I used to like The British Museum. For the building as much as anything else. Then, last summer, I went to Greece and visited the largely incomplete Acropolis. I looked up at the gaps on the front of the Parthenon, and at the replacement women on the Erechtheion and was sorely disappointed that while I’d travelled a couple of thousand miles to be there, the real things were back in London, five minutes’ walk from my desk.

The blame for much of the damage done to Acropolis Hill lies at the feet of the 7th Earl of Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 18th century. An avid explorer, he dismantled, boxed up and shipped off many of the choice artefacts, including large sections of the Parthenon frieze which, to add insult to vandalism, he split to make lighter and easier to transport.

In fairness to the man, he performed the removal with the permission of the Ottoman governor in power at the time.

Now there are very good arguments for them staying in the British Museum. The Museum itself claims that it has saved them from further damage that would have been caused by pollution had they been left in place, but now that Athens’ New Acropolis Museum is nearing completion that argument is starting to sound somewhat hollow.

The ace card in the British Museum’s hand, though, is the British Museum Act, which would effectively make it illegal for the Marbles, or indeed any of the rest of the collection to be shipped elsewhere. Parliament has, in effect, decreed that the collection, plundered from all around the world, must remain in tact for the benefit of all visitors as a global cultural resource.

I went back to the museum today and looked in the Greek galleries, getting there via the stolen Egyptian relics, and felt quite ashamed of their presence. I don’t doubt that there have been several thousand - if not million - Greek and Egyptian visitors who went there to see for themselves the relics that should rightly be sited in their own country. Likewise for other nationalities in other rooms scattered around the vast building.

I had resolved to write a letter to the museum when I got back from Greece, expressing support for the very subtly-written notices positioned on Acropolis Hill (the Greek authorities have adopted a very grown-up attitude to the whole affair), but of course had forgotten after another 20 days of travel, three border crossings and an eventual flight home.

Walking around the Museum today, though, it struck me that it has no reason to exist any more. At least not in its current state. Air fares are now so low that it would be cheaper for a visitor from Leeds to fly to Athens to see them in situ than it would be for them to take the train to London and see them out of context. Isn’t that a good enough reason on its own for them to be sent back home?

That would leave us acres of gallery space in which we could put together a collection about Britain. Not only would that justify its name, but it would give our international visitors a true and valid reason to pay the place a visit.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 5th, 2007 at 6:57 pm and is filed under Europe, London. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.