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| Parthenon frieze © David Gill |
The 200th anniversary of the arrival of the Parthenon marbles in the British Museum is being marked. The anniversary is explored by Contantine Sandis ("Britain has kept the ‘Elgin Marbles’ for 200 years – now it's time to pass them on",
The Conversation June 7, 2016). He suggests:
The time is right for all surviving sculptures to be reunited under this single roof [The New Acropolis Museum]. They should be displayed, for free, in a joint Greek and British international museum. This bicentenary provides the perfect opportunity for the two nations to collaborate instead of bicker over ownership. The British Museum would be praised worldwide for all its actions, culminating in a collaborative partnership that genuinely benefits humanity. It is high time that ownership of the past became a thing of the past and we began to think in terms of joint custody instead.
These are architectural marbles, and they need to be reunited visually in the same city as the extant monument, the Parthenon, that forms part of the
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
