British Museum, "World's Largest Receiver of Stolen Goods"

BM promotes looting by another name

In a new book, due out today, the British Museum has been accused of exhibiting “pilfered cultural property”, by a leading human rights lawyer who is calling for European and US institutions to return treasures taken from “subjugated peoples” by “conquerors or colonial masters” (Dalya Alberge, ' British Museum is world's largest receiver of stolen goods, says QC’, Guardian Mon 4 Nov 2019). The book's author, Geoffrey Robertson QC prepared a report on the reunification of the Parthenon marbles for the Greek government with Amal Clooney and the late Professor Norman Palmer. “We cannot right historical wrongs", he says "but we can no longer, without shame, profit from them”. In the case of the Parthenon Marbles he accused the museum of telling “a string of carefully-constructed lies and half- truths” about how the marbles “were ‘saved’ or ‘salvaged’ or ‘rescued’ by Lord Elgin, who came into possession of them lawfully”. Robertson says:

“The trustees of the British Museum have become the world’s largest receivers of stolen property, and the great majority of their loot is not even on public display.” [...] He criticised “encyclopaedic museums” such as the British Museum, the Louvre in Paris and the Metropolitan in New York that “lock up the precious legacy of other lands, stolen from their people by wars of aggression, theft and duplicity”. [...]  He writes: “This is a time for humility – something the British, still yearning for the era when they ruled the world, ie for Brexit, do not do very well.

A string of carefully-constructed lies and half- truths is of course what the same institution concocts for continued support of Britain's lootier lassez faire antiquities legislation and collection-driven exploitation of the archaeological record. The parallel goes deeper:

 A British Museum spokeswoman [...] said the Elgin marbles were acquired legally, with the approval of the Ottoman authorities of the day. “They were not acquired as a result of conflict or violence. Lord Elgin’s activities were thoroughly investigated by a parliamentary select committee in 1816 and found to be entirely legal” she said. 

Maybe it's time to take a second look, not just the "it's legal innit?" arguments of other British looters. 

Geoffrey Robertson's 'Who Owns History? Elgin’s Loot and the Case for Returning Plundered Treasure' will be published on 5 November by Biteback