The most celebrated case of cultural heritage relocated in peacetime concerns art taken from perhaps the most important building in all of western civilization: the Parthenon. The dispute is so fundamental that the parties to it can’t even agree on how to refer to the works in question: to the British, they are the “Elgin Marbles”; to the Greeks, the “Parthenon Sculptures.” This presentation will explore multiple questions, including the significance of the taking within current international debates over the return of cultural patrimony to its source countries. Get ready for a trip that takes you across oceans and centuries, from ancient Greece to present day London.
This program is a part of The Annual Enid and Irving Kushner Lecture Series: the Ancient Civilizations and Biblical Archaeology.