CASE NUMBER: 445

CASE MNEMONIC: ELGIN

CASE NAME: The Elgin Marbles

• IDENTIFICATION
• LEGAL CLUSTERS
• GEOGRAPHIC CLUSTERS
• TRADE CLUSTERS
• ENVIRONMENT CLUSTERS
• OTHER FACTORS

I. Identification

1. The Issue

For over 150 years, the marbles of Greece's Parthenon have been situated in the British Museum. Known as the Elgin Marbles, they continue to be the focal pointn of an ongoing debate that will ultimately determine the historical influence of a particularly important culture. This case study will detail the seizure, removal, transport and sale of marble sculptures from Greece's Parthenon pediment. The sculptures that were removed include marble figures, metopes (sculptures in high relief) and friezes. The dispute between Greece and Great Britain over the Elgin Marbles will be analyzed from the arguments presented by both sides. In doing so, the legality of the trade that occurred will be questioned and its relative impact as an important denominator for Greek history, culture and nationalism will be discussed. To date, the Greek government has formally requested the return of the Elgin Marbles several times while the British government has consistently refused any action. Greece is actively pursuing an agenda to pressure the British Parliament to pass a law mandating that the British Museum return the collection to its original site at the Acropolis. This is being done through direct lobbying efforts that have the support of both UNESCO and the European Union. The Greek government is also considering international channels to resolve the issue, namely the European Court of Justice.

2. Description

The Parthenon Marbles constitute a unique case in that they form part of a unique historical monument which for humanity, and international public opinion, symbolizes civilization and democracy, but for the Greek people much more than that. For the Greek people they symbolize our history and the continuity of the Greek nation. (1) (excerpt form "The Elgin Marbles," a presentation by William G. Stewart to The Smithsonian Institution, June 3, 1997)

The Athenian statesman Pericles built the Parthenon after the Greek army's final triumph over the Persians at Plataea in 479 B.C. Work on the Parthenon, which honored Athen's patron goddess Athena, began in 447 B.C. and was completed fifteen years later. The monument's decorative sculpture was symbolic of Greece's political and cultural history. The 92 metopes portrayed the victories of Greek gods and heroes over their enemies and thus the victory of civilization over barbarism. The friezes displayed citizens as close to the gods, which to an Athenian of the time signified the glorification of all of Greece's people.

The history of the Parthenon reflects a succession of foreign occupations. In 1690, the Turks captured Athens and erected a mosque inside the shell of the Parthenon. Athens was under Turkish occupation at the beginning of the 19th Century when the British diplomat, the 7th Earl of Elgin, obtained permission from the Turkish authorities to remove some of the marble sculptures from the Parthenon. Lord Elgin then proceeded to remove and ship the Parthenon's famous marble sculptures to England. The sculptures, which became known as the Elgin Marbles, have been on display in the British Museum ever since.

The taking and transport of the marbles occurred shortly before Greece secured its independence from Turkish rule. Some have argued that Lord Elgin stripped the Parthenon, taking advantage of the post he held as British ambassador in Constantinople. (2) However, his original intentions seem to have been unclear and it is speculated that they were anywhere from simply drawing or modeling the Parthenon sculptures to taking the marbles that had fallen to the ground and forcibly removing others from the building itself. (3)

In 1800 Lord Elgin sent a team to Athens to draw and make casts of the Parthenon marbles for the decoration of his residence in Scotland. The international political situation at the time had drawn Turkey into an alliance with Britain against France. Lord Elgin seems to have exploited his position, the political situation and the Turkish Sultan's favor, seizing the opportunity to amass a huge collection of antiquities from central Greece, the Aegean Islands and Asia Minor, where Greek civilization had once flourished. (4) He then turned his attention to the monuments of the Parthenon, located on the Acropolis, which was difficult to access due to its heigth and size. It appears that no permit was ever granted to remove the sculptures, but Elgin was able to persuade the Turkish leaders in Constantinople and Athens to give him permission to draw, make casts and excavate around the foundations, on the condition that the monuments themselves would not be destroyed. (5) Elgin then proceeded, on his own accord, to remove parts of the sculptured decorations of the buildings on the Acropolis.

The work of stripping the Parthenon began in 1801. Elgin's men took down the sculptures from the temple where they had been standing for some 2,250 years, destroying in the process the surrounding parts of the structure. Many of the monuments were mutilated through Elgin's removal instructions, which were both careless and intentional so that the marble structures could be more easily shipped. (6) This included sawing off the backs of the frieze blocks, cutting in two one of the Parthenon capitals and an Erecheion cornice, and repeated smashing of the metopes. Over a period of ten years, Elgin's men dismembered the Parthenon and removed sections of the buildings on the Acropolis. Because of the Ottoman rule, the repressed Greeks were helpless to stop the taking of the marbles which they viewed as an act of supreme injustice to their cultural heritage. (7)

When the marbles from the Parthenon arrived in England, they were the subject of commercial bargaining between Lord Elgin and the British government. The British Parliament condemned Elgin for robbing antiquities and destroying monuments after debating his rightful claims to ownership and his actions. The Parliament decided by 82 votes to 30 to purchase the Marbles from him for 35,000 pounds and proceeded to give them to the British Museum, where they are maintained as one of the Museum's most important collections.

Of the 97 surviving blocks of the Parthenon frieze, 56 are in the British Museum and 40 are in Athens. Of the 64 surviving metopes, 15 are in the Museum while 18 remain in Athens. In many cases, parts of the same sculpture are divided between Athens and London.

The arguments for the return of the Elgin Marbles to Greece are as follows:

1. The Marbles are an integral part of an existing cultural monument, the Parthenon, and architectural complex, the Acropolis.

2. The Marbles occupy a central position in the cultural heritage of Greece and are symbolic of the Greek people's link with its own past.

3. The marbles were forcibly taken while Greece was under foreign occupation. The Greek people were not consulted about their removal. The dubious "permission" granted to Lord Elgin by the Ottoman occupying power did not, therefore, give him any valid legal title to the sculptures.

4. The Marbles fall within the definition drawn up by UNESCO on cultural property that should be returned to the country of origin. This definition excludes the vast majority of foreign antiquities now held by the British Museum.

5. In cooperation with UNESCO, the Greek government is sponsoring a construction and restoration program for the Acropolis and plans have been implemented for the building of an adjacent Acropolis Museum that will house the Marbles, carrying through on a program that would guarantee proper environmental protection for the sculptures. (8)

6. Public opinion in Great Britain is overwhelmingly for the transfer of the Marbles back to Greece.

The arguments for keeping the Elgin Marbles housed in the British Museum are as follows:

1. The removal of the Marbles was proper under the applicable international law that existed at the time of Lord Elgin's actions. The original purchase of the sculptures was therefore done in a perfectly legal manner and Great Britain is entitled to keep the works.

2. Returning the Marbles to Greece would constitute a precedent for the universal removal of major acquisitions of the world's museums, declining the Museum's vital role in the education of arts and culture. This would allow countries to demand restitution of works of art they believe had been acquired in questionable circumstances. Countries that might be affected would include the following: Czech Republic (6,000 stolen artifacts), Russia (3,436 stolen artifacts), Germany (2,715 stolen artifacts), Cambodia (13 valuable antiques), Bolivia, Italy, Poland, and Belgium. (9).

3. Retaining the Marbles in the British Museum over the course of 150 years has protected them from the high levels of atmospheric pollution in Athens, which has noticeably damaged the Parthenon marbles on the Acropolis.

4. The Marbles were "saved" through their removal. There is no reason to suppose that the sculptures would have received better care from the Turks during the remaining years of Ottoman rule, who could have continued to break up marble objects to build walls or to burn for lime. Additionally, the growing trade in antiquities, fed by Greeks as well as Turks, would have led to the dispersion of more works that would have had an uncertain fate. (10)

5. The Marbles have been in England for more than a century and in that time have become a part of the British cultural heritage. Like other works in the British Museum, they have entered British culture. In this way, the Marbles help define the British to themselves while inspiring British arts. (11)

At the heart of these arguments is the role that trade, whether considered legal or illegal, plays in a nation's cultural history and nationalism. This "environment" is based on the relation between cultural property and cultural definition. (12) "For a full life and a secure identity people need exposure to their history, much of which is represented or illustrated by objects." (13) The central question then becomes whether a nation's people should always be entitled to the preservation of their cultural "environment" and what circumstances, if any, justify the taking and trading of artifacts that are important to cultural definition and expression.

From the vantage point of the Greek government, as stated by former Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri, the Parthenon Marbles "are our pride. They are our sacrifices. They are a tribute to democratic philosophy. They are our aspirations and our name. They are the essence of Greekness." (14) Greece's current Minister of Culture Evangelos Venizelos has taken this line of thought even further by repeatedly emphasizing that the issues surrounding the Marbles are vital to the world's cultural heritage. Thus, at issue is the government's desire to return the Marbles to Greece, which is based on both legal and moral principles, and constituting an affirmation that the cultural "environment" has been damaged and therefore should be rectified.

3. Related Cases

ARTIFACT

BRONZE

CEDARS

GUANO

BULB

GREEKTUR

EGYPT

HIMALAY

FRANCE

GRAND

VENICE

Keyword Clusters

(1): Trade Product= MONUMent

(2): Bio-geography= DRY

(3): Environmental Problem= CULture

4. Draft Author: Chip Arvantides

II. Legal Clusters

5. Discourse and Status: DISagree and INPROgress

There are many questions surrounding the legal standing of the Elgin Marbles case. The Greek government has the support of UNESCO and the European Union, which view the possession of the Marbles by the British Museum as unlawful. The British government, however, asserts that the removal of the Marbles from Greece was legal under the international law that existed at the time of the taking and therefore has legal standing today. As the British Museum maintains it is the legal owner of the Marbles, the British government contends that the Marbles can only be transferred back to Greece through an act passed by British Parliament. The case is currently being reviewed by the European Court of Justice to determine whether it has jurisdiction over the matter.

6. Forum and Scope: UNESCO and MULTI-national

The basis for the resolution of the dispute is under question. However, it appears that several laws will affect the outcome, including international laws pertaining to the return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin (UNESCO), international law pertaining to the legality of a taking, regional laws (European Union) and domestic law (British Parliament). It is apparent from this case that a universal, broad ruling regarding the historical removal and trade of cultural artifacts should become an integral part of international law. In this way, an international law would exist that protects the history of a culture. Further, it would require the return of artifacts that had been taken from their country of origin and seek to prevent illegal removals in the future. In the case of the Elgin Marbles, a law such as this would return the sculptures and thus preserve an important part of Greece's cultural history.

7. Decision Breadth: 2 (Greece and Great Britain)

8. Legal Standing: LAW

III. Geographic Clusters

9. Geographic Locations

a. Geographic Domain: Europe

b. Geographic Site: Western Europe

c. Geographic Impact: Greece

10. Sub-National Factors: NO

11. Type of Habitat: Temperate

The Acropolis, the original site of the Marbles, is situated in a temperate region. Considering the age of the Parthenon and increasing levels of air pollution in Athens, the condition of the Marbles is extraordinary. This can be attributed to a year round temperate climate with low levels of humidity.

IV. Trade Clusters

12. Type of Measure: Regulatory Standard [REGSTD]

A regulatory standard, at a minimum, exists in the trade and purchase of cultural artifacts. UNESCO determines the legality of such trade on a case by case basis, using as its precedent, the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. For details of this law: Go to UNESCO

13. Direct v. Indirect Impacts: INDirect

An international law preventing the universal trade of cultural artifacts would have a greater impact on future trading practices of collectors and museum officials, but a law that would be retroactive in the case of most current museum antiquities and artwork would be vulnerable to disputes. However, UNESCO's governmental committee met in September 1997 and proposed that standardized national inventories and an international database of movable cultural property be created. The committee perceives this as perhaps the most effective way to trace and recuperate stolen and missing cultural objects. (15)

14. Relation of Trade Measure to Environmental Impact

a. Directly Related to Product: YES: Artifact

b. Indirectly Related to Product: NO

c. Not Related to Product: NO

d. Related to Process: NO

15. Trade Product Identification: CRAFT

The trade is in final products or parts of final products that constitute a craft. The marbles in dispute consist of sculptures, metopes and friezes.

16. Economic Data

The revenues generated by tourism are at issue here. The Greek government can argue that it has lost revenues due to the "incompleteness" of the Parthenon. Greece relies heavily on tourism and although it is impossible to calculate lost revenues due to the missing Marbles, Greek tourism declined from 1990 to 1996, slipping from the 13th most popular destination internationally to 17th. (16) In 1996, 9.8 million foreign visitors came to Greece, bringing in foreign exchange receipts of $3.75 billion, as opposed to 10.7 million visitors and $4.6 billion in 1995. (17) On the other hand, the British government has certainly benefited financially from the inclusion of the Marbles in the British Museum's collections. Additionally, although the Marbles were purchased by the British government for 35,000 pounds, the perception in historical terms may well render them priceless.

17. Impact of Trade Restriction: Low

The impact of a new international standard for the regulation of artifacts is difficult to measure in quantifiable terms; its value can be said to be heightened recognition for the value of certain cultural identifiers, such as artifacts, in the context of history.

18. Industry Sector: Entertainment

19. Exporters and Importers: Greece and the United Kingdom

V. Environment Clusters

20. Environmental Problem Type: Artifact

21. Name, Type, and Diversity of Species: None

22. Resource Impact and Effect: HIGH and PRODuct

The case can be generally perceived as a resource depletion problem. There is no direct or present affect on the environment, however, the removal of the Marbles reflects a depletion of resources that is culturally-based.

23. Urgency and Lifetime: HIGH and Unknown

24. Substitutes: None

VI. Other Factors