The pain of theft
It would be too easy to comment that the theft of antiquities from the British Museum, allegedly by a staff member who has since been sacked, is a sign of divine providence: the repository of much of humanity’s history, some of it of dubious provenance or evident theft, is getting a taste of its own medicine, and proving to be a far less adequate custodian of that incomparable treasure than it claims to be.
The museum could reply that one bad actor does not spoil its self-ordained task of showcasing the course of civilization. It has noted that the crime was discovered, steps are being taken to recover the lost artifacts and the museum will learn from this. Of course, this is not the first time that antiquities have been endangered while in its care, most notably the scrubbing of parts of the Parthenon sculptures in 1938 and 1939. Perhaps the deeper resonance of this recent unfortunate incident is that the museum might adopt a position of greater humility, that those in positions of authority in it may get a glimpse of the violation felt by those who have lost something precious that was in their care – and the need for restoration. In this case, this concerns not so much the artifacts as the museum’s prestige.
In this light, the statement by George Osborne, the museum’s chair, is most pertinent. “Our priority is now threefold: first, to recover the stolen items; second, to find out what, if anything, could have been done to stop this; and third, to do whatever it takes, with investment in security and collection records, to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” he said. This is how the Greeks and other nations feel when they argue that they are the best custodians of their ancestors’ treasures.
Greece has a host of legal arguments to back its claim for the Parthenon Sculptures’ return. This, though, should not obscure the importance of the emotional aspect of the need to restore that which an alien overlord allowed a foreign lord to snatch. Because it is one thing to be unable to prevent a crime and another to not seek to restore the damage. The British Museum knows this.
