[News] Should the United Kingdom Give Back the Elgin Marbles?

[Bakero]

A resounding NO from me . It was noted earlier in the thread that Elgin purchased them fair and square from the keepers at the time . It may be tough on the Greeks but , that’s life.
It would not stop there . Imagine the British Museum stripped of its Egyptian antiquities, its African historical items … We would not have a museum.
Possession is nine tenths of the law, they say. Hang on to what you have.

Living up to the username there

 

[dsr-burnley]

It'd be a bit rough on the USA. Every single man-made object over 300 years old (and many of the younger ones), apart from the few that survive from Indian manufacture, would have to go "back home".

 

[Commander]

A resounding NO from me . It was noted earlier in the thread that Elgin purchased them fair and square from the keepers at the time . It may be tough on the Greeks but , that’s life.
It would not stop there . Imagine the British Museum stripped of its Egyptian antiquities, its African historical items … We would not have a museum.
Possession is nine tenths of the law, they say. Hang on to what you have.

I didn't realise we bought them. I assumed we nicked them.

Can't we sell them back and spend the money on a couple of new nukes?

 

[GT49er]

I didn't realise we bought them. I assumed we nicked them.

Can't we sell them back and spend the money on a couple of new nukes?

No need to bring nukes into it. As I suggested earlier, selling them back to Greece would be a good solution - it would be an acceptance by them that we had no obligation to give them back and had done nothing wrong; we bought them, then sold them back - purely financial transactions, setting no sort of precedent for anybody else to come demanding 'their' stuff back as a right.

 

[HeaviestTed]

100% for two reasons:

- so I don’t have to hear about this nonsense again
- marbles is a shit game, Elgin should never have invented it

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I didn't realise we bought them. I assumed we nicked them.

Can't we sell them back and spend the money on a couple of new nukes?

It was the Turks that sold them because the Ottoman Empire ruled Greece at the time. They had no right to sell them. as they were just the occupying force.
I think the Greeks have been hard done by.

 

[Bakero]

I didn't realise we bought them. I assumed we nicked them.

Can't we sell them back and spend the money on a couple of new nukes?

The thing is Elgin bought them from an occupying power (the Ottomans). When Greece got independence (~25 years later) they asked the British government, who got the Marbles from Elgin, to return them. We've been saying no for almost 200 years.

Edit: I see @Thunder Bolt just beat me to it

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

I didn't realise we bought them. I assumed we nicked them.

Can't we sell them back and spend the money on a couple of new nukes?

Or a few Gyros and some Mythos.

 

[Goldstone1976]

They do need to be careful about suggesting all this ‘returning’ mullarkey.

Imagine if Uncle Donald thinks he might be able to return swathes of African Americans back to the mother continent?

Perhaps he will think that they ought to return much of the country to the indigenous peoples, the French, the Spanish, and the Brits.

 

[jackalbion]

Yes, the thing in Athens looks shit without them.

 

[cheshunt seagull]

Yes and then we can work out an agreement with the Greek government for temporary exchanges, joint exhibitions etc. The argument about the Museum being a safe pair of hands has been somewhat undermined by allegations of collection items going missing and not being catalogued.

 

[5Ways Gull]

Only if Trump gives back the Gulf of Mexico.

 

[Mr.Green]

Only if Brits get holiday discounts and they take back Peter Andre

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

No. An enormous and unnecessary can of worms.

?? I think you’re getting confused. They’re quite small and glass ball shaped?

 

[Anger]

We could 3D print a copy of them and then I reckon we could offer them back.

 

[AmexRuislip]

Aa mentioned on another thread, they weren't ours in rhe first place, give em back.

 

[sparkie]

Possibly.

 

[slartibartfast]

Yes.....