my family in the news
When my father Professor Martin Robertson passed away in 2004, his will reflected that he wanted some classical Greek pots that had been in his possession for many years returned to Greece. They are from around the 5th century BC and may have come from the Acropolis surrounds. Martin worked at the British Museum at the time of the Elgin Marbles scandal, though he inherited these pieces from an archaeologist friend, and always expressed regret that Greece was taken advantage of by many other countries that at the time were richer and perhaps better informed. Greece is still campaigning for the return of the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum. My brother Matthew has completed the handover. Here’s a news piece about it (they wrongly reported that it was Stephen who attended.)
Martin was very against any looting or illicit trading of ancient artefacts. When he helped catalog the Getty Museum’s collection in LA during the 1980′s, many pieces turned out to be illicit and Martin helped reinstate them to the Greek government. As a young man he was approached on more than one occasion by shady types who needed help excavating sites that were definitely ‘under the radar.’ Often the original pots and fragments dug up were smuggled out of the country, where they were copied by craftsmen and returned to Greece to be sold to unknowing tourists. There was even a story that some of these faked fragments were buried in the ground, and busloads of tourists or collectors taken to the site under cover of darkness, given spades, and invited to excavate their own pots, at a cost of thousands of Drachma! But Martin was no Indiana Jones, and always politely declined these approaches.
“See the priceless antiquity frozen in time”
Vase…..why did it have to be vase….
I went to Greece a few years ago and stopped at the British Museum on the way. While the display the British Museum has on the Elgin Marbles is impressive (fantastic computer animations to show what they looked like when complete and coloured, etc.) and far more sophisticated than anything I saw in any museum in Greece, it still seemed inappropriate to have them so far away from home. Anyone going to see the Parthenon should go to the British Museum on the way there or the way back as it is an incomplete experience to see it without the Marbles. Bravo to your father and to your family Thomas, for helping return pieces to Greece. Such pieces are part of everyone’s heritage. Thanks.
Thomas, thanks for bringing back the memories of one of the pleasant afternoons I spent with your dad. I still recall his chagrin about owning those pots though I was excited to see one up close. Martin struck me as being such a caring and moral person that I’m not surprised he requested their return.
Bully for the Robertson clan for doing the right thing. Antiquities are always more beautiful in their original setting. It’s my hope that at some point in time all of our societies can come to a better accommodation concerning ancient beauties such as these. As Autoxchica says, these are indeed part of everyone’s heritage.
peace
As a Classicist, I express thanks to your family from the bottom of my heart for returning a piece of history and culture to its rightful home. I remember hearing about such illegal archaeological digs when I was an undergrad, and it does my soul proud to know there were people like your family who had integrity in the face of temptation. This was the best news I’ve heard all day!
You know, when you really look at it, what right does
ANY museum have in possessing any major ancient
relics whatsoever? Plunderers will and always have appropriated anything of value to sell off to the highest bidder. As long as there is a black market
in such antiquities, not to mention pieces of exotic
animals that have led some close to extinction, there
will always be fools buing and selling. What we need
is a massive expatriation of ALL major works to the
countries of origin, to be displayed, as Ahkenaton
says, in its original setting, or a close to it as reasonably possible. Let’s face it, this is just a vestige of colonialism, plain and simple. Years ago
travel was quite expensive, and one’s only hope of
seeing such artifacts was indeed in a local museum.
Now, with holidays becoming affordable for everyone,
all the more reason for repatriation of all major
antiquities. Lastly, we need a world body such as the
ICC to enforce uniformly laws against the black
market with strength, AND force national museums
and major private foundations to send back ALL
major artifacts to countries of origin across the board, including American Indian artifacts in the states, within reason(not talking arrowheads, but
substantive material from burial sites and such).
These are all indeed part of our collective heritage
in the family of man, but let the sites of origin,
and the peoples therein, be a conduit for these
precious vestiges of the past.
-Scott
I did a month-long trip to Europe in 1977. Greece was one of the highlights of the entire trip. Walking on the Acropolis, going down to Mycenae & walking through the lion gate, visiting the Treasury of Atreus. Just amazing.
I was lucky enough to have London at the very end of the trip, where I had a chance to visit the British Museum & see not only the Elgin Marbles, but other items taken from the above sites.
– Dr. W
.
Interesting story.