The missing sister

Hi this is Camille and today I wanted to talk about a subject that really sadden me : "The missing sister".

Introduction

The missing sister relates to one of the six statues from ancient Greece called Caryatids they used to be on the Parthenon, the temple honoring Athena the godess of war and science. The Parthenon is in the center of Athens and is the beating heart of the city. Symbol of the greatness of the greek history and ancient civilisation, but also a touristic place for the city and Greece.

But what happened ?

In 1811, a man named Lord Elgin took one of the Caryatids to send it to London, he claimed that the Ottomans (who occupied Greece at that time) agreed to let him take the statue and some parts of the temple and especially the frieze which was decorating the front of the Parthenon. But the Ottomans had no rights to make this deal it wasn't their history or legacy. This was later recognized as an act of colonial exploitation.

And now what ?

Thanks to those extraordinary pieces The British Museum is now a must seen and an internationaly known museum. The cruelest part is that the most part of the museum 's collections belong to other countries. Indeed the Rosetta stone or even the statue of Ramesses II were actually found in Egypt, the statues of the Mausoleum tomb were found in actual Turkey close to Bodrum. The egyptian and greek governement have been demanding the retourn of those historical pieces to their home country. The greeks have been negociating hardly for a while now and expressly request the retourn of the parts of the Parthenon, especially since the opening of the Acropolis Museum in Athens in 2009. The bristish answer is that the pieces are in better condition and well preserved here in England than in their home country. But we all know that it's mainly because if they would retourn this pieces they would have to do the same for every foreign pieces they have in the museum, and they would lost their influence, and prestige. Indeed 60 000 items belongs to Greece on 200 000 that own the museum. It's really a shame that England don't want to let go of their colonial past and legacy and move on. But of course The British Museum isn't the only one in this position at all, The Louvre faces similar problems.

Why this subject ?

When I was 10 I went to Greece since I was a huge fan of greek mythology. And when I visited the Acropolis Museum and I saw the hole between the statues it broke my heart, it was like someone separated them and now they are incompletes. It was really frustrating seeing inscriptions like " this is a reproduction, the real one is in The British museum, London". Last summer I went to London and I finally saw the last parts of the greek collection and it reminded me how sad this all story is. I did felt bad for the poor sister standing in the room alone far from home. It's unfair that the greek can't embrace and show proudly their history just because some people thought that creating a personnal collection was more important. It upsets me that England refuses to give back the pieces as they should and as should all the other museums. Every counrty sould be proud and showing their own history and not the colonialist parts.

That's it for today ! of course I recommend you to see them but now you'll know that you'll have to go either to Greece or England to see them entirely.

Bye bye Charlie.