The British Museum refuses to allow scans of the Parthenon marbles. Resulting replicas could be offered to them if they consented the marbles to be returned to Greece.
Let’s imagine you want to study a work of art currently in the collection of a state or municipal museum.
Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) have been opened over the centuries to allow for the sharing of public cultural heritage and play a vital role in the communities they serve. They provide resources and services for entertainment, education, research and knowledge advancement and stimulate creativity and innovation in the service of global (sustainable) development.
By making their collections usable, offering their scientific, historical and socio-cultural resources, both locally and online, they enable citizens, generation after generation, to build a conscious, informed, better future for themselves and their communities.
However, it proves often difficult to go one step further; and making collections truly openly accessible, shareable and reusable by the public.
Have you tried to ask for a totally non-invasive analysis for study and dissemination purposes?
The works of art then seem to become no longer public but the property of a director who vetoes 99 times out of 100. Why? Certainly not for problems related to the safety of operations, when these are in fact totally non-invasive. It seems more like the desire to maintain a certain monopoly.
The Institute of Digital Archeology (IDA), for example, has regularly submitted, for years now, the request to the British Museum in London, to perform a 3-D scan of the Parthenon sculptures preserved in them, but with no success.
The request, which the British Museum would neither confirm nor deny receiving, is based on the UK’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), passed in 2000, which provides for public access to information held by public authorities.
But the museum seems to shilly-shally. The IDA lawyer then took a legal step in an attempt to force the museum to allow the scan to be performed.
IDA is a firm supporter of the return of the Parthenon sculptures to Athens, as requested by Greece for years.
The ultimate goal of the scans is in fact to create “replicas” that could replace the sculptures inside the British Museum, leaving the originals to be sent back to Athens.
The Parthenon sculptures, also called the Elgin Marbles, were in fact removed from the Acropolis in the early 19th century by Thomas Bruce, Earl of Elgin, when he served as Britain’s ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which then occupied the Greece. Many other museums are taking steps in this direction, returning the works to the communities of origin. The world is waiting for the British Museum to respond.
