The Parthenon Sculptures: The Times They Are a-Changin'

The great American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan crafted a song in the 1960s which became etched in
folklore as the essence of protest and change, for the times they are a-changin'.

Well it seems that the times are indeed changing when it comes to the perennial question of the
return of the Parthenon Sculptures from the British Museum to the Acropolis Museum in Athens.
Ironically, it took a recent article in the Sunday Times to signal a possible shift in the seemingly-
entrenched British position. Van Morrison and Bob Dylan, One Irish Rover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK46RzGON-4

Time to Release Our Grip on the Marbles

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In a piece that attracted a lot of attention, the highly regarded Times columnist and opinion writer,
Sarah Baxter, recently had discussions with both the Greek Prime Minister and Culture Minister in
Athens where an air of optimism has taken over. As the Culture Minister, Dr Lina Mendoni,
confided in Baxter:

“The atmosphere has changed. With goodwill we can find a way forward for both parties.”

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also confirmed that the Greek State was open to negotiations but
that “baby steps are not enough … we want big steps.”
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Prior to this, Sarah Baxter had met Jonathan Williams, the deputy director of the British Museum,
who declared:

“What we are calling for is an active ‘Parthenon partnership’ with our friends and colleagues in
Greece. I firmly believe there is space for a really dynamic and positive conversation within which
new ways of working together can be found.”

This was hard on the heels of comments made by the Chair of the British Museum, George Osborne,
that the British Museum is open to making a ‘deal’ over the marbles. According to Sarah Baxter, the
British Museum knows it is losing the battle for hearts and minds and after decades of defensiveness
it is now ready to talk.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/why-the-elgin-marbles-may-finally-return-to-greece-09kfzwhgd

Opinion Poll

As if on cue the Sunday Times commissioned a readers’ poll and poignantly asked whether the Elgin
Marbles (now known as the Parthenon Sculptures) should be given back to Greece. The result was
astonishing with over 11,000 votes cast and almost 4 in five readers agreeing that they should be
returned.

The Times is an establishment newspaper and attracts a conservative readership which makes the
result even more significant.

The response in Athens

The Director of the Acropolis Museum, Nikolaos Stampolidis, was encouraged by the words
emanating from Bloomsbury and thought that here could be a "basis for constructive talks", adding
that in returning them the British would be preforming an invaluable act of history. Indeed. it would
be as if the British were restoring democracy itself to the birthplace of the democratic ideal.

The British Museum claims that the sculptures convey the "global tale" of human history and are an
integral part of the British Museum’s collections. But, according to Baxter, the British Museum’s
deputy director concedes that the museum now wants “to change the temperature of the debate”.

This is no doubt partly in response to the criticism levelled at the museum during the recent UNESCO
Intergovernmental Committee on the Return of Cultural Property session in Paris when member
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States resolved unanimously to call upon Greece and the United Kingdom to intensify their efforts
with a view to reaching a satisfactory settlement of this long-standing issue, taking into account its
historical, cultural, legal and ethical dimensions.

The Director of the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece has reiterated that the reunification of the
Parthenon Marbles is an ‘international demand’ and is not a dispute between the British and the
Acropolis museums. It is not even a dispute between the UK and Greece.”

“The reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures to the body they belong to is an international
demand for the restoration of the monument that is the universal symbol of democracy.”

Democracy’s sculptors …The 160 meters of the Parthenon's frieze is a parade of Athenian
democracy. Old and young, men, but also women - and we are talking about a male-dominated
society -, horsemen, knights, even the third class of the theta are depicted in it, in addition to the
priestesses, the workshops

It is a global request,

that the UK needed to show every country there ganged up against the UK.

The propaganda battle was a “challenge, sure”, Williams admitted. “That’s why we are offering a
positive Parthenon partnership.”

The governments’ approach has now changed dramatically. Politicians have held the power of veto
over the marbles’ future since a 1963 act of parliament forbade the British Museum from disposing
of its holdings. But when Mitsotakis visited Britain last November, Johnson told him the marbles’
return was “a matter” for the museum trustees (including the classics scholar Mary Beard and the
potter Grayson Perry, who are thought to be wavering). Did this amount to more than the usual
government buck-passing? In a significant intervention last month, George Osborne, the chairman of
the trustees, suddenly announced on Andrew Marr’s LBC show: “There is a deal to be done.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/why-the-elgin-marbles-may-finally-return-to-greece-09kfzwhgd

The concept of a never-ending loan/deposit

The idea of joint curatorship and reciprocal lending arrangements is not new.

In 2002 the then Greek Culture Minister, Evangelos Venizelos, met with the chair of the British
Museum, Sir John Boyd, to discuss the possibility of sharing collections by way of joint curatorial
responsibility for the sculptures once they were reunited in the yet to be built New Acropolis
Museum in Athens.
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Greece had also suggested that the Acropolis Museum which eventually opened its doors in 2009
could be the subject of an enlightened joint curatorial arrangement between the British Museum
and the authorities in Athens. The idea of a British Museum “outpost” or annex in Athens was
summarily dismissed.

Venizelos was bluntly told that there is a prima facie presumption against the lending of key objects
in the Museum’s collection and in this case the Parthenon sculptures were regarded as being among
a group of key objects which were indispensable to the Museum’s own self-perceived universal
purpose and the Trustees could not envisage ever agreeing to a loan, whether permanent or
temporary, of the Parthenon sculptures in its collections.

The idea of a reciprocal long term loan arrangement was floated by the former SYRIZA government
in 2017 that would see prominent sculptural works sent to the British Museum on a recurring loan
basis in exchange for the permanent relocation of the Elgin collection of Parthenon Sculptures in
Athens. The UK press even speculated on the rare antiquities that might be sent to London,
including the golden death mask of Agamemnon from Mycenae. However, in a humiliating
backdown, the then Greek Culture Minister, Lydia Koniordou, when confronted with reporter’s
questions, abruptly denied that this was the case. The ‘offer’ sank without trace, effectively setting
back the Greek cause for years.

At least that has not occurred this time round because the current government has been steadfast
and unwavering.

As government officials point out, in the coming months world-class figures and leading foreign
politicians will highlight the issue again, exerting "pressure" on the authorities of the British
Museum.
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Also, the proposal to exchange, initially, important antiquities have also "fallen" on the negotiation
table.

That is, for Greece to lend for a period of time some archaeological "treasures" that have never been
outside the borders and for the British Museum to order the return of the Parthenon Sculptures.

As government sources point out, the bottom line is that the issue is increasingly being discussed by
governments and people with international influence, and "the positive result will not be long in
coming."

The Parthenon Project

There are many associations and advocacy groups calling for the sculptures’ return. One prominent
group, formerly known as “Lost My Marbles, has reformed as the Parthenon Project , calling for a
cultural partnership between the UK and Greece that would include permanent, rotating exhibits of
significant artefacts never before seen in London. The idea is that new rotating exhibitions would be
staged on a regular basis in the gallery where the Parthenon sculptures are currently displayed,
featuring for example artefacts from the Mycenean world, then Classical Greece, an exhibition on
Philip II and Alexander the Great, another on the Hellenistic world, so on. The British Museum
would continue to house a world-leading collection of ancient Greek artefacts and treasures whilst
the Acropolis Museum would become the permanent home of the entire reunified collection.

https://www.parthenonproject.co.uk/

Out of Africa: the return of the Benin Bronzes and other colonial spoils of war

Less than a century later, British colonial troops in Africa in a brutal punitive expedition sacked the
city of Benin and looted thousands of rare artefacts.  The Benin Bronzes are a symbol of the greed of
empire and a large collection still sits uncomfortably in the Africa gallery of the British Museum.

Nor was it the spirit of the Enlightenment that inspired a British Museum curator, Richard Holmes,
who was embedded with the British troops during the Battle of Maqdala in Ethiopia in 1868, to ‘buy’
looted and plundered cultural artefacts, including rare religious icons and manuscripts, from the
conquering British soldiers. Those spoils of empire are not even on display in Bloomsbury.

At a time when museums in France, Belgium, Scotland and Gemany have agreed to return cultural
artefacts looted from Africa, most notably the Benin Bronzes, the British Museum continues to resist
and hang on stubbornly to its imperialist mantra that it is the museum “of, and for, the world” and
that restitution of significant cultural property is not something which it can legally (because the
British Museum Act by its terms prevents deaccessioning) or wants to undertake because it will
supposedly betray its very existence and identity as a universal museum borne out of the Age of
Enlightenment.

Eve Salomon, Chair of the Trustees of the Horniman Museum and Gardens, says: ‘The evidence is
very clear that these objects were acquired through force, and external consultation supported our
view that it is both moral and appropriate to return their ownership to Nigeria

Shifting of the dial

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In late July the influential Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, came out and agreed that the UK should
“find a way to share” the ancient Parthenon sculptures and urged for dialogue to begin. He added:

“I’d really encourage the British Museum, the British government and the government of Greece and
the relevant appropriate place – the museum in Athens – to talk about how we can make progress
on this issue. I want them to stay in our city, but why can’t we share them?”

In a recent BBC 4 radio broadcast, Sarah Baxter amplified on the prospects of a positive Parthenon
Partnership. She believes there is definitely a real feeling of positivity in the air and that the British
Museum Deputy Director Jonathan Williams wants to put some flesh on the recent comments by
George Osborne. Whether the arrangement is for a long term loan (as the British would see it) or a
deposit pending legal confirmation (as the return on permanent display of the Palermo fragment is
described by the Greek side), it would be a diplomatic breakthrough.

Ed Vaizey, the former Culture Minister, also expressed the view that the dal has shifted whilst
sheepishly acknowledging that as Culture Minister a decade ago he had drunk the kool-aid when Neil
MacGregor was the British Museum director and pushed the line that the sculptures tell a different
story in London and were no longer part of Greek history.

As far as Vaizey is concerned, George Osborne is a savvy, shrewd man who will actively seek out a
new deal.

The UK Culture wars

But whether the Conservative cultural establishment moves with the times still remains to be seen.

Before Boris Johnson’s premiership started to unravel, some commentators were excited by how a
young future prime minister at Oxford University almost four decades ago had waxed lyrical about
the injustice of the marbles remaining in Bloomsbury, ignoring Johnson’s numerous statements to
the contrary since then, firstly as a journalist, then as a Conservative MP and Mayor of London, and
finally as Prime Minister.

And yet there was at least one report in the Greek press that at their meeting at 10 Downing Street
in November 2021 Johnson, whilst publicly repeating the line that the issue of the marbles was one
for the British Museum and not government, assured Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis that
he would do everything in his power to find the "golden ratio" for a solution to this cultural heritage
impasse.

How will his successor fare?

The signs are rather ominous. It would appear that the Conservative Party is lurching further to the
right in its battle to elect a new leader with one of the Conservative leadership contenders in the
race to the bottom warning against those who would “take a bulldozer to our history, our traditions
and our fundamental values”.

One of the conservative rallying cries of the British cultural establishment, unveiled by the former
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden (who, until recently, was the Chairman of the Conservative Party)
and enthusiastically adopted by his successor, Nadine Dorries, is that British cultural institutions such
as museums and galleries should resort to a policy of “retain and explain” when it comes to calls for
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the return of looted cultural property during colonial periods and the removal of controversial
statues that to many glorify the excesses of white colonialism.

https://www.horniman.ac.uk/story/horniman-to-return-ownership-of-benin-bronzes-to-nigeria/

In an engaging piece Tomiwa Owolade, contributing writer for the New Statesman magazine, lays
out the conservative case for returning the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria in the wake of the decision by
the Horniman Museum in London to return its collection:

“The conservative case for returning the Benin bronzes acknowledges that these are artworks and
that being in the British Museum, in the heart of one of the most global and cosmopolitan cities in
the world, allows them to be widely seen. But they are not simply pieces of art. They also come from
a particular cultural context and possess a specific spiritual resonance: they have a history which is
rooted in a place.”

The observation equally resonates with the case of the Parthenon Sculptures that were torn asunder
from their place of creation and their spiritual home.

But he also notes that the British Museum Act, as has so often been invoked in the past, prevents the
British Museum from deaccessioning artefacts in its collection in the absence of legislative
intervention by parliament. And what are the chances of that?

Owolade is rather sanguine in his assessment:

“(T)here is little chance of this changing in the near future: the current Conservative government is
certainly unlikely to act. At a time when the culture wars are so intense, the Tories don’t want to
look like they are acquiescing to the demands of progressive activists.”

There are others, however, who question how long the museum’s line will be able to hold.

According to Dan Hicks, professor of contemporary archaeology at the University of Oxford and
author of “The Brutish Museums”:

“These are all indications that they know the game’s up. What’s happening, I think, is a
fundamental shift in the position of audiences, stakeholders, and communities that we say we serve
as museums. That idea of a benevolent cultural institution that shares is completely out of step now
if it isn’t backed up with handing back stolen goods. There is a sea change in public opinion
internationally.”

Relief at last

For some campaigners, such as the actor and writer Stephen Fry, Sarah Baxter’s feature was a relief
and showed that for the first time in generations there is a realistic prospect of the Parthenon
sculptures– being reunified in their birthplace in Athens. According to Fry in a letter to the Sunday
Times:

“We can at last move away from two centuries of bitter but sterile legal wrangling and focus instead
on an exchange in which other precious artefacts from Greece – many previously unseen – can be
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shared with the British Museum in recognition of its role as the leading encyclopaedic museum of
the world.”

https://www.ekathimerini.com/multimedia/images/1183244/stephen-fry-presents-parthenon-
sculptures-proposal/

We welcome a true cultural partnership between the UK and Greece. Exact replicas of the
sculptures can be installed in the Duveen Gallery and complemented by other sculptural treasures
from Greece which would be exhibited on a recurring and rotational basis and which would tell the
complete story of the rise of Classical Greece and Periklean democracy.

And in the process a new and enlightened cultural partnership would be unveiled.

It’s a matter of time. The atmosphere has changed The Horniman Museum recognises this and has
set in play a process of restoration of its Benin collection and the ushering in of a new era of
exhibitions on loan and shared curatorial responsibility.

The idea that objects looted from overseas should stay in Britain’s “universal museums”, which has
held since the heyday of the British Empire, is unravelling fast. The mere fact that the Elgin collection
of Parthenon Sculptures has been in London for over 200 years does not them part or British history
or a fractured London tale.

“The point about objects is that their history changes. So there can be another chapter of these
objects’ history.”

In the case of the sculptures, it is actually about turning the pages of history back to the inception
and creation of the marbled forms that once adorned the Parthenon and reuniting the known
surviving sculptural elements in the Acropolis Museum to perfect the unity of the monument which
the master sculptor Phidias oversaw and which the Athenian leader Perikles ordained as a tribute to
Athenian democracy.

Perhaps after all the times are really changing.

Guidelines

The Arts Council England with the great assistance and input of Institute of Art and Law has just
published "Restitution and Repatriation: A Practical Guide for Museums in England".

It outlines the legal and ethical guidelines that museums in the UK should follow in responding to
claims for the restitution or repatriation of contested cultural property.

The guide, which can be accessed at https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/.../Restitution%20and...

includes commentary and recommendations that directly apply to the case of the Parthenon
Sculptures as well as other significant disputed cultural artefacts such as the Benin Bronzes and the
Maqdala Treasures.

The Guide urges as a starting point that in order to engage in meaningful and fruitful dialogue about
a restitution or repatriation request, the museum and the claimant must have a good understanding
of each other’s structures and processes so that if the museum is legally prevented from
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deaccessioning certain items (as in the case of the British Museum’s oft-stated reliance on the British
Museum Act in relation to the refusal to discuss return of its Elgin collection of Parthenon
Sculptures) it may wish to explore with the claimant whether outcomes other than a transfer of legal
ownership might be possible.

According to the Arts Council, considering a claim in accordance with ethical principles means, at its
most basic level, discussing ‘the right thing to do’.

The Guide also states that it is generally recognised throughout the museum sector that cultural
objects of great significance to a country or community of origin, or to a past owner, can retain an
important connection to that country, community or person long after their removal. In that
context, museums must be especially sensitive to countries or communities of origin, and to past
owners, in relation to cultural objects originally taken in ways considered unethical today (including
during war, conflict or occupation, as well as by unlawful means or through duress).

Finally, in terms of possible outcomes, the guide advances a number of possible ways that a claim for
restitution or repatriation can be resolved, including outcomes whereby:

• legal ownership of the object is transferred to the claimant and the object handed to the claimant
or a representative on a date to be arranged by mutual agreement

• the museum remains the legal owner, but the object is lent to the claimant (on a short-term or
long-term basis)

• the museum remains the legal owner, but the claimant is given certain rights of access to the
object and/or control over its future care and display

• a form of shared legal ownership is agreed

In light of recent media statements suggesting a desire to achieve a "Parthenon Partnership" of

sorts, this guide will inspire an enlightened conversation between Greece and the UK over the fate of
the Parthenon Sculptures.

A young, fragile John Keats was simply overawed when he first beheld the Elgin Marbles in 1817,
with his profound expression of gratitude immortalised by his paean to Romantic sensibility -
“Beauty is Truth; Truth is Beauty”.

Some observers are sceptical. According to the arts correspondent for the UK Telegraph, citing
unnamed sources, agreeing to a loan would mean tacitly accepting that the British Museum legally
owns the sculptures which Greek authorities have always maintained were “stolen” from the
Acropolis by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century. For that reasons, the argument goes, the British
Museum’s “active Parthenon partnership” is unlikely to end the decades-long wrangle over the
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sculptures since Greece would have to reject any loan deal or risk losing its “non-negotiable” legal
claim to the Elgin Marbles.

It would amount to an unacceptable pivot from Greece’s long-held position and could significantly
weaken any future moral and legal claim to the Marbles after any loan period came to an end.

Mr Williams did not suggest what new ways would be looked at, but a statement from the British
Museum on the issue stated: “We believe that sharing them with the public in as rich a range of
contexts as possible should lie at the heart of these conversations.

“The public is failed when conversations are limited to a legalistic and adversarial context. We will
loan the sculptures, as we do many other objects, to those who wish to display them to other public
around the world, provided they will look after them and return them.”

And yet there are some uncomfortable truths that the British Museum continues to
ignore if it is to shed its reputation as a citadel of colonialism.

Lord Elgin used and abused his diplomatic status position as the British ambassador
to the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 19th century to oversee the pillaging of the
Parthenon and other classical monuments atop the Acropolis.

The Mitsotakis Government has at least been consistent in its line and has stayed on message about
the importance of the return of the sculptures to Greece and in the interest of world heritage.

At the 22nd Session of UNESCO held in Paris in May 2022 the Committee once again called on the
British side to enter into bona fide dialogue with the Greeks, coming in the wake of a controversial
but deserved decision issued unanimously by the Committee at its previous session in September
2021 in which it castigated the British authorities for their failure to move in any meaningful way to
engage in constructive and goof faith dialogue with the Greeks.

Ahead of the UNESO meeting in May the UK Deputy Secretary of the Arts had written to the Greek
Culture Ministry requesting a bilateral meeting to discuss the sculptures. But this once again
seemed to be a false dawn because on the floor of the UNESCO committee the representatives of
the UK Government, including the same Jonathan Williams who was interviewed by Sarah Baxter,
denied that there would be any talks about the Parthenon Sculptures per se and proceeded to
repeat, ad nauseum, the well-worn argument that the sculptures belong in London.
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I am still not aware if a meeting has been scheduled.

In April 2019 in Athens Sarah Baxter spoke at an international conference in the Acropolis Museum
and surveying her surroundings declared that “it’s obvious the Parthenon sculptures belong here”.

She concluded that Britain knows it cannot hang on to the sculptures for much longer and cited the
ability to recreate the sculptures using 3-D digital scanning technology to produce wonderful copies
of original artefacts.

Baxter declared that “it’s time Britain was more imaginative about how to preserve the Parthenon
sculptures in London” - time for a “figurative swap” with the originals in Athens and superb copies in
London with the imagination left to conjure possible travelling exhibitions in the future.

If a new enlightened partnership could be negotiated more than 200 years later, with the surviving
Phidian forms final reunited and put on display in the Acropolis Museum near the place of their
creation,

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

As for Jonathan Williams' argument that the Sculptures are an "absolutely integral part" of the
British Museum's collection, he emphasized: "All civilized people who argue that the British Museum
is universal because it contains all cultures, besides that a museum does not should teach theft, in
addition to what Lord Byron and other British thinkers have already written to this day, the fact that
the Parthenon Sculptures are an integral part of the universal symbol of democracy should make
those who disagree rethink what they are after all fair enough. They argue that the Sculptures form
200 years of integral history of the British Museum. So I ask, is the 200 years of history of a museum
stronger than the 2,500 years of the creation of the Parthenon and its unity?"

In the Greek press, there was at least one report that, according to certain “high-ranking
government officials” the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and his close associates have
been talking for the last two years with leading personalities politicians from abroad and are
coordinating their actions and internationalising the cause so that the Trustees of the British
Museum and their supporters will finally relent and say “yes" to the return of the sculptures.

September meeting
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Loan vs deposit BBC 4

Steps despite the 1963 ban

Stampolidis points out that the British Museum has given back Aboriginal bones and human remains
to Australia and New Zealand. The museum has also returned works stolen by the Nazis during the
Holocaust. Therefore, the British Museum has taken steps despite the ban of the 1963 Act. You will
tell me that these are special cases, but the case of the Parthenon is also special. Explain the
different legislation

As for one possible way forward, says Pitts, “the British Museum is saying we’re happy to loan
material, and they don’t seem to be putting any kind of limits on how long that loan might be. So
one can imagine that some really significant part of the Parthenon collection could end up effectively
on permanent display in Athens. But as a loan.”

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/aug/05/pressure-builds-on-british-museum-to-
return-parthenon-marbles

BBC 4

Shifting of the dial

Stephen Fry, actor and campaigner, London SW1

Poll

A Times poll conducted last week and which attracted over 11,000 votes from subscribers of the
conservative newspaper reveals that almost 4 in 5 readers are in favour of return of the Parthenon
Sculptures.

agree that despite Sarah Baxter’s optimism I suspect the British Museum will still not budge much, if
at all.  They have form. 

I agree that the British Museum Act requires amendment but in the current race to the bottom (and
hard right)  of the Conservative Party leadership battle I don’t see that happening any time soon.  A
Labour Govt may be more inclined to do so, but that is some time off.  As you know, I am frustrated
by the “long game” (so aptly put by you) being played.  I just don’t think that British public opinion,
even though it supports return, will be a significant factor in the final analysis when it comes to the
issue of return of the sculptures.
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We’ll see.  I am currently writing an op-ed for the Greek City Times about the latest revelations and
‘hopes’.

INSERT PHOTO OF BM

To borrow from Bob Dylan (with apologies)

Come trustees, parliamentarians

Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'

It’s a matter of time. The atmosphere has changed The Horniman Museum recognises this and has
set in play a process of restoration of its Benin collection and the ushering in of a new era of
exhibitions on loan and shared curatorial responsibility.

The idea that objects looted from overseas should stay in Britain’s “universal museums”, which has
held since the heyday of the British Empire, is unravelling fast. The mere fact that the Elgin collection
of Parthenon Sculptures has been in London for over 200 years does not them part or British history
or a fractured London tale.

“The point about objects is that their history changes. So there can be another chapter of these
objects’ history.”

In the case of the sculptures, it is actually about turning the pages of history back to the inception
and creation of the marbled forms that once adorned the Parthenon and reuniting the known
surviving sculptural elements in the Acropolis Museum to perfect the unity of the monument which
the master sculptor Phidias oversaw and which the Athenian leader Perikles ordained as a tribute to
Athenian democracy.

Ancient Athen’s democracy sculptors will finally see their works reunited.

It is not just about words Action will follow.

FT: Yet despite all the resistance from museums, despite the expense and difficulty, the tears and
trouble and wars of words, restitution has been moving at quite a speed in the past few years.
Cultural diplomacy.

Horniman Museum to return Benin Bronzes

August 8 2022
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Picture: The Sunday Times

The Horniman Museum in London has decided to formally transfer ownership of a collection of 72 items looted
from Benin in 1897 to the Nigerian government. Here's the Horniman's statement. In The Sunday Times, Liam
Kelly calls this a 'watershed moment', and I think that's right. This is a really significant decision, and the
processes which have led to it must mean this is the first of many.

A few thoughts on why. First, the decision to transfer has been made following a request from Nigeria's National
Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM). In days past, one of the hand-wringing responses from UK
museums was, 'well we'd love to give them back, but we've had no formal request'. That's now changed.

Second, the Horniman is a central government funded museum. So this decision has been - or will be - signed off
by the Department for Culture, DCMS. There have been some instances of UK museums returning (or pledging to
return, since only two items have actually gone back so far) some of their Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, but these
have been regional museums, not sponsored directly by DCMS. In  The Sunday Times, the arts minister, Lord
Parkinson, is quoted as not necessarily approving the Horniman decision, but making it clear decisions like this
are up to museums:

Lord Parkinson, the arts minister, said that it was not for government to “tell the museums what the right or

wrong decision is” and that any restitution claims should be made “case by case, item by item

Parkinson added: “There are at least two sides to every argument. The job of historians and museums is to

faithfully represent all of those sides and let people make their decisions. A lot of people are concerned that we

rush to moral judgment about the past.

It's bad history if a nation sweeps things under the carpet and forgets them. It’s also bad history if you create

new myths of wickedness and sins of the past. We have to confront the facts and learn lessons from them.

Third, this all builds pressure on the British Museum, which not only has the UK's largest collection of Benin
Bronzes, but also of course many other high profile restitutable items, such as the Parthenon Marbles. For the
British Museum, however (and some other major institutions such as the V&A) there are separate bars of statute
preventing restitution. Recently, as mentioned on AHN, senior museum leaders like the V&A's Tristram Hunt
have not only called for these laws to be reviewed, but have effectively taken the decision into their own hands
with cleverly crafted 'long term loans'. While Lord Parkinson says 'the case has not yet been made' to change the
law, it is hard to see how the now government-endorsed policy of 'this is up to individual museums' can be
countered by 'well not that museum'.
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In other words, it seems to me that the Horniman Museum and Lord Parkinson have made, or are about to make,
a significant contribution to a change in UK government policy. Remember, this is a government which usually
loses no time to strike a position of 'Britain first' in any culture war. So the fact that we are seeing these
developments now probably does, however obliquely, herald a turning point.

One final technical point, I suspect the export licensing system, including the Waverley Criteria (by which the
government judges whether cultural items can be permanently exported from the UK) will have to be amended in
light of this new policy. Because all of these items will require export licences, and at the moment it's hard to see
how items like the Benin Bronzes can be said not to satisfy the Waverley Criteria for blocking export. They are:

Is the item closely connected with our history and national life?

Is it of outstanding aesthetic importance?

Is it of outstanding significance for the study of some particular branch of art, learning or history?

If there is a change in the export licence system, we really will know that a nationwide restitution of these objects
is finally going to happen.

https://www.arthistorynews.com/

RAISING THE PARTHENON SCULPTURES

RETURN TO THE ACROPOLIS

ARE THE PARTHENON SCULPTURES COMING HOME AT LAST?

BACK TO ATHENS

RETURN OF THE SCULPTURES