5d ago

Rightwing campaigners claim there is covert deal to return Parthenon marbles

www.theguardian.com

Liz Truss and hard-right group accused of scaremongering over Parthenon marbles

14 comments

They're right. They are the 'Right', after all.
The conspiracy is called 'rising levels of decency'.
More like a disease than a conspiracy, really.
And unlike actual diseases, I assume they're well-vaccinated against this one.
I should hope that they're right. We should return what was stolen.
- If we returned all the things we stole the British museum would be empty.
  
  Last time I heard a deal talked about in serious terms (which was some years ago), I believe the plan was for a "permanent loan" to Greece in exchange for a rotating selection of loans in return. Greece has a pretty impressive collection of ancient artifacts, and it would give British museum-goers a chance to see them.
  
  There's loads of British stuff in the museum. All of Darwin's collections for one thing, plenty of artwork, lots of mediaeval and Roman finds, the famous dinosaur fossil collection, there's quite a bit of masonry in there from the Great fire of London.
  Also a lot of stuff is from other countries but is on loan, such as all the Egyptian stuff.
  
  To be fair, I’m sure there’s some British things in the British museum, I assume those could be kept.
  
  Yes. It would.
- Isn't there a conspiracy theory that everything on show at the British Museum is a replica anyway and that the real artifacts are carefully stored elsewhere?
  
  There's a lot of unfounded stupid conspiracy theories but the thing about stupid conspiracy theories, is that they're stupid.
I love that they've concocted a conspiracy that literally only they can possibly care about.
If it were true, literally no one else would care. The average member of the public probably doesn't even know what they're talking about, has never seen them, and has no particularly strong opinions on them.
Negotiations between Athens and the British Museum began in 2021.
Ah, so it's not a secret evil Labour plot then. This critical piece of information is several paragraphs down in the article, talk about burying the lead.

14 comments