From Thursday 26 April a special exhibition at the British Museum - 'Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece'. That Rodin, a modern master, first came to London in 1881 and was captivated by the sculptures from the Parthenon is no surprise.Yet they were brutally sawn off from the building they were once an integral part of and shipped to Britain, then sold to the government and displayed nearly 2, 000 miles away from their other halves in Athens. Edward Enfield once said, the only reason the British Museum will never let them return to Greece, is simply because they are so beautiful. And their beauty has captivated the hearts of many. They continue to attract millions of visitors in the superlative Acropolis Museum in Athens since it opened in 2009 and in the British Museum for the past 200 years. The Rodin exhibition will delight but it will not justify the British Museum's implacable refusal to even discuss with Greece the notion of uniting the surviving pieces with their other halves. This outdated attitude is a relic of colonialism that ought to be reviewed. After all, even Rodin lamented their exile from the 'sweet Attica sunlight beloved of Homer'. “Those sculptures, which we prefer to attribute to the Parthenon from whence they were grabbed rather than to Elgin the grabber, should now be relinquished back to the city they once crowned. They have inspired artists and thrilled the curious in their gloomy rooms in Bloomsbury for long enough and now their country of origin deserves their glory, in the museum built especially to house them facing the Acropolis and still miraculously upright building that they once adorned.” Janet Suzman DBE, Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM). The BCRPM argue that reuniting the Parthenon Marbles in Athens supports world culture by promoting understanding, respect and compassion. #worldculture #honesty #respect #understanding #compassion #culture4all #parthenonmarbles #theparthenon #AcropolisMuseum 🏛 #BCRPM #JanetSuzman #reunitetheparthenonmarbles #greatart #greatsculpture #museums #worldculturalheritage
