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Description
For the last two centuries, much of the ancient Parthenon marble sculptures have been housed in the British Museum. For the past century, the museum has also displayed bronzes from Africa’s western coastal Benin region. These cultural objects have been part of repatriation debates in Britain for several decades. Many have argued that the objects should stay in the museum, as it promotes education of different cultures and civilizations. Others oppose on the grounds that the objects were stolen and belong to the country from which they originated. Since the early nineteenth century, British newspapers have reflected the marbles’ repatriation debates. They reveal the rationale of why the objects have stayed in the British Museum despite ongoing controversy. A British Parliamentary report from 1816 also provides detailed analyses of the marbles’ acquisition and their artistic integrity, which became a basis for their benefit to Britain’s cultural arts. Additional Parliamentary reports and newspapers have also provided details about the restitution debates of and claims for the Benin bronzes. A chronological narrative of the two different cultural objects illustrates how the debates and the institutional responses to those debates progressed over many decades. One can identify how and why opinions and reactions to repatriation arguments unfolded over time, and how they varied between the objects during the same time. Although the museum’s retention of the marbles and bronzes have been involved in major discussions for decades, very little scholarship has touched on the nature and evolution of these arguments. Predominantly British primary sources illustrate that the British Museum has persisted in retaining the marbles and bronzes because they benefit world culture by remaining in a major international museum. Analyzing the objects’ acquisitions and the history of their repatriation debates demonstrate what may be the cause for successful and unsuccessful repatriation requests. Immoral or illegal circumstances of acquisition certainly play a part in increasing chances that objects are sent back to where they were taken. More significantly, how culturally valuable an institution believes objects are to their collection and visitors also determine the outcome of repatriation decisions.
