The Marbles of the Parthenon: One Step Closer to REunification
Alfredo Cafasso Vitale
The Acropolis, Athens
Image | Constantinos Kollias, Unsplash
I was deeply moved on a visit to the Acropolis Museum in Athens yesterday.
The usual marvelous sensory and cultural feelings that always occur while viewing the marbles of this splendid museum, designed by the Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi, was heightened, on the occasion, by seeing the fragment of marble, which arrived recently from the Salinas Museum in Palermo. This is known as the Fagan Fragment.
Fagan Fragment
Image | Alfredo Cafasso Vitale
This fragment, which is part of the eastern frieze of the Parthenon, depicts a foot and a part of the peplos (dress) of Artemis, and was acquired in 1816, by the British consul in Sicily, Robert Fagan. After his death in 1820, it was sold to the Museum of the Royal University of Palermo, and from there, it was then passed to the Salinas Museum.
The top floor of the Acropolis Museum is an actual reconstruction of the Parthenon. The area has been designed with its position and glass to reflect to not only display the reconstruction of the Parthenon but also to visually link it to the original thousand-year-old structure on Acropolis hill. The fragment is now displayed in a glass case, within its place in the reconstruction and also to the actual historical site.
Acropolis Museum, Athens
Image | Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, Wikimedia Commons
The fragment arrived in Athens during the first weeks of January 2022 and is part of an eight-year cultural exchange programme. In return, a headless statue of Athena from the 5th century BC will arrive in Palermo, Sicily, together with an 8th century BC amphora.
I hope this will pave the way for a much more important and long-awaited journey of the Marbles from the British Museum, "stolen" in 1802 by Thomas Bruce, then made Lord Elgin, ambassador of Great Britain to Constantinople.
During the period of Ottoman occupation in Greece, Elgin apparently obtained the permission of the Sultan to remove the Marbles. These were then dispersed in different locations (the same Fagan fragment came directly from Elgin). Some marbles were lost at sea during transport, but most eventually arrived at the British Museum.
This process, which is not, in some quarters, considered to be a valid and genuine method of acquisition, has triggered fierce international debates and has initiated official requests for restitution of the marbles by various Greek governments.
The Nobel Prize Winner, Nadine Gordimer, in the preface to the splendid book by Christopher Hitchens, The Parthenon Marbles: The Case for Reunification, underlined how the presence of the marbles in London represented the stone manifesto of British colonial arrogance and how much the Marbles belonged, representing their DNA in art, to the Greek people.
These sculptures by sculptor Phidias have been requested in vain for almost forty years by various Greek governments (the first was the Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri in 1984), and most recently by Prime Minister Mitsotakis in an interview on British television.
It should be noted that, as a student, Boris Johnson wrote, in an article in Oxford: "... it is evident to me, how much (these marbles) are woven into the Greek identity. It would be a wonderful thing if they could be returned.” Latterly, Ed Vaizey, former minister of culture, of the Cameron British government, recently stated that they should be in Athens.
Parthenon view from the Acropolis Museum
Image | Alfredo Cafasso Vitale
The National Archaeological Museum of Athens will soon transfer its ten fragments of the Parthenon to the Acropolis Museum, which will strengthen the reunification process. The first pages of Kathimerini newspaper, earlier this year, give great importance to this process, and to the never dormant request for the return of the marbles.
I hope that this exchange programme with Sicily will lead the way to the solution for the return of the Marbles, which would, in turn, strengthen Greece's cultural identity, and perhaps help to reinforce the country politically and economically. With all its strength, Greece has been trying and succeeding in re-emerging from the profound crisis of the last decade.
Another indication that perhaps the tide is turning in its favour of the return of the marbles, the Musée des Civilizations du Quai Branly in Paris and the Berlin Ethnologisches Museum, have initiated the return of African artifacts to Nigeria, improperly taken away in the colonial period from Benin City.
As a footnote, upon exiting the museum, I entered the metro heading home, at the Acropolis station. Going down to the platform, I was greeted by the giant picture of Melina Mercouri in front of the Parthenon, wrapped in an elegant English trench coat, a bundle of wild flowers in her hands, an immense and radiant smile, which today seems even more radiant. The return process, dreamed of and initiated by her, seems to have perhaps gained some momentum.
Melina Mercouri at the Acropolis
Image Source | Greek Reporter
Alfredo Cafasso Vitale, is an Italian journalist, curator and professional tour guide. Born and raised in Napoli, he has lived in South Western France, Barcelona, Berlin, and Athens. He speaks several European languages and leads tours in Europe for GoAhead Tours / EF, and in Italy for Rick Steves. Farming, cooking, gardening, painting and writing are his passions, and he loves to share them with people. His cooking classes are great fun. You can follow him on Instagram @cookingwithalcavi and Twitter @Alcavi.
