Unusually for this website, there is another entirely different point that can be drawn from the Staffordshire Hoard, in addition to comparisons of Britain’s approach to saving artefacts for the nation.

This news story illustrates very well, the benefits of proper, well documented excavations – since the original hoard was discovered, many other finds have been made nearby & archaeologists are analysing whether these are a part of the same hoard or somehow connected to it. Much of the knowledge that we gain from these finds would have been lost though, if archaeologists had not known the full details of the previous finds on the site. When illegal excavations are made, not only do the artefacts normally disappear into a black market away from the public eye, but even if they are eventually recovered, little is known about exactly where they were found, or what other items might have been found in close proximity to them.

From:
BBC News

18 December 2012 Last updated at 16:38
Staffordshire Hoard: ‘Shedding light on the Dark Ages’

“The period is traditionally called the Dark Ages because we don’t know enough about it, but finds like this can definitely shed some light on that period,” says archaeologist Steve Dean.

He works for Staffordshire County Council and was part of a team that uncovered 90 new items of gold and silver believed to be part of the Staffordshire Hoard.
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Greece has introduced a draft resolution to UNESCO regarding the return of disputed artefacts to their countries of origin. In the context of the country introducing this resolution, it is fairly clear that it is at least partially aimed at the case of the Parthenon Marbles, although it would apply to many other items too.

From:
Greek Reporter

Greece Pushes UNESCO On Cultural Heritage
By Nicky Mariam Onti on December 13, 2012

A Greek official, Anastassis Mitsialis, introduced a draft resolution before the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) urging the return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin.

He said that, “Cultural heritage is the mirror of a country’s history, thus lying within the very core of its existence, since it represents, not only specific values and traditions, but also a unique way a people perceives the world.”
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While this story is not really that relevant to the subject in hand, it does appear that a museum is acting like a microcosm of the subject it is supposed to be educating people about.

On the one hand, you have Britain (in the days of the British Empire), regularly taking items from other countries that were under its control, on the basis that these items were taken on loan to be studied, yet when the original owners asked for them back, the return was rarely forthcoming & they discovered that the items were now held in some grand museum & could no longer legally be returned.

Contrast this with a museum set up to tell the story of the days of Britain’s empire (looking at it from a present day perspective), that borrowed various items on loan from individuals – yet when the original owners asked for the items back after the museum had closed, they discovered that their property had been lost or sold at auction.

History repeats itself, for as long as public institutions do not have proper procedures in place that give equal weighting to the acquisition & the deaccessioning of items in their collections.

From:
Guardian

Row erupts over British empire museum’s ‘lost’ artefacts
144 items loaned to British Empire and Commonwealth Museum believed to be missing, with some sold without owners’ consen
Steven Morris
The Guardian, Monday 10 December 2012

Almost 150 artefacts lent to a museum set up to tell the story of Britain’s colonial past may be missing, it has emerged, with some of them having been sold without their owners’ permission.

Trustees of the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol, which has now closed, are in talks with about six of the owners about compensation.
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Turkey is planning on taking the dispute over the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (Currently in the British Museum) to the European Court of Human Rights. This follows on from Turkey’s aggressive campaigning in recent months against various museums holding artefacts from Turkey, where the ownership is disputed.

From:
Guardian

Turkey turns to human rights law to reclaim British Museum sculptures
Dalya Alberge
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 8 December 2012 19.29 GMT

Human rights legislation that has overturned the convictions of terrorists and rapists could now rob the British Museum of sculptures created for one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

A Turkish challenge in the European court of human rights will be a test case for the repatriation of art from one nation to another, a potential disaster for the world’s museums.
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Just like the auction of casts by Christies, this story might be connected to Lord Elgin & may also be connected to Marbles – but really has very little to do with the Elgin Marbles.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Art market news: Sotheby’s sell Elgin marble
Last week Sotheby’s sold a marble bust owned by Lord Elgin, aquired in from Rome in 1799 for $8.2 million (£5.1 million
By Colin Gleadell
3:22PM GMT 11 Dec 2012

Had it been one of the Greek marbles which Thomas Bruce, the 7th Lord Elgin, spirited out of the Parthenon in Athens, shipped home to England, and sold to the British Museum in 1816, then last week’s sale in New York would have been a front-page scandal. Not only are they owned by the British Museum, but the Greek government has for years been trying to negotiate their return to Athens. However, Sotheby’s did have a marble bust which the same Lord Elgin acquired at that time, not from the Parthenon, but from Rome, which was never sold and has stayed in the family ever since. In 1799, shortly before his departure for Constantinople, where he was to be British ambassador to the Sultan, and from where he was to conduct the removal of the Parthenon marbles, the Earl instructed his private secretary, William Robert Hamilton, to go to Rome and buy “marbles” for his ambassadorial residence. Among these marbles was a portrait bust of Germanicus (pictured), the father of the Emperor Caligula, showing him as a young heroic figure.
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Some of the most famous photos of the Acropolis are those taken by the Greek Photographer Elli Sougioultzoglou-Seraidari AKA Nelly, of the nude ballerina Mona Paeva.

A new exhibition shows these, along with other works by the photographer and runs until 12th January in Athens’s AlphaDelta gallery.

You can see more information about the exhibition at the Gallery’s website.

From:
Greek Reporter

Nude on the Parthenon: Nelly’s Picture Show
By Marianna Tsatsou on November 27, 2012 in Culture, News

The Athens-based AlphaDelta gallery is presenting a solo show-tribute to the photographer Nelly (also known as Elli Sougioultzoglou-Seraidari, 1899 Aydin, Asia Minor – 1998 Athens, Greece) entitled Un nouveau regard (A new glance).

At the exhibit, which runs from Nov. 10 this year to Jan. 12, 2013, a series of works of the famed Greek photographer will be shown, including New York Easter Parade. She was known for her work in what was called New Objectivity.
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An exhibition at Gurari Collections, Boston, MA, is displaying various watercolour paintings of the Parthenon Sculptures by artist Wendy Artin.

From:
People of Shambhala

Elgin Marbles given new life in watercolor exhibition
Posted by People of Shambhala on October 28, 2012

One of the most important artifacts of the ancient world — the Elgin Marbles — has come to the USA in the form of a new watercolor exhibition in Boston.

The Elgin Marbles were acquired Lord Elgin when he served as ambassador to the Ottoman court of the Sultan in Istanbulin between 1801 and 1805. The sculptures were later bought by the British Parliament and given to the British Museum where they currently reside. However, Greece has repeatedly called for the artifacts to be returned to their country of origin.
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A temporary exhibition at the New Acropolis Museum in Athens aims to give visitors a better idea of the colours that the sculptures on the Acropolis would originally have been, rather than the pristine while marble that we see today.

From:
Acropolis Museum

Archaic Colors

Commencing Tuesday 31 July 2012 and for the next twelve months, the Acropolis Museum wants to conduct research on its unique collection of archaic statues, which retain their colors to a small or large degree, and to open a very extensive discussion with the public and various experts on color, its technical issues, its detection using new technologies, its experimental use on marble surfaces, its digital reconstruction, its meaning, as well as the archaic period’s aesthetic perception of color. So far, scientific research into the color found on ancient sculpture has made great progress and reached surprising conclusions that to a large degree refute the stereotypical assumptions regarding ancient sculpture. It turns out that color, far from being just a simple decorative element, added to the sculpture’s aesthetic quality.
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