[Joe 6-pack]

Wish I had time to look for it...Two or more years ago, there was a thread on the Elgin marbles, and I got into a vociferous argument from an unabashedly pro-Western bias regarding the preservation of antiquities. The person(s) I was arguing against stated that such treasuries needed to be returned to their homelands, whereas I was arguing the only reason they had ever been preserved and not looted, grave-robbed or blackmarketed in the first place was because Western Europeans had recognized their significance and value when the current inhabitants of such areas were allowing them to fall into neglect and disrepair.

On that thread, IIRC, my remarks preceded the "Arab Spring," I predicted the pyramids and sphinx would go the way of the Bamiyan Buddhas...

[hal ogen]

We wandered around Egypt a few years ago. There are many pyramids, other gravesites, temples, monoliths and so forth. I believe the only reason the people there haven’t stolen, sold or taken the sites down is that they are too numerous and too large for their simple society to destroy. Maybe that will change under the nobama/klintoon “arab spring”. Unfortunate for all.

[naturalman1975]

I have a friend quite high up in the heirarchy of the British Museum - a classicist - and I’ve discussed the Elgin Marbles with him. He honestly believes they should be returned to Greece. He thinks where possible such important artifacts should be in their native land. But he told me he and some others won’t budge on the position while anybody tries to insist they were stolen. He wants the Greek government to acknowledge that they were saved from destruction and are being returned only because Greece would now protect its heritage properly (this was before the major financial crisis - not sure if he’d still think they could).