Re: Corbyn's Lost His Marbles
Originally Posted by
tarantula
->
I have not much time for Corbyn, however, the Elgin Marbles should be returned to their country of origin as they were stolen goods.
Ah, I see you didn't bother to read the article then. A shame.
"Lord Elgin sought and obtained permission from the Ottoman authorities to remove the carvings, and later sold them to the British Government, which placed them in the British Museum where they have been drawing huge and appreciative crowds ever since. Property rights do not lapse simply because an artefact is considered culturally significant. Nor should private ownership be trumped by vague collective claims. That principle is one of the foundations of an open society."
To be clear, in 1801 Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin obtained an official decree of a firman from the central government of the Ottoman Empire which were then the rulers of Greece. Elgin was also later approved by a second firman which allowed for the shipping of the marbles from Piraeus.
A "Firman" btw is a royal mandate or decree issued by a sovereign in an Islamic state, in this case the Ottoman Empire.
In short then the Elgin Marbles were legally and wilfully sold/passed to Thomas Bruce with permission to remove them from Greece. He then legally sold them to Britain where they have been since.
Greece have no right of ownership and to believe they do would be to also believe that anyone who had paid £millions for an original painting by Leonardo Da Vinci would have to give it back to Italy purely because Leonardo was Italian, painted in Italy nand so on. The concept is a total nonsense.
That the Elgin Marbles cosmetically belong to the other sculptures and relics associated with the Parthenon is not in
question AFAIK. As the article suggests there is a very good case for re-siting the sculptures with the other Parthenon works, but that would have nothing to do with change of ownership.
All of this is just more Commie Corbyn duplicity, looking for band wagons to jump on to appease and lure in voters from different sectors. Lame in the extreme.