Liz Truss, John Redwood & David Starkey launch new culture war on the Elgin Marbles
Sky News has reported that a letter signed by 34 people has been sent to Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy warning of legal action if the ‘Elgin Marbles’ are returned to Greece. The letter claims that a Greek industrialist is financing a campaign on this.
Of more interest is who the ‘Great British PAC’ reported writers of the letter are and who is financing them. PAC stands for political action committee, a feature of US MAGA politics.
It appears to be a classic culture war which makes a lot of noise in the right-wing media about something that is not actually being proposed or going to happen. The British Museum has a long term partnership project with Greece on the Marbles, long term in this case being the time likely to elapse before anything happens. Neither the Government, or clearly the Tories support a return of the Marbles.
It remains the case, as outlined by Dan Hicks, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford there is a very good case for returning the Marbles whatever hard right culture warriors say
I had many disagreements with Christopher Hitchens in his later years but his book on the Parthenon Marbles (2008) remains an eloquent argument for their return.
He argues in the book
‘an opportunity to redress an old injustice and restore an ancient beauty and symmetry..many, many British citizens will never regard the case as closed until the restoration, restitution, reparation or, if you like, reunification is complete
Leave a Reply