Showing results 13 - 24 of 46 for the month of July, 2009.

July 21, 2009

Neil MacGregor’s claims that the Elgin Marbles will not return

Posted at 12:59 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles, Similar cases

For some reason, it appears that Neil MacGregor is now guaranteed positive coverage whenever he writes a piece for, or is interview by The Times. It seems that whatever claims he makes regarding his reasons for retention of the Parthenon Sculptures are accepted with little question or analysis.

The problem in many cases is that whilst what the British Museum is saying may be construed as a valid approach to take, it is represented as being the only valid approach, without considering the range of other possibilities or the views & sensibilities of others.

The Elgin Marbles or the Rosetta Stone may well have changed history – but there is no clear evidence that this was only the case because of the fact that they were in the British Museum.

Following the initial article are two more articles also on the British Museum, followed by a response by Kwame Opoku.

From:
The Times

July 18, 2009
Neil MacGregor lifts British Museum’s ambition to new heights
Tristram Hunt: Commentary

This is why the Elgin Marbles are not going back. With characteristic panache, Neil MacGregor is once again making the case for the British Museum as a museum of all mankind. In 100 episodes based around 100 objects from the Bloomsbury collection, Mr MacGregor aims to cement the British Museum’s Enlightenment credentials. And he’s doing so with some ambitious inter-disciplinary thinking.

To tell a story of the world in 15 minutes through a series of objects requires a sure grasp of cultural and social anthropology. Mr MacGregor, whose most celebrated exhibition during his tenure at the National Gallery was the Seeing Salvation display of Renaissance iconography, has long understood the allure of artefacts. Indeed, he is sometimes accused of seeking to blur — in an increasingly agnostic age — the boundaries between the secular and the religious by investing the British Museum’s objects with an almost spiritual significance. But in going beyond the obviously material, in explaining the broader cultural and social currency of the collection, he will give the story of these objects a relevance far in excess of their historic context.
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Looted Iraqi artefacts continue to appear on the international art market

Posted at 12:44 pm in Similar cases

Looting of artefacts is not a recent phenomenon – but despite every more stringent international laws, it continues to be a problem – leading to potential new disputes between countries in the future that no one yet knows about.

From:
PR Newswire

Looting Matters: Why Do Antiquities From Iraq Continue to Surface on the Market?
SWANSEA, Wales, July 17 /PRNewswire/

David Gill, archaeologist, considers how antiquities derived from Iraq continue to appear on the antiquities market.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq led to the loss of some 15,000 items from the archaeological collections in Baghdad. This alerted the international community to the scale of the problem and as a result some 6000 objects have been handed over to Iraqi authorities. These have been seized in a range of countries across the Middle East as well as in Europe.
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What’s in a name? Who owns the Rosetta Stone

Posted at 12:39 pm in British Museum, Similar cases

In a case that only tenuously relates to restitution claims, a software manufacturer is involved in legal action with Google over the fact that other companies may be taking out adverts that are set to appear when the name of their business is entered in a search. What makes this semi-relevant though is that the name of the company is Rosetta Stone – so one would have thought that at present any actual ownership claimed on the name might belong to the British Museum. Of course though this is not the end of the cycle either – Egypt disputes the British Museum’s ownership of the stone & as such would have the rights to the name of the stone.

The question that this raises, is what gives others the right to re-appropriate a term & call it their own, to the extent of trying to prevent others from using it – a situation not dis-similar from the British Museum’s current claims that artefacts such as the Rosetta Stone are now integral to their own collections & therefore can not be returned to their true owners.

From:
Telecom TV

Google v. Rosetta Stone: the case of the stolen words
Posted By TelecomTV One , 17 July 2009

What’s in a word? Often a lot of money for a start. And where there’s money there’s lawyers. And where there’s lawyers there is, sometimes, a measure of clarity. By Ian Scales.

At least the issues get a good outing. The Google v. Rosetta Stone case is currently raging in the US courts and it’s about when and to what extent a word could or should be controlled by those who claim it as a trademark.
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July 20, 2009

The New Acropolis Museum’s importance to Greek people

Posted at 12:58 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles, New Acropolis Museum

Britain has for many years maintained that Greece has nowhere to exhibit the Elgin Marbles & that they are better displayed in the British Museum. The New Acropolis Museum represents a challenge to these claims that can not easily be brushed aside any longer.

From:
Wallpaper

Thursday 16 July 2009
The Acropolis Museum, Athens
Chris Sullivan

It’s impossible to over-emphasize just how important the newly built Acropolis Museum is to the Greek people. Suffice to say that on approaching the brand new £110 million construction my companion for the day, Tina Daskalantonaki, owner of Athen’s King George Hotel, was in tears.

Opening five years behind schedule, the Acropolis Museum is situated on the sacred rock East of the Parthenon and houses the greatest sculptural treasures of the ancient world including works from the temple of Athena Polias on the Acropolis and parts of the Parthenon by Phidias.
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Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition leads to controversy over ownership

Posted at 12:54 pm in Similar cases

More coverage of the controversy surrounding the exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Royal Ontario Museum.

From:
Forward – The Jewish Daily

Furor Over Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibition
By Michael Kaminer
Published July 15, 2009, issue of July 24, 2009.

Toronto — Crowds at the Royal Ontario Museum’s heavily hyped Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition — Dead Sea Scrolls: Words That Changed the World, which runs until January 3, 2010 — have far exceeded the museum’s own expectations. In the show’s first nine days, more than 18,000 people flocked to the museum’s spectacular new Daniel Libeskind-designed Michael Lee-Chin Crystal pavilion — about 52% above the exhibitors’ own projections.

But hosannas for the showing, featuring four scroll fragments on loan from the Israel Antiquities Authority and displayed in public for the first time, have not been universal. Last April, the Palestinian Authority appealed to Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, to cancel the show, citing international conventions that make it illegal for a government agency to take archaeological artifacts from a territory that its country occupies.
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Art Deco building in front of New Acropolis Museum spared demolition

Posted at 12:48 pm in New Acropolis Museum

More coverage of the court ruling that the two buildings on Dionysiou Areopagitou in front of the New Acropolis Museum will not be demolished.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Wednesday July 15, 2009
Building that blocks museum view spared

The Council of State has intervened to save a treasured art deco building on Dionysiou Areopagitou Street that was threatened with demolition because it blocked the view of the Acropolis for visitors to the New Acropolis Museum.

Sources revealed yesterday that Greece’s highest administrative court has issued a ruling reversing a 2007 judgment that would have allowed authorities to knock down the building. The court found that the building added to the appearance of the neighborhood.
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July 19, 2009

The Black Parthenon – an art instalation about cultural property restitution

Posted at 6:41 pm in Elgin Marbles, Similar cases

An art installation in Melbourne aims to raise awareness of the issues surrounding the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum, along with other repatriation cases around the world.

From:
GRReporter

Black Parthenon magic
14 July 2009 :: 11:28:19

A mourning installation appeared in Melbourne in the beginning of July, called “The Black Parthenon.” With the help of a black canvas in chiaroscuro lighting and quirked in a way, which resembles the original Athenian Acropolis, the Greek origin artist Konstantinos Dimopoulos expressed his support for the return of the Parthenon marbles back to Athens.

During the day the black tone installation looks like a funeral alter, which symbolizes the feeling of loss. The author dedicates it to all countries, who have become a subject of cultural-historic heritage theft. During the night, the installation is lid in bright blue and white tones, which make the Black Parthenon stand out and its silhouette reminds of the real Acropolis.
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Can the New Acropolis Museum make a difference for the Elgin Marbles?

Posted at 6:35 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles, New Acropolis Museum, Similar cases

In any statements given at the time of the New Acropolis Museum‘s opening, British Museum officials all stated that the opening of the new building made no difference to the arguments for reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. If this is the case, then the British Museum’s intransigence potentially has a knock on detrimental effect for many other restitution cases. In many respects though it could be the opposite – the British establishment are digging their heels in & burying their heads in the sand because they can see that the tide is turning in favour of repatriation & there is nothing that they can do to halt its progress.

From:
Nigeria Guardian

Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Row over Parthenon Marbles… new restitution challenges for Africa
By Tajudeen Sowole

RECENTLY, Greece opened its much-awaited museum, New Acropolis Museum, housing sculptures from the memorable age of ancient Athens. However, the Greek Government’s hope that the new museum would appease the British Museum that was dashed, as the latter remained adamant in granting a request for the return of parts of the Greek sculptures known as Parthenon Marbles – named Elgin Marbles by the British.

Out of an estimated 160 metres original of these marble sculptures, 75 are known to be in the British Museum while the rest are in Greece and Italy.
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July 16, 2009

Artist receives award for work to reunify Elgin Marbles

Posted at 12:42 pm in Elgin Marbles

Los Angeles artist Alexey Steele has received an award in Athens for setting up the organisation Artists for Marbles.

From:
Transworld News

People News
Alexey Steele receives a prestigious Artemis Award and announces the formation of Artists for Marbles
Los Angeles 7/14/2009 01:22 AM GMT (TransWorldNews)

Athens, Greece. Alexey Steele, a noted Los Angeles artist, was recognized for celebrating the power and beauty of women through his art on a heroic scale in the modern world particularly in his multi-figure compositions “The Circle” and “The Soul of The Hero”. He was one of the 14 distinguished honorees and came to Athens for the Annual Euro-American Women’s Council’s Global Forum sponsored by the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Culture, and the Mayor of Athens.

Honorable Deputy Foreign Minister Theodore Kassimis, Former Economic Minister Peter Doukas, Vice Mayor of Athens Sophie Daskalaki Mytilinaiou were among government officials, dignitaries and celebrities gathered at the historic Zapio Megaro to Honor the 2009 EAWC Award recipients at the 13th annual EAWC Global Women’s Forum on the 15th of June.
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July 14, 2009

Cultural property that Britain would like returned

Posted at 1:13 pm in Similar cases

Britain’s aggressive anti-restitution stance in many cultural property cases is in part down to the fact that Britain has few claims on its own culture abroad – for the UK it is largely a one way issue.

There are however cases (which aren’t necessarily disputed) where items which connect with British cultural identity are located abroad – a situation that many believe is detrimental. No cultural property case is the same as another – but there are always similarities – most clearly seen in the fact that the original owners see themselves as having a connection with the item that the new owners do not possess.

Understanding of such cases by the country they affect ought to encourage reflection on other cases where they sit on the opposite side of the argument – unfortunately this rarely seems to be the case.

From:
New & Star (Carlisle)

Get back catalogue
Last updated 14:13, Monday, 13 July 2009

Among the reams of coverage surrounding Michael Jackson’s death, no-one seemed to notice the striking parallel with the Elgin Marbles.

In 1812 Lord Elgin removed the marble statues from the Parthenon, the ancient temple above Athens, and shipped them to Britain. He sold them to the Government who installed them in the British Museum in London.
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Controversy over the Dead Sea Scrolls

Posted at 1:01 pm in Similar cases

The Dead Sea Scrolls are on display in the Royal Ontario Museum – this is not without controversy though, as Palestinian Groups claim state that these artefacts come from the occupied territories.

In many ways, this is a case that could be solved easily – the issue is that the true reasons behind various aspects of the recent history of the scrolls are not ignored – but the museum is ignoring these problems for fear of upsetting other people (by stating the truth rater than ignoring it).

From:
Independent

Robert Fisk’s World: You won’t find any lessons in unity in the Dead Sea Scrolls
I looked at the texts in Toronto – a tale that was bound to pose a series of questions

Saturday, 11 July 2009

At last, I have seen the Dead Sea Scrolls. There they were, under their protective, cool-heated screens, the very words penned on to leather and papyrus 2,000 years ago, the world’s most significant record of the Old Testament.

I guess you’ve got to see it to believe it. I can’t read Hebrew – let alone ancient Hebrew (or Greek or Aramaic, the other languages of the scrolls) – but some of the letters are familiar to me from Arabic. The “seen” (s) of Arabic, and the “meem” (m) are almost the same as Hebrew and there they were, set down by some ancient who knew, as we do, only the past and nothing of the future. Most of the texts are in the Bible; several are not. “May God most high bless you, may he show you his face and may he open for you,” it is written on the parchments. “For he will honour the pious upon the throne of an eternal kingdom.”
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July 13, 2009

Demolition of buildings in front of New Acropolis Museum blocked by Greek courts

Posted at 1:07 pm in New Acropolis Museum

The two buildings blocking the view from lower levels of the New Acropolis Museum have continually been a source of contention within Greece. A court decision to block their demolition may now put an end to this argument that has marred much of the press coverage about the New Acropolis Museum in the past two years.

From:
Athens News Agency

07/13/2009
Court blocks demolition of buildings near New Acropolis Museum

Demolition orders for two listed buildings at numbers 17 and 19 on Dionysiou Areopagitou Street in Athens, near the New Acropolis Museum, have been cancelled by the Council of State, Greece’s supreme administrative court. This accepted a petition by local residents that the two buildings remain standing and found that a culture ministry decision to remove them from a list of cultural heritage monuments was not legally sound.
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