Showing 5 results for the tag: Vatican Museums.

February 21, 2012

The museums of Europe – fortified havens for plunder from India

Posted at 2:10 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles, Similar cases

India (like many countries) has various artefacts in museums abroad, that it would like to be returned. The tone of the article is a little extremist – undoubtedly, there are benefits to be gained from publicising a country’s culture by having it in museums around the world – but at the same time, this should never outweigh a country’s own requirements for access to their culture.

From:
Organiser.org

European, American Museums: Fortified Havens For Plunder From India
By Radha Rajan

SHOULD the people of India, Greece, Egypt and Africa, and Native American peoples succeed in getting American and European museums and libraries to return all objects which constitute the tangible roots of ancient civilisations, and thousands of years of history pre-dating the cults of Jesus and Mohammed, then the Louvre, British Museum, Smithsonian, Vatican and the Kunsthistoriches Museum to mention just five, would be emptied of all their prized possessions.

European and American museums and libraries are no more than fortified thieves’ dens and state-sponsored and supported safe havens for Abrahamic plunder; they house the spoils of Christian war and genocide against African peoples, against the nations of now extinct and almost extinct Native American peoples, colonial loot from Asia, and from archaeological and anthropological pseudo-science expeditions, which European marauders undertook across continents.
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August 7, 2009

Is the religion lost in the modern museum?

Posted at 12:56 pm in Elgin Marbles, Greece Archaeology, New Acropolis Museum, Similar cases

The Parthenon was originally a religious monument although this meaning of it has been largely lost, being displaced by the building’s position as a national (& international) icon. Religion regularly comes back into its story though – both throughout the history of the building (which was also a church & a mosque) & has recently been highlighted again by the Greek Orthodox church’s objection to parts of a video on display in the New Acropolis Museum.

From:
Religion Dispatches

When Religion Goes Missing in the Modern Museum
By Louis A. Ruprecht
August 4, 2009

The brand-new Acropolis Museum, designed to showcase the repatriated plunder of another century, has instead a few other things to offer — among them, views of other museumgoers from beneath, as well as a newly censored video showing Greek Christians hard at work destroying Classical art.

I. A Museum Half-Full, Half-Empty

On the week of the summer solstice, that most energized and sacred week in the pagan calendar, the Greek government opened a new national museum. The plans for the building, designed by Swiss-born architect Bernard Tschumi, were first revealed at the Venice Biennale in 2002. They have been completed in ambitious fashion. But the new museum is empty.
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December 5, 2008

Would a pan-European museum solve the Parthenon Marbles Problem?

Posted at 10:54 am in Elgin Marbles, New Acropolis Museum

Further coverage of the proposal by Professor Francesco Buranelli that the formation of a pan-European museum is the best way to facilitate the reunification of all the surviving Parthenon sculpture fragments.

From:
Artinfo

Pan-European Museum Would Solve Parthenon Problem, Says Vatican Official
Published: December 4, 2008

ROME—Francesco Buranelli, a Vatican official, says he has a solution to end the longstanding Elgin Marbles problem once and for all, reports the Times (London): to build an extraterritorial, pan-European museum in Athens in which all the known parts of the Parthenon could be united.

Greece has been trying to get the set of marble sculptures back from England for decades, and has stepped up its efforts as of late in anticipation of the completion of its new Museum of the Acropolis in Athens.
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A call to unite the Parthenon Marbles

Posted at 10:11 am in British Museum, Elgin Marbles

Professor Francesco Buranelli of the Vatican suggests that forming the New Acropolis Museum as a pan-European museum may be the best way for Greece to secure the return of the Parthenon Marbles. His idea was first proposed in the Greek language press a few weeks ago & was received with interest by many involved in the issue.

From:
The Times

December 4, 2008
Call to unite Parthenon marbles
Richard Owen

The never-ending tussle between Britain and Greece over the Elgin Marbles should be resolved by creating a pan-European museum in Athens at which all the fragments from the Parthenon would be brought together under a British director, a Vatican offical says.

Professor Francesco Buranelli, the head of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church, said: “The moment has come to set up the first European museum, with the same kind of extraterritorial status accorded to embassies.”
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November 6, 2008

Parthenon Marbles fragment returns to Greece

Posted at 1:44 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles

Further coverage of yesterday’s return of a fragment of the Parthenon Sculptures by the Vatican following previous requests. The British Museum state that this does not alter anything – they continue to follow this line though, despite events carrying on outside their reach suggesting that the rest of the world is moving in a different direction.

It is notable, that whilst the Palermo & Heidelberg fragments already returned were from relatively small museums, the Vatican Museums are a vast collection by any standards – this shows that larger institutions which tend to be less flexibly governed are also able to return pieces of the sculptures.

From:
International Herald Tribune

Vatican returns Parthenon fragment to Greece
The Associated Press
Published: November 5, 2008

ATHENS, Greece: The ancient marble head of a youth was fitted into place Wednesday at a museum in Athens in a deal that Greek officials hope will serve as a model for returning other treasures.

The one-year loan from the Vatican’s Museo Gregoriano Etrusco could be used as a way to regain other iconic Parthenon sculptures that have been systematically removed from Greece in the past. Several European museums — especially the British Museum in London — hold Parthenon artifacts and Greece has long campaigned for their return.
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