It looks as if all too often the intricate relationship between a 'relic' and the surrounding history that is imbuing it with meaning is not understood by the very people who's job it is to recognize such things. The continued story of the Elgin marbles looks like an example of that. In this post at Elginism, the author discusses the potential of returning the Marbles to Greece for the 2012 London Olympics. I noted with interest that although the majority of Britons support the return of the marbles, the Museum still opposes it on the grounds (since "the Greeks have nowhere to store them in" argument is no longer valid) that it would create a precedent and more artifacts would start flowing out of museums.

The post summarizes well why that argument does not hold water, and as such it seems more and more likely that the Museum simply does not want to let go of marbles. While it's true that the British Museum would lose some of it's prestige along with the marbles, it is questionable how much of a positive impact the marbles are making for the museum in the first place. After all, if most britons, upon seeing the marbles do not think "priceless Greek antiquities" but instead "the Museum should give it back", they may be still draw a crowd to the Museum, but not for the reasons the Museum would want them to.

Clearly, the story of the marbles does not stop with their removal from Athens by lord Elgin, and I'm left wondering, if already the story of the Museum's refusal to return them is starting to overshadow their prominence as important antiquities. Considering that the museum should think whether it even wants to hold on to a piece of heritage that makes most visitors think about the injustice of the museum and not the artistic merit of the object. It seems that returning them would benefit both the Marbles themselves (because at Athens, they could once again be viewed in context with the Parthenon and not be overshadowed by their fate in the past few hundred years) as well as the British Museum (since they would replace negative publicity associated with the Marbles with positive publicity associated with their return). So my hopes are high that Museum will realize that as well and work out a deal by 2012.

[edit from 10/31] In light of the last class discussion, hopefully this rewording of my argument will help to elucidate the point. Whatever power the Marbles have accumulated over time from being identified with the Parthenon, the foundations of Western Civilization, high aesthetic principles and whatnot, may become overshadowed by the power of being associated with the Greece-Britain debacle. If the British Museum is not very careful in dealing with this situation, then it's own image in the collective consciousness of the Brits, the cogniscenti and pretty much eveyone who matters to the Museum, may start tarnishing.