By the time we arrived at its crowded event hall, the atmosphere was already electric. Winchester College Late Friday, May 19th. The college, one of Britain’s oldest boarding schools, is perhaps best known today as the home of the country’s current prime minister. Rishi Sunak. Students of such institutions practice not only ancient Greek, but also critical thinking, synthesis of arguments and public debate. In this context of the practice of thinking and reasoning, the virtual court on the status of property Marble of the Parthenonin which, as we were informed by “Kathimerini”, college students and students of local universities were invited under the guidance of reputable lawyers, jurists and judges.

The wood-paneled walls and portraits of historical school figures, as well as the lined-up groups of litigants, gave the space the feel of a real courtroom, as did the call to the audience to stand at the judges’ entrance. The presiding judge explained that the purpose of the trial was to check whether British museum has ownership of the marbles, not the question of whether the marbles should be returned to Greece. Consequently, both parties were initially dealing with a conversion tort, the British legal basis for forfeiture damages.

The main question on both sides was whether Elgin was he acting illegally by removing the marbles from the Parthenon, or was he acting within the permitted legal framework of the time? The controversial point is the famous but apparently non-existent firman of the Ottoman authorities of Athens, which exists only in the form of an Italian translation, and at the same time is controversial. Greek defenders argued that the translation of the Ottoman authorities’ permission was not a reliable source and that it gave permission for the removal of parts of the monument that were on the ground or were not part of the building complex. They even mentioned Elgin’s bribery of the Ottomans.

Instead, proponents of the British Museum argued that the relevant document could be interpreted as permission to remove the decorative pieces and that, since this was sufficient to persuade the competent committee of the British Museum in 1817 to buy the Marble from Elgin, there was no possibility of revisiting the ownership. possession two centuries later.

At that moment it became clear that the question of the ownership of the Marbles could not be decided solely by the legal arguments of different centuries and that it had a moral dimension. Supporters of Greece referred to the position of the American legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin that law is shaped by the moral values ​​of each era. An act that was considered legal and moral in the 19th century is illegal and reprehensible today. Thus, they provided examples from the United States and France, where the legal framework for the protection of museum collections has been changed in recent years by the government’s decision to allow the repatriation to their places of origin of items that have been unethically collected in the past. . The public was impressed to learn that the 1963 Prohibition of Removal of Objects from the Collections of British Museums Act was introduced to prevent the repatriation of European objects stolen by the Nazis during World War II and ended up in the UK after the war.

The main question was whether Elgin acted illegally in removing the marbles from the Parthenon, or whether he acted within the legal framework of the time.

After two purchases, public debate continued around a student’s comment about making copies of the marble for the British Museum. The educational and educational goal of the British Museum to present the Parthenon Marbles in comparison to other world treasures, which are often copies of original works, could be more accurately achieved by replicating the Sculptures in their original form with color and detail conveying authentic features. The idea seemed to satisfy a significant part of the public.

As evening fell, the meeting was adjourned, and the chairman announced that the court was reserving the decision on the property question. And while the moral and legal questions of who owns the Parthenon marbles remain open, we have the impression that a significant proportion of young 21st-century Britons believe in the values ​​of equality and social justice and are ready to face the past with courage. virtue, courage and imagination.

* Ms Marilena Alivisatu is Honorary Lecturer in Museum Studies and Cultural Heritage at University College London.
** Ms. Leda Harsuli – Architectural Engineer, founding member of the Superfusionlab office.