[African_heritage_under_threat:62] Kwame Opoku - DEMOCRATIZATION THROUGH VANDALISM: NEW ANSWER TO DEMANDS FOR RESTITUTION OF CULTURAL ARTEFACTS?

[Ton Cremers]

DEMOCRATIZATION THROUGH VANDALISM: NEW ANSWER TO DEMANDS FOR
RESTITUTION OF CULTURAL ARTEFACTS?


“You must understand what the Parthenon Marbles mean to us. They are
our pride. They are our sacrifices. They are the supreme symbol of
nobility. They are a tribute to democratic philosophy. They are our
aspiration and our name. They are the essence of Greekness”.

Melina Mercouri (1)

After a long period of studying the question of restitution of
cultural artefacts, I thought I had heard all the arguments that could
be advanced for or against
restitution. However, I received a jolt of surprise when I saw an
article by Michael Kimmelman entitled “Who Draws the Borders of
Culture?" in which, among other contestable statements, he wrote
concerning the dismemberment of the Parthenon and its scattering
outside Greece, the following:

“Over the centuries, meanwhile, bits and pieces of the Parthenon have
ended up in six different countries, in the way that countless altars
and other works of art have been split up and dispersed among private
collectors and museums here and there. To the Greeks the Parthenon
marbles may be a singular cause, but they’re like plenty of other
works that have been broken up and disseminated. The effect of this
vandalism on the education and enlightenment of people in all the
various places where the dismembered works have landed has been in
many ways democratizing.” (2)


READ FULL TEXT AT:
http://www.museum-security.org/opoku_vandalism.htm

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