who defines the classic now
you have gone
and from the declivity
of this dreary
afternoon
I can only think
of the academic
who had a sad proclivity
for the ancient Greek
or Latin
whose life was lived
inside a
musty museum,
and who voyaged
through history,
from his desk
to Charing Cross,
his dusty Elysium,
a comparison
makes your loss
greater, and at
the column of
Constantine,
perhaps, you would
stand, touching
the rumilitic
limestone, your dark
sunglasses, freshly
washed wispy hair,
and your calves lit
with morning sun,
and such an erotic
account, laughing
at me, you would
shout so this
is poetry,
so much for the
classic now, get
on with the modern.

Since we are in the EU - can’t we just agree that art in Europe belongs to Europe? But where does Europe start and end? It might be for the best to have a statute of limitations and argue that any art that has been in the possession of another country for 100 years or more, stays put. Then to make provisions for the cultural rights of the other party by declaring:
The cultural and moral rights to the following property are recognised, and Greece as the donor nation…blah blah. Maybe there could be a culture tax whereby each country pays the other an agreed amount to have the works in its permanent collection.

How Orwellian!

I certainly don’t sanction the destruction of the Parthenon – past, present or future – and I most certainly see the legitimacy of the argument for seeing cultural artefacts in their original context.

My argument here will hold true even if, in a decade or less, the Marbles are finally repatriated. I would then direct this same argument to the poor British; I would no doubt say that the loss of those treasures and the empty museum hall that once exhibited them also adds to the historical beauty of the Marbles, once held and loved and protected by the British Museum.

As for being soaked in one’s culture, I surely, as the daughter of migrants to Sydney, have been! I have felt the passion for home and patrida and heritage in my gut, the familiar rhythm of the Greek language when I speak it. But, what you call passion, I fear I must call nationalism (often fanaticism) and that feeling has too often scared me.