The Odyssey of the Greek Marbles

To the Editor:

Re “Greek Statue Travels Again, but Not to Greece” 
(front page, Dec. 6):

As an art and cultural heritage lawyer, I am vexed by the situation 
of the Parthenon marbles. Greece may not have a strong legal argument 
for restitution because of statute-of-limitation issues and the lack 
of evidence regarding whether Lord Elgin had proper authority 
to remove the marbles from Greece.

But the moral solution is clear: Return the marbles. 
The carvings are a symbol of the Greek people, 
and their violent removal to England distanced 
the objects from their legitimate home.

The most shocking aspect of the loan by the British Museum to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is the recipient. Russia has a poor reputation for handling plundered art.

Russian officials are uncooperative in returning Nazi-looted art to rightful owners, claiming that objects seized during World War II are reparations for lost lives.

It is ironic that the Hermitage should be the first to benefit from a loan involving the most hotly contested cultural heritage objects. The British Museum, long accused of holding on to stolen Greek art, is lending its inventory to a country that refuses to make restitution of stolen art.

Greek outrage is understandable. And sadly for Lord Byron, one of Lord Elgin’s greatest critics, there has been no poetic justice.

LEILA AMINEDDOLEH
New York, Dec. 9, 2014

The writer is executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation.

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