2023-08-25 21:55:55
by PAOLA DE CAROLIS
“We didn’t react decisively.” And Athens insists: give us back the Parthenon Marbles
LONDON Last year it welcomed more than four million people (free of charge), making it the world’s third-largest museum in terms of visitors, but since it first opened its doors in 1759, the British Museum has been among the places most renowned and respected cultural heritage. 2023 will be remembered as the annus horribilis: the storm that hit it shows no signs of passing. The outgoing director, Hartwig Fischer, has admitted his responsibility in the case of the theft of several hundred ancient relics and announced his resignation with immediate effect. Will a change at the top be enough to contain the reputational damage of an institution already criticized for its decision to keep the Parthenon marbles, works that Greece is now claiming with renewed insistence?
“In recent days I have analyzed the facts and our investigation into what happened in depth,” underlined Fischer, who some time ago had surprisingly announced that he would leave his post in 2024 after seven years at the helm. “It seems clear to me that the British Museum has not reacted decisively, as it should have, to the first indications of the disappearance of some objects and to a problem that has now emerged in its entirety”. Responsibility, he specified, “lies with the director”. “The situation – he added, looking to the future in a positive way – is absolutely serious, but I sincerely believe that the museum will overcome this moment and emerge from it stronger than before”.
Fischer may be right, but the British Museum’s image has taken a hit. The man who for several years would have removed various precious objects (not on display but kept in the rooms reserved for scholars, some dating back to the 7th century BC) to resell them online would be Peter Higgs, a curator who also dealt with Greek antiquities for a period and Roman and, therefore, of the marbles of the Parthenon.
Higgs claims he is innocent and the police investigate the case, but the man had aroused the suspicions of some colleagues and also of a collector based in Denmark, Ittai Gradel, who had found some jewels and memorabilia on eBay and had reported the matter to the management of the museum already two years ago. For Despina Moutsoumba, director of the Association of Archaeologists of Greece, the case is one more sign that the marbles must be returned. “We are worried – she told the BBC – that there are several Greek things among the stolen objects. The British Museum can no longer say that treasures belonging to our heritage are safer in London. It is obvious that he has to reconsider the position.’
Greece has long been asking for the return of the marbles, removed from the Parthenon by Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of Elgin, in the 19th century in a way that was anything but transparent or regular. In January, the president of the museum, George Osborne, had said he was open to negotiating for the achievement of a compromise, or rather a formula that allows the sculptures to be loaned to Greece on a temporary basis, a solution which for now has not found great favor among Athens. For Moutsoumba, the thefts mean that the negotiations must be abandoned. “We Greek archaeologists have never wanted a compromise and we believe that our government must now announce that it will end all negotiations. The marbles are to be returned to Athens. I’m not safe in London.’
It is a line that London does not like and which seems to have triggered a half-war of words, if the Conservative MP Tim Loughton, chairman of the parliamentary group on the British Museum, underlined that the thefts that ended up on the front pages of half the world’s newspapers did not concern the most important works of the museum, but a handful of objects from a collection that boasts more than eight million pieces. «The British Museum – he underlined – is extremely secure and has a digital archive that is unmatched. It’s not that someone entered at night bypassing the security systems, as happened in other museums, including some museums in Greece”.
At the British Museum, however, the atmosphere is not good. Fischer’s resignation could be followed by those of other key figures and the hope is that they will allow the museum to move on and focus its energies on recovering the stolen objects. “Fischer has acted honorably in stepping down with immediate effect,” Osborne stressed. «The museum is going through a turbulent moment», he admitted, «but we will make up for our mistakes. The museum has a mission that holds true across generations. We will learn the lessons we need to learn, regain trust and once again be admired as we deserve to be.”
August 25, 2023 (change August 25, 2023 | 22:12)
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