New storm gathers over ‘Elgin Marbles’

Press, 8 January 1983, Page 12

New storm gathers over ‘Elgin Marbles’

From

RALPH JOSEPH.

in Athens

Screen actress Melina Mercouri. who never seems to fade from the limelight, is now about to hit the world stage in another act of a real-life drama: her demand that Britain return to Greece the controversial “Elgin Marbles." A collection of exquisite fifth century B.C. sculptures from the Acropolis in Athens, the marbles now rest securely in the British Museum, and have been in London for the last 180 years.

Ms Mercouri, in her capacity as Minister of Culture in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, began her campaign for a return of the marbles in March. 1981. soon after taking office. The British response has been to discourage any notion that the marbles could ever be returned.

Nothing daunted. Ms Mercouri. who first won prominence for her role in the film “Never on Sunday," plans to launch a vigorous campaign in the heart of the British capital itself next spring, to whip up public opinion in favour of returning the marbles. , If there is one thing Ms Mercouri has proved to be master of, besides screen acting. it is the art of winning public support: she was a leading figure in the campaign for the downfall of the Colonels' Junta in Greece in 1967-74.

The British authorities opposing her. including the present Lord Elgin. Britain's Environment spokesman. Lord Avon, and British Museum Director. Dr David Wilson, will find she has a much stronger British opinion line-up on her side than they may like to imagine. Besides the British committee she has set up to prepare the ground for her campaign, she also has on her side such stalwarts as former British Minister. Barbara Castle. The

19th century British poet. Lord Byron, had much earlier thundered out in verse against Lord Elgin for tampering with the Acropolis and taking away to England several shiploads of ancient Greek art.

The controversy surrounding the marbles began about the beginning of the 19th century, when Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Turkish Ottoman Empire, recieved permission from the Sublime Porte in Istanbul "to take away any sculpture or inscription which did not interfere with the works or walls of the Citadel" at the Acropolis.

Athens was in those days an obscure little village. ’ and Greece itself was just a province of the Ottoman Empire. Elgin's motive for removing the marbles to London are said to have been his desire to educate the British public of the time about the ancient arts, the finest examples of which, he was told, were to be found in Greece. He also seems to have been moved by a desire to save the marbles. The Parthenon, or ancient temple of the goddess Athena, had been badly damaged a century earlier when a Venetian general had fired cannon at Turkish troops who were using the Acropolis as a fort, and the temple as a storehouse for their ammunition. A cannonball hit the ammunition. and a large explosion blew the top off the magnificient temple, damaging much of the artwork. Stone robbers, lime burners, curio hunters and religious fanatics had also done much to vandalize the sculptures by the time Elgin got to them. If the Ottoman authorities so easily gave the then British ambassadors permission to remove some of the sculptures, it was because they considered the statues to be worthless examples of infidel art.

Elgin, then 35. had originally intended merely to make drawings and casts of the Parthenon sculptures and had employed European experts to do so. He began lifting the marbles from the Acropolis in 1801. Some he simply picked up off the ground where they had fallen Other pieces he took out of later structures into which they had been incorporated, but perhaps the most controversial pieces he dismantled from the Parthenon itself. These included 247 feet of the frieze which decorated the top of the temple. Elgin thus took nearly half of the total 524 feet. He also removed 14 metopes from a total of 92. and another 17 ornamental figures.

From structures near the Parthenon. Elgin removed one of the Caryatids (statues of ancient Athenian maidens), one column of the Eretheum. four slabs of the frieze from the Temple of Nike (the winged Victory, and a statue of Dionysus). In transporting these treasures to England in several shiploads, Elgin's vessel, the Mentor, was w’recked off the island of Kythera, and a cargo of 17 cases went to the bottom of the sea. Elgin however hired a salvage crew who retrieved them from the sea bottom in four vears.

Another 40 cases were almost lost when Britain declared war on the Ottoman Empire in 1807, and the marbles were held up in Pireaus port for two years. It had cost Elgin 173.600 to remove the marbles to England but eventually because of the controversy surrounding them he received only 135.000 from the British Museum to which he had to sell them in 1815. Elgin died bankrupt in Paris in 1841, after falling into debt because of his adventure.

It would be virtually impos-

sible today to put a price on the marbles, but British Museum Director, Dr Wilson told the "Observer" in London recently of another reason why the marbles could not be returned. "If we allow the marbles to go back to Greece." he said, "we will open the floodgates to demands from every country in the world that believes it has a case against Britain, and we will place an enormous amount of material at risk."

Dr Wilson’s response was

perhaps the most honest provided by a British authority so far. Earlier, Lord Avon (son of the late Anthony Eden) said that the removal of the antiquities to Athens would expose them to the dangers of pollution.

In fact. London is not much better off than Athens in terms of pollution, though experts are agreed that the marbles are well protected by the facilities inside the British Museum. Ms Mercouri meanwhile insists that a special place is already

being prepared for them in Athens. The actress-turned-Minister seems certain she will eventually win the battle. She claims the return of the Elgin Marbles (she calls then "the Acropolis Marbles") would not be followed by a demand for other Greek treasures spread around the world, particularly in the West. The marbles, she insists, are in a category of their own. They form an “integral part of the Acroplis, which is a symbol of Greece." /