As the Elgin Marbles leave our shores on a ‘cultural exchange’ to Russia the hypocrisy of the art world, governments, dealers, collectors etc. etc. concerning the whole sordid issue of the ownership/appropriation of art works is with us once more.
For millennia art has been appropriated by those who conquer, raid or gain power, the rich, the famous, museums and religious institutions in all their guises across the world. And for all the cultural criticism that ‘art’ may receive these days, it plays and has played a far more important role in our world than it is currently given credit for. Peoples stole and appropriated art not only for financial gain, but as a symbol of status: either to gain the power it held or destroy the power it gave.
So to focus on one act of appropriation as more evil than another, as an example, say, the Nazi hording of art during the Third Reich often being condemned far more than the works ‘acquired’ by the British nation during imperial rule, seems to me a little hypocritical. Do we see Heldebrand Guritt and his son Cornelius as custodians of artwork that may well have been destroyed during a time of conflict, or down right racist thieves; could the same be said of the British Museum via the British Government?
I have no answer to this, but let’s hope the Russians enjoy these magnificent sculptures and that the British Museum does the decent thing by eventually returning them to Greece. However, I think pigs may fly….
Next time… artist copyright.
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