The British Museum Says It Will Never Return the Elgin Marbles

The British Museum Says It Will Never Return the Elgin Marbles

'The Creative Crowbar'

This week, we heard that Hartwig Fischer's museum is going to set up a body to police other people's handling of antiquities, maybe the people of Bloomsbury need reminding of some of the ideas embodied in the 1970 UNESCO Convention* and what the document is actually for:

 ...Principles of International Cultural Co-operation... mutual respect and appreciation among nations... it is essential for every State to become increasingly alive to the moral obligations to respect its own cultural heritage and that of all nations ... as cultural institutions, museums, libraries and archives should ensure that their collections are built up in accordance with universally recognized moral principles... illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property is an obstacle to that understanding between nations which it is part of UNESCO’s mission to promote by recommending to interested States, international conventions to this end... among States working in close co-operation, 

Apparently that is something the BM's director understands only when it suits him.


* Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property 1970