A common claim made by museums is that restitution of artefacts would lead to gaps in their collection. They like to leave the impression that is the Parthenon Marbles went back to Greece, then the Duveen gallery would end up just lying empty, with nothing of interest to fill it.

As I have noted before though, the reality could not be further from the truth. The British Museum only has 1% of its items on display at any one time.

This article looks at various other examples, such as the fact that 108 Picasso paintings are not on permanent display in any museum, compared to 139 that are. This means that 44% of his works held by museums can not be viewed by casual visitors unless they are part of a special temporary exhibition.

Museums are not private collections – they get various tax benefits & government grants because of this fact. Surely their purpose is to display items for the benefit of the public – not to put it in storage?

It is worth looking at the original article, for the extensive graphs that it has to back up its case.

Alte Mühle, (1916) Egon Schiele. None of his works are on public display in museums

From:
Quartz

Museums are keeping a ton of the world’s most famous art locked away in storage
Christopher Groskopf
January 20, 2016

Most of Georgia O’Keeffe’s work is in storage.

Nearly half of Pablo Picasso’s oil paintings are put away.

Not a single Egon Schiele drawing is on display.

Since the advent of public galleries in the 17th century, museums have amassed huge collections of art for society’s benefit. But just a tiny fraction of that art is actually open for people to view and enjoy—including, it turns out, many works that are considered masterpieces. The dynamic raises questions about who actually benefits when museums collect so much of the world’s best art.
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Katherine A. Schwab, a professor of Art History at Fairfield University is exhibiting her drawings of the Parthenon Marbles. The exhibition opens in New York City on January 16th. See the article for further details of other dates after that.

Parthenon sculptures drawing by Katherine A. Schwab

From:
VirtualStrategy.com

National Tour of Parthenon Drawings by Fairfield University Professor Opens in NYC on Jan. 16. 2014
PRWeb
Monday, January 13th 2014

An exhibition of drawings of the Parthenon by Fairfield University professor of art history Katherine A. Schwab, Ph. D., opens it national tour from January 16 through Feb. 13, 2014, at the Greek Consulate General in New York. Comprised of thirty-five works on paper, “An Archaeologist’s Eye: The Parthenon Drawings of Katherine A. Schwab,” combines art, history, and archaeology to powerful effect and will travel the U.S. through 2017.

Fairfield, CT (PRWEB) January 13, 2014

Combining art, history, and archaeology to powerful effect, “An Archaeologist’s Eye: The Parthenon Drawings of Katherine A. Schwab,” a new exhibition of drawings by Katherine A. Schwab, Ph. D., Fairfield University professor of art history, provides a glimpse into a world once inhabited by the ancient Greeks. Comprised of thirty-five works on paper, the exhibition opens to the public at the Greek Consulate General in New York on January 16, 2014, and is on view there through February 13, 2014. It then will tour nationally through 2017, marking the first time this collection of drawings travels in the United States. (full exhibition schedule follows). The Greek Consulate General in New York is located at 69 East 79th Street, New York, NY. Visiting hours are Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. Admission is free.
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Many people in the past have told me that Geneva is the global hub for looted artefacts. Cases such as those involving Giacomo Medici only emphasise this fact.

The notion of the city as the ideal point of transfer for art deals taking place, well away from the public eye is exacerbated by the existence of free ports, which store artefacts, often purely for investment purposes – that will never see the light of day until they are maybe re-sold at some point in the future.

From:
BBC News

2 January 2013 Last updated at 00:52
Geneva’s art storage boom in uncertain times
By Imogen Foulkes BBC News, Geneva

It may contain a treasure trove of Picassos but few have ever explored the riches in the Geneva free port art storage site.

In difficult economic times, investors are turning to more unusual commodities to protect their money. Gold may be a tried and tested safe haven, but in recent years fine art has been attracting increasing amounts of cash.
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The Parthenon frieze today, whether you look at it in the New Acropolis Museum or the British Museum, is on full display, easily observed by any visitors who stand in front of it. When it was on the Parthenon though, it was a much harder entity to observe – hidden high up, inside the outer columns & thus blocked by the outer beam containing the metopes.

Because it is hard to get access close to the Parthenon because of the restoration works, it is not so easy to see today, just how obscured the sculptures actually were in ancient times. I first looked at this as part of my university thesis, twelve years ago, when I noticed this issue from looking at sectional drawings through the building & then later on a 3D CAD model that I constructed.

It was not a completely unplanned problem though, as the depth of the relief of the carving of the frieze is carefully graded from top to bottom, to enable them to be ore clearly seen from below.

At the time that I was researching the issue, I came up with possible theories on why they might have created such a large amount of sculpture that was almost hidden in this way – but was unable to prove any of them & reached no firm conclusions on the subject. I’m very interested to see what other ideas come up as a result of this new research project into this aspect of the Parthenon’s sculptures.

You can find out more about Emory University’s Parthenon Project here. As with the Caryatid Hairstyles Project, that I mentioned a few days ago, its great to see that so much research is being made into the art & architecture of ancient Greece – and that even with sites as intensively studied as the Parthenon, it is still possible to rediscover many more new things from its ruins.

From:
The Tenessean

Parthenon puzzle is doozy
Art students try to solve mystery behind frieze
3:06 AM, Nov 11, 2012

It’s one of the mysteries of the ancient world, an architectural enigma that has puzzled art historians for centuries.

And one that a group of students were trying to solve on Saturday in Centennial Park.

The original Parthenon in Athens, Greece, was an architectural triumph devoted to the goddess Athena. And in spite of being held up as a masterpiece of the Classical Era, art historians for centuries have wondered why its designers hoisted an immaculately sculpted frieze to a spot partially obscured by the Parthenon’s iconic columns.
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We often talk about provenance, in relation to looted artefacts, being later sold on – and the fact that without provenance, it is hard to really know what the artefact is – where it really came from & whether it is genuine or not. What is sometimes overlooked is that such issues of provenance can sometimes have just as much effect on far more recent art works.

The message is clear – all artwork needs a full provenance, to be certain of its authenticity. The people who buy works which do not have one are encouraging the market in looting & fakes, while at the same time possibly purchasing worth a tiny fraction of what they paid for it.

From:
Vanity Fair

May 2012
A Question of Provenance
By Michael Shnayerson

Ann Freedman had come to Knoedler one last time.

On a mid-February day, she approached the mansion at 19 East 70th Street, where New York’s most venerable art gallery used to be, before its sudden, shocking closing last fall amid forgery allegations. “It’s amazing to think that this institution never stopped for 165 years,” she said. “It didn’t stop during the Civil War, World War I, World War II … I kept it open on 9/11.”

Now the doors were locked, the building cleaned out. The new owner was about to take possession. Knoedler’s former director had wangled a walk-through: a chance, as she put it, to be the last one in and the last one out of this gallery that had once sold Raphaels and Vermeers to Mellons and Fricks. She seemed not to wonder whether she was part of the reason these rooms were now empty.
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Giovanni Battista Lusieri is famous to many as the artist employed by Lord Elgin, who was instrumental in the process of removal of the marbles from the Parthenon.

Originally, Lord Elgin had considered a number of possible artists for his trip – one of who was the (then not so famous & therefore deemed unsuitable for the role) J M W Turner. Lusieri ended up with the job & produced many sketches & paintings of the Parthenon both before & after the removal of the marbles. He stayed in Athens long after Lord Elgin had left & all of the works from this period were unfortunately lost at sea, when the ship carrying them, the Cambria, was wrecked off the coast of Crete in 1828.

A new exhibition looks at some of his other paintings which have survived however – from this one might get an idea of how the works made in Athens would have looked.

From:
Financial Times

July 1, 2012 7:05 pm
Expanding Horizons: Giovanni Battista Lusieri and the Panoramic Landscape, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
By Jackie Wullschlager

This is the first show devoted to the once sought-after painter of monuments and volcanos

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/3e8a16ee-c1d8-11e1-b76a-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz20JvOhUDt
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I came across this interesting re-interpretation of the Parthenon Frieze recently. Be sure to follow the link to the original post to see the images of the actual artwork.

From:
Designslinger

Sculpturally Alive

I hadn’t visited the blog, eternallycool, in awhile and found this stunning artwork in one of
their recent postings. Spanish photographer, Eugenio Recuenco, along with art director assistance by Eric Dover, and make-up artist Lewis Amarante, photographed live models and created his interpretation of Greek classical sculpture, inspired by the marble figures of the Parthenon.

We have included only a portion of the entire panel, but you’d have to agree that it is a
stunning reinterpretation of the sculpture found in the pediments and friezes of the Athenian temple. The tonal quality he has chosen and his use of chiaroscuro lighting effects, gives us the opportunity to look at the well-known marble figures with a new, dynamic perspective.
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The film Art of the Steal looks at the controversy surrounding the move of a collection of impressionist artworks to a new site. The argument against this move stems largely from the fact that the collection, the building that houses it & its site are integral to the mission of the Barnes foundation. While I’m sure that this is the case & they tell a certain story, it must also be clear that none of the artworks were designed specifically for this collection. This is a completely different scenario from cases such as the Parthenon Sculptures, where they were designed for (& in some cases carved in place on) the Acropolis – thus making them a significant part of the monument.

From:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Movie Review: ‘Art of the Steal’ frames a tale of intrigue
Friday, April 02, 2010
By Mary Thomas, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Controversy still stirs over the Elgin Marbles — the Athens Parthenon sculptures collected by Lord Elgin in the early 1800s and put on display in the British Museum, London. The Greek government has requested their return.

The past decade has seen artworks once in the possession of great Western museums taken back to their countries of origin, and others pillaged by Nazi Germany returned to their owners.
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A new exhibit at the Tate Modern is based on the artist’s experiences with a fragment broken off one of the Pyramids in Egypt that he later returned. What is more interesting though is the comments from the British Museum on the issues raised by this – despite the fact that many of the artefacts in their collection were originally acquired in similar circumstances by untrained excavators without proper permits.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Tate show reveals artist’s pyramid theft
British artist Andy Holden is to reveal how he stole a piece of the Egypt pyramids in a new exhibition at the Tate Britain in London.
Roya Nikkhah, Arts Correspondent
Published: 9:00AM GMT 10 Jan 2010

The artist’s guilty secret began with a seemingly innocent trip to Egypt.

Accompanying his father, who was there on business, Andy, then 12, was taken to the Great Pyramid of Giza: the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still surviving – relatively intact – and the oldest and largest of the pyramids at the Giza Necropolis.

“When we arrived at the pyramids, unthinkingly I broke off a lump of stone from the side of the Great Pyramid in Giza,” said Mr Holden. “I got home and put it on a shelf in my room alongside a collection of other souvenirs I had as a kid, but when my parents found out, they were furious and it ended up becoming this terrible guilt object.
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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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