Rodin museum in Philadelphia.
http://www.rodinmuseum.org/492-518.html
They have a copy of his Gates of Hell.
Thanks so much, SunkenCiv. Sculpture is another one of my passions.
And, yes, the Parthenon Marbles should stay in London. Just how are people to understand great art and history if every artifact has to be returned to its country of origin?
The Elgin Marbles are not just some artifact found in some country years ago.
They are part of what most people consider the most beautiful building every built. It is not as magnificent as some but for sheer form and beauty, I agree. They fit the Parthenon like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
And I’m waithing to hear why the have the right to the rock of Gibraltar.
“The idea is to show how the headless figures taught Rodin that the body could express emotion, as shown in his masterpiece ‘The Kiss’ and because he never visited Greece, experts say he may have picked up the idea from some of his 15 visits to the British Museum. This, it is argued by British Museum, shows why the museum is the right setting for the Marbles, STOLEN from the ruins of the Parthenon by Lord Elgin and brought to Britain about 200 years ago.”
Rembrandt visited Italy and made sketches of each of the faces in Leonardp’s Last Supper.
For that reason if Lord Elgin the Thief decided to steal the Last Supper and move it to Britain then Italy wouldd have no right to demand its return.
Brilliant “logic.”
