A blockbuster exhibit to be displayed at a number of Canadian and U.S. museums in 2015 hopes to boost Greece’s argument for the repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum. The exhibition, titled “The Greeks – Agamemnon to Alexander the Great”, is organized by the Canadian Museum of History and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sport and is due to premiere at Montreal’s Pointe-a-Calliere museum on December 5, at the Museum of History in Gatineau from June 5 through to october 12, 2015, before moving to the Field Museum in Chicago and the National Geographic Museum in Washington D.C.
Asked by Canadian journalists if the 500 rare artefacts traveling to Canada and the United States was partly a tactic to ramp up pressure on the British to return the sculptures that Greeks have long characterized as looting, Mr. Venizelos replied that the exhibition “may be a good way to solve the historical and moral problem” created by the removal of the marbles. British diplomat Lord Elgin had removed about half of the surviving classical Greek sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens from 1801 to 1812 before shipping them to Britain.
The British government purchased these in 1816 and then gave them to the British Museum in London where they are displayed today. Greece has sought their return for decades and even built the new Acropolis Museum in 2009 to house them following criticism that it had no suitable place.
Mr. Venizelos told Canadian journalists that Greece is prepared to offer the British Museum a “perpetual loan” of other ancient artifacts in exchange for the missing marbles. “This is a win-win. We have a chance to organize, in the new Acropolis Museum, a complete exhibit of the marbles and organize a new chain of exhibits for everyone.”
The display traveling to Canada and the United States is a sample of this new “chain”. The country hopes that the ancient artifacts will help reset Greece’s image that has been tarnished by the Greek economic crisis. He said this was a “good opportunity to present not only the face of our past but also the face of modern Greece.”
Mr. Venizelos admitted that Greek archaeologists had numerous reservations about allowing the artefacts to leave the country, however he believes that the display will help overcome “hesitations” and spearhead more flexibility. Mr. Venizelos also said that he was confident that the Canadian museums had the ability to protect the precious objects, some of which date back more than 7,000 years.
The Greeks – Agamemnon to Alexander the Great is the most vast and comprehensive exhibition on Ancient Greece ever presented in North America. It brings together more than 500 artifacts from 21 Greek museums, including many pieces never before displayed outside Greece. Among other treasures, visitors will be able to see a number of priceless objects, the result of some unparalleled archaeological discoveries.
