It’s often claimed online that the British Museum in London would have nothing left to show if it returned every artefact that the UK allegedly stole from other countries, but there’s more to the claim than meets the eye.
A recent meeting between the British and Greek prime ministers has once again revived a long-running debate about whether the UK should return the Parthenon Sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, to Athens.
Following the meeting between Keir Starmer and Kyriakos Mitsotakis earlier this month, reports emerged that the Greek government believes its British counterpart will no longer block the return of the ancient sculptures.
However, Downing Street has reiterated that its stance on returning the artefacts remains unchanged, stating that the decision is for the British Museum, where they are currently housed. The government also said that it has no intention of altering the law to allow their permanent removal.
The sculptures are a collection of marble decorations from the Temple of Athena, or the Parthenon, on the Acropolis in Athens, dating back as early as 447 BC.
In the early 1800s, Lord Elgin, the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, claimed he obtained permission from local authorities to remove about half of the remaining sculptures from the Parthenon, citing concern for their preservation.
They were eventually transferred to the British Museum and have since been a significant point of contention between the UK and Greece.
Some claim that Lord Elgin was an honest Philhellene trying to save the sculptures from deterioration and destruction, while others allege that the Scottish nobleman was a greedy aristocrat who stole the marbles from their rightful homeland, a symptom of Britain’s wider colonial ambitions at the time.
The debate often prompts a wider discussion as to whether and what exactly the UK should return to their countries of origin, as well as claims that there’d be nothing left in the British Museum if it returned everything that the UK allegedly stole.
However, the claim is hyperbolic because the vast majority of the items in the museum originate from the UK.
Most items come from England
Conducting a search of country tags on the British Museum’s online catalogue shows that more than 650,000 artefacts come from England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, with by far the biggest bulk coming from England.
In fact, England is the single biggest contributor of items to the British Museum among countries in Europe and worldwide. It has around four times as much as the next most prevalent countries, including Iraq and Italy.
Some 66,000 artefacts come from Greece, according to the online database.
The British Museum said that even with more than 2 million records, it has only catalogued about half of its collection online and that roughly 80,000 objects are on public display at the British Museum in Bloomsbury, London at any one time.
“In many cases, the most recent research has not yet been added,” the museum said. “There will be mistakes and omissions, but the Museum chooses to publish the data, rather than hold it until it is ‘finished’, as there will always be new information about an object. Only personal and sensitive information has been withheld.”
It’s worth pointing out that “artefacts” can refer to anything from photos, banknotes and small pieces of pottery to larger, more grandiose sculptures and jewellery, and that the way the British Museum acquired them varies too.
ADVERTISEMENTMuseum’s biggest pieces are from elsewhere
Indeed, while England is the biggest contributor to the museum by volume, it’s true that the museum’s most remarkable pieces are the most controversial and tend to have originated from overseas.
Some of the museum’s standout exhibits include statues from the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos (from modern-day Bodrum in Turkey), the Bust of Rameses the Great (Egypt) and the Rosetta Stone (Egypt) — the famous slab engraved with a decree in two languages and three scripts.
The decree is written in hieroglyphs, the Egyptian Demotic script, and Ancient Greek. The discovery of the stone was so groundbreaking because the different scripts and languages helped scholars decipher the meaning of hieroglyphs.
It’s believed that the Rosetta Stone was found in the late 1700s, during Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaign in Egypt. French soldiers discovered the slab by accident while digging and it was later handed over to the British under the Treaty of Alexandria in 1801 following Napoleon’s defeat.
ADVERTISEMENTEgyptian campaigners have demanded its return, saying that the British Museum’s holding of the stone is a symbol of “Western cultural violence against Egypt”.
Elsewhere in Africa, Nigeria has requested the return of the Benin Bronzes, a group of sculptures including commemorative heads, items of royal regalia, and personal ornaments.
They date as far back as the 16th century and were taken from Benin City after British forces invaded in 1897.
Nigerian officials have alleged that the artefacts “are the subject of loot” and that, regardless of their safety in the British Museum, they should be returned to “the communities that they belong to”.
ADVERTISEMENTThe British Museum says that it has “positive relationships” with the Royal Palace in Benin City and that it remains open to discussions with Nigeria.
Ethiopia meanwhile wants the Maqdala Collection back, which includes liturgical objects such as chalices, weapons, jewellery and tabots (consecrated altar tablets).
Some items have already been returned to Ethiopia, but others plundered by British soldiers in 1868 remain in the UK.
The British Museum says that its long-term ambition relating to the tabots is to “lend them to an Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Great Britain where they can be cared for by the clergy within their traditions”.
ADVERTISEMENTThe issue of returning artefacts to their country of origin is not unique to the UK — museums across Europe have long faced calls to give back many of their own exhibits too, over allegations that they were illegally taken from their ancestral homes during colonial times.
The British Museum faced further controversy last year when it was discovered that some 2,000 items, including jewellery and semi-precious stones, were missing, with some even surfacing on eBay. Hundreds of artefacts have since been tracked down.
