Museum heads say: hands off our staff - Front Page - controversy over the Elgin Marbles continues - Brief Article

Shortly after the British Museum once again rebuffed attempts by the Greek government to repatriate the Elgin Marbles, 18 directors of major international museums signed a statement in December affirming their institutions' rights to keep long-held antiquities originally from countries such as Greece and Egypt. Among the signatories are the heads of the Louvre, Hermitage, Prado, Rijksmuseum, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Cleveland Museum of Art, as well as all of New York's major museums. The British Museum and other museums in England are absent from the list, even though the statement first appeared in London's Sunday Times; according to the New York Times, the statement may have originated as a "call for help" from Nell MacGregor, the British Museum's director.

The statement condemns illegal trafficking in ancient and ethnic art works, but argues that objects acquired long ago should be "viewed in the light of different sensitivities and values, reflective of that earlier era." It also states that these long-held antiquities are now "part of the museums that have cared for them, and by extension part of the heritage of the nations which house them."

The Greek government had recently agreed to limit its ownership claim to the Elgin Marbles in hopes that the works would be returned for a long-term loan in time for the 2004 Olympic Games; the British Museum declined. In mid-December, in a gesture of goodwill, the Italian government returned a Parthenon fragment that had been looted from the frieze. A piece of the statue of Peitho, the divine embodiment of persuasion, was sent to Athens on an extended loan. Greece will reciprocate by loaning a work to Italy.

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