The British Museum or Greece: Who should lose their marbles?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2022
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Over the weekend, reports emerged that the chair of the British Museum, ex-chancellor George Osborne, has been holding ‘secret’ talks with the Greek prime minister over the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece. Also known as the Elgin Marbles, the pieces have become symbolic of a wider debate about colonial legacy and restitution in the cultural world. Supporters of the marbles staying put argue they were obtained legally, but Greece says they were stolen – so should they be returned?
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Guests:
- Dame Mary Beard, classicist.
- David Sanderson, arts correspondent, The Times.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | To sum, it's justice long-delayed. |
| 0:09.0 | To others, it could end up as cultural vandalism. |
| 0:14.0 | Restitution is the word of the moment. |
| 0:17.0 | These looted goods are being repatriated |
| 0:19.0 | to close the colonial chapter. |
| 0:21.0 | Plints now standing symbolically empty. |
| 0:24.0 | Museums are being forced to change with the times. |
| 0:29.0 | Last week, a UK museum handed back objects |
| 0:32.0 | looted by British soldiers in the 1890s. |
| 0:35.0 | London's Horniman Museum is returning these six pieces |
| 0:39.0 | and signing over the ownership of the 66 other |
| 0:42.0 | so-called Benin bronzes. |
| 0:44.0 | The Horniman Museum, last year's Museum of the Year, |
| 0:47.0 | was the latest institution to relinquish objects |
| 0:51.0 | obtained in contentious and sometimes violent circumstances. |
| 0:56.0 | The University of Aberdeen became the first British institution |
| 0:59.0 | to announce they would be returning the stolen head of another. |
| 1:02.0 | Cambridge University will follow suit. |
| 1:05.0 | France gave back 26 pieces. |
| 1:07.0 | Germany has recently signed an agreement to return more than 1000 pieces |
| 1:11.0 | and a Smithsonian in the US returned 29 Benin bronzes. |
| 1:16.0 | The bronzes were clearly the plunder of war. |
... |
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