The Parthenon Marbles: The Case for Reunification
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Book Overview
The most powerful case yet made for the return of the Parthenon Marbles The Parthenon Marbles (formerly known as the Elgin Marbles), designed and executed by Pheidias to adorn the Parthenon, are perhaps the greatest of all classical sculptures. In 1801, Lord Elgin, then ambassador to the Turkish government, had chunks of the frieze sawn off and shipped to England, where they were subsequently seized by Parliament and sold to the British Museum to help pay off his debts. This scandal, exacerbated by the inept handling of the sculptures by their self-appointed guardians, remains unresolved to this day. In his fierce, eloquent account of a shameful piece of British imperial history, Christopher Hitchens makes the moral, artistic, legal and political case for re-unifying the Parthenon frieze in Athens. The opening of the New Acropolis Museum emphatically trumps the British Museum's long-standing (if always questionable) objection that there is nowhere in Athens to house the Parthenon Marbles. With contributions by Nadine Gordimer and Professor Charalambos Bouras, The Parthenon Marbles will surely end all arguments about where these great treasures belong, and help bring a two-centuries-old disgrace to a just conclusion.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:1844672522
ISBN13:9781844672523
Release Date:April 2008
Publisher:Verso
Length:192 Pages
Weight:0.45 lbs.
Dimensions:0.5" x 5.2" x 7.8"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Pretty Solid Case
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
I've been fortunate enough to see the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum and might be expected to sympathize with the argument put forward by those who think leaving them in London allows for greater access to more people. Nevertheless the arguments presented here for returning them to Athens to be displayed in the context of the new Parthenon/Acropolis museum made great sense to me. it is hard to read the history and the record of how they arrived in London without being convinced that they really belong to GREECE.
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