Nefertiti.Now in Berlin

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)

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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) 

I must confess that I have never thought of the possibility that the act of vandalism by Lord Elgin which has resulted in decades of dispute between Greece and the United Kingdom could be justified in this way. My first reaction was to dismiss the article as one of the many strange articles we read on restitution but then I noticed that it was discussed by Paul Harford who correctly summed it up as “pure imperialism”.(3)   However, Derek Fincham thought that  Kimmelman “manages to make some thoughtful observations”. (4) 

Kimmelman, I learnt, is Chief critic of the New York Times, a respectable American newspaper and so may be considered to be representing some parts of the American elite. The views he expressed must therefore be seen as a serious matter since the USA is home of many of the worlds important cultural objects.

Democratization through vandalism? If one follows the underlying logic of the argument it implies that any act of vandalism which spreads parts of the vandalized objects in the world could be seen as initiating a process of democratization in so far as it enables more people to view objects which might otherwise be intact in their original location and accessible only to those who visit the original location. If we were to accept this argument, there would be few cases of looting, vandalism or illegitimate appropriation, as far as cultural objects are concerned, that could not be defended as having a democratizing effect, if by democratizing one means making  subjects accessible to more persons. 

 This way of reasoning would justify what most of us would consider as absolute evils: slavery and Nazism.  Following Kimmelman’s logic, one could argue that the Atlantic slavery that caused the scattering of Africans in many countries of America was a democratizing process since it enabled other countries and peoples to participate in the African heritage which is also a heritage of mankind. Surely, an American author would shrink from justifying ex post facto the evils of slavery. Could he also see how his argumentation would shock the Greeks and others who view Lord Elgin’s vandalism as a destructive act that cannot be accepted?

More worrying is the effect that such arguments could have on others, especially the impressionable youth, both from the Western world and non-Western world. Convinced of striking a blow for democratization, some may feel they are doing humankind a service by trying to dismantle monuments or tearing down parts of objects such as the Statute of Liberty so that they could be seen by the rest of the world and not only by US Americans. Is Kimmelman still with us? Would he approve of people taking parts of the statute of Lincoln and other US national treasures in the name of a democratization process? What would he think if some young Africans went about taking pieces of looted African sculptures that are available only in Western museums? They might think they are bringing authentic African culture to people in Africa who do not have the opportunity to visit museums in Amsterdam, Paris, London, Berlin. New York and Chicago.

Many arguments or statements presented by Kimmelman appear to distort the issues rather than bring enlightenment. Take for instance this statement: “The Greek proposal that Britain fork over Elgin’s treasures has never involved actually putting the sculptures back onto the Parthenon, which started crumbling long before he showed up. The marbles would go from one museum into another, albeit one much closer. The Greeks argue for proximity, not authenticity. Their case has always been more abstract, not strictly about restoration but about historical reparations, pride and justice. It is more nationalistic and symbolic.”

(...)

Kwame Opoku, 16 May 2010

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NOTES

1. http://www.melinamercourifoundation.org.

2. Michael Kimmelman, Who Draws the Borders of Culture? The New York Times, May 4, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05  All citations of Kimmelman are from this article. Readers may be interested in 2009 coverage of the museum by the New York Tines http://www.nytimes.com...

3. Paul Barford, http://paul-barford.blogspot.com

http://paul-barford.blogspot.com

See excellent comments at http://archaeologymatters

4. Derek Fincham, http://illicit-cultural-property.blogspot.com

5. K. Opoku, “Is Nationalism such a Dangerous Phenomenon for Culture and Stolen/Looted Cultural Property?” http://www.modernghana.com