The amount of people visiting the New Acropolis Museum in its first month of opening has continued for its second month, giving a total of half a million visitors in the first two months.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Friday August 28, 2009
In Brief
ACROPOLIS MUSEUM

Over 500,000 people visited new building in last two months

More than half a million people have visited the Acropolis Museum since it opened to the public just over two months ago, the museum’s management said yesterday. More specifically, a total of 523,540 visitors have viewed the museum’s exhibits since June 20. Of these, 60 percent are foreign visitors, museum officials said. During the same two-month period, 409,000 hits by different users from 180 countries were recorded by the museum’s website, http://www.theacropolismuseum.gr.

This is the second part of Kwame Opoku’s article on the reasons given by museums against restitution as a way of avoiding confronting the real issues.

From:
Modern Ghana

WOULD WESTERN MUSEUMS RETURN LOOTED OBJECTS IF NIGERIA AND OTHER AFRICAN STATES WERE RULED BY ANGELS? RESTITUTION AND CORRUPTION*
By Kwame Opoku, Dr.
Feature Article | 12 hours ago

[…]

IV. What is to be done?
In view of the very clear position of the major Western museums not to return any of the looted/stolen African artefacts, what should be done? Below are few proposals in this regard.

1. Urgent examination of existing cooperation agreements and arrangements between African museums and Western museums.
Read the rest of this entry »

Many of the museums of the West, when faced with restitution claims, have insisted that they would consider returning the artefacts – but they are unable to do so. Common reasons given include the security of the artefacts if they were returned, the lack of a suitable place to house them, or statutes that forbid deaccessioning. Are these institutions really speaking the truth though, ore merely trying to throw up more barriers to prevent any sort of serious discussion of the real issues involved.

Due to the length of this piece I am reproducing it here in two parts.

From:
Modern Ghana

WOULD WESTERN MUSEUMS RETURN LOOTED OBJECTS IF NIGERIA AND OTHER AFRICAN STATES WERE RULED BY ANGELS? RESTITUTION AND CORRUPTION*
By Kwame Opoku, Dr.
Feature Article | 12 hours ago

Corruption, like tango, requires two partners.

A seminal study by Peju Layiwola, dealt with the question of the cultural memory of a people whose development has been brutally interrupted and their cultural objects seized by a foreign invader. (1) In the specific case of Benin, the British seized more than 3000 artefacts during their nefarious invasion in 1879. (2) This date and the invasion have remained memorable for the people of Benin, Nigeria and the continent of Africa.

Peju Layiwola whose mother, Princess Elisabeth Olowu, is a well-known artist, was born in the Palace of the Oba in Benin City during the reign of Oba Akenzua II, her maternal grandfather. Peju spent her childhood in Benin City, went to school there and did her first degree at the University of Benin. Her doctoral dissertation at the University of Ibadan dealt with contemporary Benin brass casting. Peju is therefore from family affiliation, from childhood experience and education linked to Benin and inevitably, since she was drawn to art in her infancy, to the arts of Benin and the tragic loss of the Benin bronzes through the British invasion. The important question then is not why Peju is concerned by the continued loss of the Benin Bronzes but rather why some people are less concerned or even indifferent to attempts to recover looted or stolen artefacts.
Read the rest of this entry »

Submissions are invited for a special edition of Critical Interventions on Africa’s cultural heritage in the museums of the West.

From:
Kwame Opoku (by email)

Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture – Fall 2010
By Kwame Opoku
WHO OWNS AFRICA’S CULTURAL PATRIMONY?

Critical Interventions invites submissions for a special issue on the question of Africa’s cultural patrimony in Western museums, especially in the context of recent international debates about repatriation of historical artworks relocated from one culture to another through conquest, colonization or looting. In the first decade of the 21st Century, demands by various countries for repatriations of significant artworks and cultural objects have shaken up established ideas about the ownership and location of historical cultural objects. While many Western museums have been willing to reach agreements about repatriating or compensating for culturally important artworks in their collections claimed by other Western countries, there has been no acknowledgement of the right of Africans to ownership of African artworks looted from Africa during colonialism, which are now held in the so-called “Universal Museums” of the West. Read the rest of this entry »

The British Museum continually rejects any mention of a long term loan of the Parthenon Sculptures, describing it as unworkable. In the world of museums however such a wide variety of loans are always underway, that to reject such a suggestion as a matter of course is really just avoidance of entering serious discussion of the issue.

From:
Guardian

Art on the move: curators reveal the art world’s secret merry-go-round
The growth in blockbuster exhibitions travelling the globe means more art than ever is in transit, under a shroud of strict secrecy – but how does it make the journey?
Noni Stacey
Wednesday 12 August 2009 17.30 BST

A blockbuster exhibition often showcases an artist’s work or offers a new interpretation of an era, but it shows us only part of the story. Look closely at a label on the gallery wall and you’ll notice a little note saying “On loan from …”. The larger touring exhibitions read like a high-fashion social diary, galloping across the globe from New York to Paris, London to Tokyo, while smaller shows criss-cross their way from Pittsburgh to Bogotá, Figueres to Melbourne. Art travels around the world in myriad ways: in and out of galleries and auction houses, to and from private collections. The question is: how does it get there?

My journey begins at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where Anna Jackson, deputy keeper of the Asia department, has been delving into the royal collections of India’s maharajas over the last 18 months. She’s preparing for the museum’s autumn exhibition, Maharaja: The Splendour of India’s Royal Courts, which will open in October 2009. The original idea was floated more than two years ago, and the museum officially announced the show some months later. Jackson first set out for India in February 2008, to see what treasures the royal collections would yield.
Read the rest of this entry »

High profile restitution cases have created a shift in museum culture in recent years, but some of the people involved such as Philippe de Montebello, still claim to have no comprehension of why such actions took place.

From:
Modern Ghana

DO DIRECTORS OF “UNIVERSAL MUSEUMS” EVER LEARN FROM EXPERIENCE?
By Kwame Opoku, Dr.
Feature Article | 1 day ago

It appears legitimate to question whether the directors of “universal museums” ever learn from experience. When we read the books and articles of James Cuno, Director of the Art Institute of Chicago, Neal MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, and Philippe de Montebello, former Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, we cannot escape the conclusion that, as far as restitution is concerned, these directors have not learnt anything from recent history and events. (1) This impression has been confirmed by statements made by Philippe de Montebello at Rockland, Maine, United States. (2)

Montebello, who had spoken about other issues, could not avoid discussing the question of restitution which has been brought again to the forefront by the opening of the New Acropolis Museum and the consequent pressure on the British Museum to return the Parthenon/Elgin Marbles that Lord Elgin caused to be removed from Athens in 1801 to 1812 under dubious circumstances. (3) The comments of the former Director of the Met on restitution were reported as follows:
Read the rest of this entry »

The British Museum regularly highlights the fact that their exhibits can be viewed free of charge, but rarely enters into any serious discussion of the actual merits of this.

It appears that many people are not in complete agreement over benefits of free entry.

From:
Daily Telegraph

There is no such thing as a free exhibition about the Zutons
Letters, July 28: The deluded notion of free museums
Published: 12:01AM BST 28 Jul 2009

SIR – If Michael Cattell (Letter, July 27) believes that entry to museums is free, he is sadly deluded.

Every penny given to museums is taken from individuals or employers through taxation.
Read the rest of this entry »

Former Met director Philippe de Montebello has given a talk in which he speaks about the issues of restitution affecting museums. Based on previous comments, it is unsurprising that he is against the idea of restitution. What is puzzling is that even after the return of the Euphronios Krater from his own museum he still doesn’t seem to understand the problem – he sees it as something that should only ever be dealt with when legal reasons dictate that an artefacts should be returned & never for a philosophical / ethical reason. This skips neatly over the fact of why many of the laws allowing return are what they are, whereas legal action should be the last resort after other more amicable negotiation methods fail. He also introduces an odd idea of entitlement – that people should be able to see artefacts in locations other than their original locations (e.g. New York), but with little explanation of why this should be the case or who decides this.

From:
Bangor Daily News

7/25/09
Former Met director talks at Strand
By Jessica Bloch – BDN Staff

ROCKLAND, Maine — Philippe de Montebello is considered one of the most powerful men in the world of art. Yet de Montebello, who recently retired after 31 years as the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, joked Thursday evening that he grew to dread the renowned art experts who worked under him.

“I have the utmost respect, and fear, of curators,” said de Montebello, who participated in a question-and-answer session at the Strand Theatre with Roger Dell, the Farnsworth Art Museum’s director of education, as part of the museum’s Farnsworth Forum series.
Read the rest of this entry »

The New Acropolis Museum has already created a huge amount of interest since its opening, giving a new reason for tourists to visit (or re-visit) Athens.

From:
Daily Mail

Greek holidays: Inside Athens’s stunning new Acropolis museum
By Joanna Tweedy
Last updated at 12:52 PM on 06th July 2009

Athenians have grown old waiting for the city’s new Acropolis Museum. From the first seeds of suggestion in 1976, it has taken more than three decades for this monolithic vision of glass and steel to arise. A few grey hairs won’t bother the Greek capital’s five million inhabitants but the fact that the Elgin Marbles – which they had hoped would be in the museum – remain 2,000 miles away in London rankles far more.
Acropolis Museum, Athens

The spaceship has landed: The new Acropolis Museum looks a little futuristic, but does a fine job of showcasing the past
Read the rest of this entry »

The New Acropolis Museum is a building that has been beset by many delays, but since it has opened, many people have noticed that it has already started to transform the surrounding area. It is only the first prong of attack however, & now that it is completed it leaves the route opening for concerted efforts by Greece to secure the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum.

From:
Guardian

The battle for the Parthenon marbles
Following the success of the newly opened Acropolis Museum, Greek officials are more determined than ever to retrieve their missing heritage. Helena Smith reports from Athens
Tuesday 30 June 2009 17.43 BST

For as long as most Athenians can remember, the intersection of Makriyianni and Dionysiou Areopagitou streets was a nondescript place, the preserve of those bent on illicitly parking their cars on the narrow alleys of the historic Plaka district.

Nine days after the opening of the New Acropolis Museum, this little slice of Athens at the foot of the Acropolis rock is a place transformed. Where vehicles once clogged the streets, there are street cafes, people and performance artists – Greeks such as Anita Papachristou who, like a modern-day pilgrim, makes a point of dropping in to behold the behemoth that looks set to become Greece’s 21st-century shrine. “We waited for it long enough,” she says, looking up at the honey-coloured Parthenon marble, illuminated along the length and breadth of the museum’s upper floor. “And now that it’s here, I can say it’s been worth waiting for.”
Read the rest of this entry »

In the seven days since its official opening, the New Acropolis Museum has already received ninety thousand visitors.

From:
Athens News Agency

06/30/2009
New Acropolis Museum visitors

The New Acropolis Museum received 90,000 visitors in the first seven days since its official inauguration on June 20, Culture Minister Antonis Samaras disclosed on Monday.

Speaking during a press conference, the minister said that the cost of the inauguration events, which were attended by several foreign heads of state and government, did not exceed the anticipated sum of 3 million euros, adding that the targets his ministry had set regarding the ceremony were met, especially the coverage from international mass media.
Read the rest of this entry »

The grand inauguration event for the New Acropolis Museum has finally taken place, so now the general public will be allowed admission to the building to see it in its completed state for the first time.

From:
Associated Press

New Acropolis Museum opens with lavish party
By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Gods, heroes and long-dead mortals stepped off their plinths into the evening sky of Athens on Saturday during the lavish launch of the new Acropolis Museum, a decades-old dream that Greece hopes will also help reclaim a cherished part of its heritage from Britain.

The digital animated display on the museum walls ended years of delays and wrangling over the ultramodern building, set among apartment blocks and elegant neoclassical houses at the foot of the Acropolis hill.
Read the rest of this entry »