Pope Francis orders return to Greece of Parthenon sculptures held in Vatican

[Eugene]

Source: CNN Style

Pope Francis orders return to Greece of Parthenon sculptures held in Vatican

Published 18th December 2022

Pope Francis has decided to return to Greece three 2,500-year-old pieces of the Parthenon that have been in the papal collections of the Vatican Museums for more than a century.

The Vatican said in a brief statement on Friday that the pope was giving them to Ieronymos II, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church, as a gesture of ecumenical dialog with the Roman Catholic Church.

The Parthenon, which is on the Acropolis in Athens, was completed in the fifth century BC as a temple to the goddess Athena, and its decorative friezes contain some of the greatest examples of ancient Greek sculpture.

It was not immediately clear what plans Ieronymos had for the small sculptures.

https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/vatican-greece-parthenon-sculptures/index.html

[marble falls]

1. Now GB needs to step up and do the same with the Elgins, the US needs to return ...

... everything back to Native American's, especially human remains. And the list goes on and on: the Benin Bronzes, ......

I hope Pope Francis started a tipping moment. Bless him.

[mopinko]

2. wonder what other stolen loot he's sitting on.

think this is cuz the british museum is getting ready to send the elgins back.
there’s been a ton of progress, but it will take forever.
beau lays it out-

[marble falls]

3. The Vatican collections, whoa, what a major haul of booty that belongs where it came from.

[mopinko]

4. i keep saying re pedo priests-

i wont be happy til the vatican art collection is on the auction block. esp the naughty bits in the bsmt.

[shrike3]

7. If they go on the auction block, they'll end up in some billionaire's vault, never to be seen again.

I've been to the Vatican Museum, and it's pretty awesome. Since part of its collection is from ancient Rome, I don't know to where it would be repatriated. The whole city's almost a museum, with the Colosseum and all.

[mopinko]

8. all museums hold work that never sees the light of day.

i might have been the only person hoping that the detroit museum would deaccession some work after the 08 crash. how work ends up in museum collections is mostly a big grift. collectors serve on boards to push the artists they collect. they buy from struggling artists, get their institutions to show them, buy them, and they get so very fat on resale. and works get stuffed into warehouses, never to be seen again.

i’d rather have it in bill gates house.

[shrike3]

9. If they all went to Bill Gates' house, wouldn't that kind of defeat the purpose of repatriation?

Oh, well. Merry Christmas.

[mopinko]

10. i mean in general.

that’s the actual racket w museums. they rly arent the sacred, selfless institutions most ppl think they are.

[shrike3]

11. I guess everyone has a different POV

I'd rather they be where I MIGHT get a chance to see them one day. But not everyone thinks like me.


Hope you had a good Christmas.

[mopinko]

12. that's cuz you dont have a grasp of the scale.

warehouses full of great work that is unlikely to be seen EVER again.
have more than a couple friends who wish selling to a museum wasnt a necessity in the biz.

[shrike3]

13. Whatever, dear.

If you think a billionaire is more entitled to hang onto it than a museum, what can I say.

Also, I know lots of artists, and I've never heard them talk so about museums. Maybe you just run in different circles.

[mopinko]

14. i didnt say anything about entitled.

are any of your artist friends in museums? a few of mine are.
i went to the school of the art institute. srsly, they’re a racket. a better racket than say, strip mining. but ppl serve on museum boards, hell, they start museums, to boost the value of the work they own. work they paid shit for from the artist. then they make millions. they arent the holy temples you think they are. no saints. just rich sinners.

[shrike3]

15. You are entitled to your opinions.

You are entitled to your opinions. Museums of all types have been a great joy to us: we love exploring the past, and enjoying great works that we would never have been able to see otherwise.

I have no interest in continuing a disagreement on Christmas night. So long.

On second thought, onto my ignore list you go.

[malaise]

5. Agree

Too much of the planet was looted - the Brits are among the worst of the looters