capitalism i would think but happy not to spend Easter Sunday chatting about it

Ok, speak to you at midnight.

Aduchamp,


A point that interested me when viewing the Elgin Marbles was that the magnificent space in which they are exhibited is called the DUVEEN GALLERY. Joseph Duveen (1869-1947), of course, was the art dealer/collector extraordinaire later made a baron for his contributions to art collecting and philanthropy in England.


His work was deeply intertwined with that of the Renaissance art connoisseur Bernard Berenson whose attributions Duveen often sought in order to fetch the best prices for Italian masterpieces which rich Americans in those days were eager to buy. (Vanderbuilts, Morgans, Fricks, Rockefellers, and Isabella Stewart Gardner to name a few.)


For a quick overview of this colorful character:

melbourneblogger.blogspot.com/.../joseph-duveen-art-dealer-extraor...

I always enjoy your posts and look forward to reading about your next adventure in London…

Besides the obvious highlights, I really liked the Lewis Chessmen, which Cholmondeley_Warner highly recommended we make time to see.

I think, though, that someone here mentioned several of them are on display at the Cloisters right now, so you don't have to travel far to see them. :-)

We didn't have a lot of time for the museum when we were in London, so we rented the Highlights audioguide, got a map, and were able to see most of what we wanted to see.

Lee Ann

Thank you LateDay for the information and encouragement, I hope I do not diappoint.

Lee Ann

Yes, I read about that at the Cloisters. Thanks for the reminder.

<i>s the same justification that any conquerer uses.</i>

When did the YK conquer Greece?

That would be the Yoounited Kingdom, would it, alan?

(And bear in mind, Adu, that Greek independence had a little help from the Royal Navy).

s the same justification that any conquerer uses.

When did the YK conquer Greece?
_______

The Y and U are next to each other on the keyboard, but the F is on the next row.

It is the conquerer and imperialist mentality. We are better, we are richer, therfore, it is your interest to do it our way. It is a recognizable disease that inflicts America today, that is fought by some but unfortunataly justified like many. As it is here.

I think it makes for an interesting discussion point. If a museum of collector steals somet5hing from another country, obviously it should be handed back.

If that collector/museum purchases artefacts in good faith, at what stage are they required to repatriate them? Could not any country, 50 years on state that why President X gave/sold/donated part of a nations heritage to Museum Y, he had no right to do so.

My personal believe that the BM should make casts of the marbles, then send them back to Greece, but this does lead to the problem of what to do with the BM when all that is left is Sutton Hoo and the Lindow man.

Greece would have to sell them to pay off their debt anyway. ;-)

It is truly a different world, then when museums were first filled the spoils of war, wealth and arrogance. So many countries now have severe Cultural Property Laws to protect their heritage. If I am not mistaken, that we could not even remove an ordinary rock from Turkey.

"My personal believe that the BM should make casts of the marbles, then send them back to Greece,"

.. at precisely the same moment that Greece, whose predecessor government funded the construction of the Marbles (and the rest of the Parthenon) by a tax forcibly extracted annually for fifty years from the people of SE Turkey, compensates the descendants of the people it expropriated.

>> compensates the descendants of the people it expropriated.<<

To the extent that they could now be traced, most would almost certainly be in Greece, since the events of 1921-22.