The Parthenon loan to Russia

© David Gill

The British Museum has announced that it has loaned the statue possibly representing the river Ilissos to Russia (BBC News, 5 December 2014). This statue forms part of the west pediment of the Parthenon.

Neil MacGregor sees the loan as a "marble ambassador of a European ideal" (British Museum blog). The sculpture will be on loan to the Hermitage.

I suppose we could see the Parthenon as a building derived from tribute paying cities scattered around the Aegean. And I am sure that there were some asking questions in the fifth century BC about how their talents were being spent.

But it all depends on how you view empires and imperialism.