re: The British Museum Says It Will Never Return the Elgin Marbles

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Don't worry, the UK is run by chickenshits now, they will return everything eventually.

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Hard to predict the future. Greece is being overrun by illegal immigrants from the South washing up on their shores. In a few decades the desire for return may pass as the average Greek "resident" may not even know what the Elgin Mables are.

3,1,2

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For example there are more mummies there than in Cairo.

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Cairo just got 50 more.

LINK

Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered a Pharaonic tomb containing 50 mummies dating back to the Ptolemaic era (323-30BC) , in Minya, south of Cairo, the ministry of antiquities said.

The mummies, 12 of which were of children, were discovered inside four, nine-metre-deep burial chambers in the Tuna el-Gebel archaeological site.

The identities of the mummies were still unknown, said Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

“We have not found names written in hieroglyphics,” he said. He added it was obvious from the mummification method that the individuals whose remains were found had to some extent held important or prestigious positions.

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In this case, the "what" is the original set of stuffed animals - Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger and Kanga (with baby Roo) - given by Milne to his New York publisher, E.P. Dutton & Co., who put them on tour and then gave them to the library.

"They are part of our heritage, and they want to come home," said Dunwoody.

The "which" is the Elgin Marbles, a collection of statues, reliefs, embellished slabs and other sculptures. They were created (probably by Phidias) in the 5th century B.C. for the Parthenon, the Doric temple atop Athens' Acropolis. More than two millennia later, when Greece suffered under Turkish rule, Lord Elgin was British ambassador to Constantinople. In 1801, the Turks generously allowed him to strip the Parthenon and ship the sculptures to London on the argument they needed protection. The collection was purchased in 1816 for the British Museum, where they remain its principal exhibit despite fervent pleas by the Greek government for their return.

Diane Powers of the New York library didn't bother to snicker at the absurdity of comparing treasures of the Parthenon with tattered toys Milne bought at Harrod's for his son, Christopher Robin, that eventually became models for Disney cartoons.

"If England returns the Elgin Marbles to Greece," said the librarian in New York, "we might consider returning Pooh."

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We've been trolling the Brits for 20 years at least on this subject.