What is elginism?

Elginism (lgnzm) n. 1801. [f. the name of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin (1766-1841); see
ISM. Cf. Fr. elginisme & Sp. elginismo.]

An act of cultural vandalism. A term coined by the destructive actions of Lord Elgin who illegally
transported the Parthenon Marbles from Greece to London between 1801 and 1805. Now also applies
to other cultural objects. Usually refers to artefacts taken from poorer nations to richer ones.
It has a profound negative effect on the art world because many artefacts are destroyed when they
are torn out of their cultural & spatial context. Due to this, scholars are unable to retrieve valuable
historical information because they can only deal with fragmentary remains instead of a complete
unified object. Decontextualised artefacts that end up in a museum or gallery are often given the
name of the person who perpetrated their removal from their original setting (see Elgin Marbles).
The French use the term elginisme to describe the practice of stealing antique fittings from old
houses.
The act of elginism has been going on for thousands of years, however the Elgin Marbles are now
considered to be the classic case of elginism.

UNESCO has now put in place international laws to deal with acts of elginism by protecting
monuments & preventing illicit traffic.
These include the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of
Armed Conflict, with its two Protocols of 1954 and 1999, the 1970 Convention on the Means of
Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property,
the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage &
the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects. In 1999 UNESCO
launched an international fund for the return and restitution of cultural property.

Typical usage:
1. The denuding of the Parthenon is not the only example of e., but it is perhaps the most famous.
2. E. nowadays is a problem that mostly affects less wealthy nations.
3. Few people were able to anticipate the levels of e. occurring after the fall of Baghdad in 2003.

Elginism

Elginism, the taking of cultural treasures, often from one country to another (usually to a wealthier
one). It is commonly associated with debates over cultural patrimony, cultural property, and
related international agreements, such as the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and
Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970), designed
to protect cultural artifacts. The term is sometimes applied to any looting of cultural heritage for
personal gain.

The term is derived from the title of Thomas Bruce, 7th earl of Elgin (17661841). During his tenure
as British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (17991803), Lord Elgin allegedly received permission
from the Turkish government to remove artifacts from Greece, then under Turkish control. These
artifacts included Greek sculpturessubsequently known as the Elgin Marblesfrom the Parthenon
and other ancient buildings in Athens, which Elgin later claimed were in danger of being destroyed in
a war or deteriorating because of defacement and neglect. Proponents of the term use it to mean an
act of cultural vandalism. They believe that the removal of objects in this way impoverishes the
source countrys cultural identity and hinders a complete understanding of the artifacts, because
they are displayed outside their original context. They promote the return of such artwork and
artifacts.
History And Usage Of The Term

The term elginism appears to have been in use soon after Elgins removal of artwork from the
Parthenon and surrounding structures between 1801 and 1812 and the subsequent shipment of the
art to England. In the following passage, from a book entitled Journal of a Voyage up the Nile, written
anonymously by an American and published in 1851, is what may be the earliest verified use of the
term. The pejorative connotations of the term are clearly evident:

The idea that the captives in this tomb were Josephs brethren, which Mrs. Romer, in her Travels,
makes such a great noise about, is well exposed by Miss Martineau; as well as the Elginism of Mrs.
Romer, in removing a figure of one of the captives.

The scope of the term has grown in recent years, and it is now used in reference to both
manufactured items such as sculptures or vases and human remains, often removed during illegal
excavations. Such excavations can have a negative impact, because the relics are frequently
removed without proper procedures, damaging their research value if not the relics themselves.

The increased use of the term since the late 1990s has paralleled both the campaign by Greece to
have the Parthenon sculptures returned and the advent of rulings involving reparations and rights of
indigenous groups such as Native Americans and Australian Aborigines. (Some cases of reparations
are discussed below.) These legal precedents have spurred many observers to rethink the purpose
and procedures of museums, especially those with large ethnographic collections, so that the
requests and sensitivities of all stakeholders can be fully considered, not just those of the institution
acquiring the artifacts.

Elginism In History And Practice

Elginism has existed since ancient times. For example, when Egyptologists such as Howard
Carter (18741939) were searching for antiquities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many
royal tombs had already been looted hundreds if not thousands of years earlier. Although every
instance of elginism is different, most cases share several common factors. For example, elginism
often occurs during the invasion of a country or while the land is under the control of a colonial or an
occupying power; the removed relics most often end up in a country that is wealthier than the relics
country of origin; and postrationalized justifications for their removal are common, with concern for
the relics preservation and the need to remove them temporarily among the most commonly
cited reasons. Elginism has frequently been justified throughout history as the spoils of war.

The term, however, is most famously associated with the so-called Elgin Marbles, many of which
once formed an integral part of the chief temple of the goddess Athena on the famed Acropolis in
Athens. Approximately half the surviving sculptures on the Acropolis were removed by Elgin.
Financial pressures, as well as public debate and outrage over the acquisitions, later forced him to
sell the sculptures to the British Museum, where they have been on display since 1817. Elgin was
heavily criticized for his acquisitions, especially by Lord Byron, who wrote in Childe Harolds
Pilgrimage (181218):

Dull is the eye that will not weep to see

Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed
By British hands, which it had best behoved
To guard those relics neer to be restored.
Curst be the hour when from their isle they roved,
And once again thy hapless bosom gored,
And snatchd thy shrinking gods to northern climes abhorred!

Elgin was defended in an anonymously published Memorandum (1810), leading to debate over and
the eventual exoneration of his actions by the British Parliament, which in 1816 allocated 35,000 to
the British Museum for purchase of the sculptures.

Following Greek independence in 1832, many Greeks fought for the return of the sculptures. It is a
battle that the contemporary Greek state continues today. As Evangelos Venizelos, a recent Greek
minister of culture, stated:

The request for the restitution of the Parthenon Marbles is not made by the Greek government in the
name of the Greek nation or of Greek history. It is made in the name of the cultural heritage of the
world and with the voice of the mutilated monument itself, that cries out for its marbles to be
returned.

The Acropolis Museum in Athens, built adjacent to the ancient site and opened in 2009, was
constructed in part to silence critics who argued that the country lacked proper facilities for
displaying such relics as the Parthenon sculptures. There is a large space in the museum devoted to
the Parthenon, and the pieces removed by Elgin are currently represented by plaster casts. Greeks
see the sculptures as part of their heritage and national cultural identity, a view emphasized by the
way the world has come to see the Parthenon and the Acropolis, a popular World Heritage site, as
synonymous with Greece.

The British Museum has thus far fought the return of the Parthenon sculptures. Its supporters have
variously argued that, public opinion notwithstanding, Elgins acquisitions were legal, given the
international situation at the time; that his actions likely did save the sculptures from destruction;
that their return today would ensure their relocation not to the Acropolis but simply to another
museum, albeit one under Greek control; and that their return would nevertheless not complete the
set of sculptures taken from the Acropolis or destroyed over the years. They have also argued that
the British Museum is a universal museum that is free of charge (the Acropolis Museum is not) and
that its function as an international heritage centre makes it better suited to display such global
treasures.

Critics of the museum have countered that the real issue is the institutions fear that a significant
reduction in the size of its collection could occur if this case of restitution was successful, spurring
additional claims on disputed artifacts in its possession. These disputed items include the Benin
bronzes (from Nigeria) and the Rosetta Stone (Egypt). Similar restitution controversies beset many
Western institutions, such as the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City,
and the New (Neues) Museum in Berlin, which houses the famous bust of Nefertiti.

A common way such institutions have sought to protect their collections from restitution claims is
through a reliance on statutes of limitations. Though international legal conventions exist to prevent
new instances of illicit trade in cultural artifacts, none of these apply retroactively, meaning they are
applicable only to cases of elginism that have occurred since the conventions were agreed to, not to
preexisting claims. But critics of elginism argue that, even absent any explicit legal obligation to do
so, the return of such relics remains a moral duty.
There have been many instances of the return of artifacts by countries and major museums in recent
years. These include the return of Tasmanian Aboriginal cremation ashes to Australia by the British
Museum in 2006, the return of the Euphronios krater to Italy by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
2006, the return of severed Maori heads by the Hunterian Museum (Glasgow, Scotland) in 2009, and
the Smithsonian Institutions return of Aboriginal body parts to Australia in 2010. Even relics from the
Acropolis have been returned, including fragments possessed by Sweden and Heidelberg University.
Returned artifacts involving human remains have become relatively commonplace, though museums
containing disputed art have tried to draw a strong distinction between such relics and their
nonhuman assets (bones versus stones) in an attempt to protect the latter from these precedents
of restitution.

The increasing shift in public opinion against elginism can be linked to many factors. Since the late
20th century, there has been a greater attention to the rights and cultural concerns of indigenous
people, making human relics and the trafficking in such artifacts especially controversial. As well,
international travel to distant locations is more commonplace than in previous centuries, meaning
there is less need to uproot items to ensure their visibility. Technology too makes the dissemination
of information about world treasures easier than ever before, ensuring, via the Internet, a virtual
global audience for artifacts regardless of their location in less-traveled areas. Moreover, the looting
in 2003 of the National Museum of Iraq during the Iraq War garnered international attention, bringing
an immediacy and currency to the issue of art theft and cultural heritage. It helped to negate a
common misperception of elginism as exclusively an ancient issue involving disputes over a
distant past.

Matthew Taylor