this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2024
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While I would say the Elgin marbles are a case that err on the side of they should be returned, again reality is not as simple and black and white as people like you want it to be.
When Elgin took the marbles the entire area was, by all accounts, in shambles and people were burning pieces of these statues to aquire lime to build with. And that was one of the reasons Elgin decided to remove the marbles, so they are preserved today because they were removed.
Then there's also the argument that they do in fact legally belong to the UK, Elgin got permission from both the ottoman empire and local authorities in Athens to remove the sculptures. Then the actions were also ratified when Elgin was twice given permissions by the ottomans to ship the statues out of Athens. No historian worth there salt will tell you they are stolen. That is a position held by Greeks, people pressured by them and people that have seen a tumble post or reddit article about the marbles and gone full dunning-kruger, thinking they know the intricacies of the whole situation.
Yes, because do. The bayuex tapestry held by france. Henry VIII letters to Anne Boleyn held by the Vatican, the Vercelli book held In Italy, parts of old British warships kept by the Dutch, French and Spanish, The Codex Amiatinus, in Florence, most of Shakespeare's originals are in the US, Charles I art collection, several entire buildings like Agecroft hall and James Cook's house, even old London Bridge could fall under this category. And countless (and I really do mean countless) less import ones that have ended up in other countries, primarily the US, in state museums.
And a lot of those were acquired with much less legality than the Elgin marbles.
The fact that they were acquired legally with permission of the government of the time, now have history outside of their original ones in Greece, allow the teaching of its history to be spread to more people and be viewed in the wider context of global history.
And as I said before, if I was forced to chose, I would err on the side of them being returned. My point is to point out it isn't a simple and black and white case of the eeeeeevil British blatantly stealing things and refusing to give them back just to be cunts.
That's kind of the point. The UK typically doesn't feel the need to demand back it's artifacts
Some of those artifacts are contested
My entire series of comments is about the fact that these are not clear cut, but as is the case with every random chucklefuck on the internet that thinks they are an expert or an authority on something they have a surface level, at best, understanding of, you're taking an extreme position, arguing it's clearly the correct one and the situation is obvious and without nuance and then staunchly and irrationally refusing to anything that challenges your simple minded binary world view.
Imagine you bought something from someone fairly, then a day later they claim it has a lot of significance to them and demand you give it back without compensation. Are you going to give it to them? Does it still "belong" to them? Any rational person would say no.
Well basically every prominent historian who's weighed in on the matter thinks they hold water, so I'm not going to give much credence to random angry person on lemmy with little knowledge on the subject.
Bye