Antiquities serving as source of dispute between Britain and Greece leave London for first time since they were taken from Athens 200 years ago
The British Museum said yesterday it had loaned one of the Elgin Marbles to Russia, the first time any of the ancient sculptures have left the UK since they were taken from the Parthenon in Athens 200 years ago.
The museum said it had lent the headless, reclining sculpture of the river god Ilissos to the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg as part of its 250th anniversary celebration.
The 2,500-year-old antiquities have long been a source of dispute between Britain and Greece, which has demanded the return of the Marbles since the Earl of Elgin took them and sold them to the British Museum in 1816.
Athens argues they were plundered while London says Greece has no legitimate claim to the statues.
The trustees are delighted that this beautiful object will be enjoyed by the people of Russia
“The trustees of the British Museum ... believe that the great things of the world should be shared and enjoyed by the people of the world,” Richard Lambert, chairman of the trustees, said in a statement.
“The trustees are delighted that this beautiful object will be enjoyed by the people of Russia.” The statue, which arrived in Russia amid great secrecy, will go on display at the Hermitage today.
Anglo-Russian relations have been strained by the crisis in Ukraine and on Thursday Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of trying to bring a new ‘Iron Curtain’ down around Russia.
Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, said this made the timing of the loan particularly significant.
“Both institutions believe it is precisely at moments like this that the museums have to keep speaking,” he told BBC radio.
The Parthenon stands on the highest point of the Acropolis, which served as both citadel and religious centre. Its sculptures were completed by 432BC, shortly after the Parthenon itself. Most of the surviving pieces are in the British Museum or Greece.
David Hill, chairman of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, said the loan to Russia was “highly provocative” and a “very rude gesture”.
“The overwhelming majority of public and professional opinion, even in the UK, is the British should return the collection to be reunited in Greece,” he told BBC radio. MacGregor said the museum’s trustees would “consider any request from anyone who is prepared to return the object” as one of the sculptures went on loan for the first time.
In a blog on the museum’s website, Neil MacGregor said: “The British Museum is a museum of the world, for the world and nothing demonstrates this more than the loan of a Parthenon sculpture to the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg to celebrate its 250th anniversary.”
The headless marble statue is one of a number of similar items that once decorated the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis and were removed more than two centuries ago by Lord Elgin, a Scottish nobleman, and are displayed in London’s British Museum.
But Greece maintains they were taken illegally during the country’s Turkish occupation.
It is the first time one of the British Museum’s Parthenon sculptures, which represents about a third of the original decoration of the temple, has left the London institution, except in wartime.
The sculptures were presented to the trustees by Parliament in 1816 and were a major event in the museum’s early development as a museum of world civilisations. In October, a team of London lawyers, including Amal Clooney, were involved in talks with the Greek government about a potential legal bid for the works.
Her husband, actor George Clooney said it was “probably a good idea” for them to be returned, in response to a question during a press conference to promote The Monuments Men earlier this year.
On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme MacGregor said he hoped the Greek government would be “delighted” that the sculpture would be on display to a new audience.
“I hope that they will be very pleased that a huge new public can engage with the great achievements of ancient Greece.
People who will never be able to come to Athens or London will now, here in Russia, understand something of those great achievements in Greek civilisation.”
Asked if the sculpture could be loaned to a Greek museum, MacGregor said: “The trustees have always been perfectly clear that they are willing to lend anything in the collection, provided it’s fit to travel and there’s a serious reason, to a place where it could be safe and where it would be returned.
“The Greek government has always refused to borrow, to date, but the trustees’ position is very clear that they will consider any request from anyone who is prepared to return the object.”