Repatriation, Take One

When choosing our positions for this week's presentations, I chose something which I knew would be a challenge. I chose the position which was likely to be completely opposite from my own. And I must say that I quite enjoyed it.

Altar of Zeus at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin

In the position of the Director of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, I argued that the Altar of Zeus should remain in the Museum and not be returned to Turkey because of several things: first, the altar was rescued from the country in a time when the slabs were being sent off to be burned down for lime, or destroyed for other types of building material, second, their removal was completely legal as the Sultan signed a decree, and later, when the agreement was renegociated, the German government paid for all artifacts concerning the altar to be sent to Germany. Lastly, I argued that the Pergamon museum has taken excellent care of altar over the past 100 plus years, including sheltering them in the World Wars and recently restoring the frieze. 

I'd like to think that I was quite convincing, but the truth of the matter is that I don't think people needed convincing. 

Personally, at the beginning I was completely for the repatriation of the Altar to Turkey, since it is a monument that is missing from the ancient site; however, there are many issues with the repatriation of the altar which could change people's opinions, such as, what will Turkey do with the altar if they get it back? I always envisioned that they would re-mount it on the site where it was taken from, otherwise what's the point? I think that architecture has its greatest impact in its rightful context (I think everything has a greater impact in its original context...), and I don't think that placing the altar in another museum in Turkey would INCREASE that context in any way. My dream is that if the altar is repatriated, it will be set in its original location.

Original location of the Altar of Zeus, modern day Bergama

That being said, even if Turkey just plans to put the altar in another museum, I am for the repatriation of this artifact, because it did come from their land, and they want it back. For whichever reason, it means something special to them, something beside monetary gain. That, for me, is reason enough. Plus, the Berlin Museum has two other really awesome monumental structures in their museum, they could do away with one. If and when I finally get to go to Turkey and to Bergama, I would like to be able to see all the ancient structures that were once in Pergamon in one visit- I don't want to have to then go to Berlin to see the most impressive one. 

Yes, we can't change history. But we can try to make amends for it. No, we can't compensate every family of every slave from the 1800s, but we can make amends by finally treating these people as equal human beings (a thing which a lot of people are still working on...)

No, we can't undo every single wrong that was done in 19th century archaeology, but we can make some amends. This is where repatriation comes in. 

I feel that because I have a lot to say on this subject, I will leave it here for now, but return to talk about the heated debate of the Elgin marbles.