Enfilade

Whatever poetic resonances Keats might have had in mind with this phrase from his 1806 poem “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles for the First Time,” he wasn’t describing the present debate between those who argue the Parthenon marbles now in the British Museum should be returned to Athens and those who believe they should remain in London. Still, the conflict — stretching back to the early nineteenth century — certainly counts as a feud, and it’s one that’s likely to receive renewed attention with the opening of the new Acropolis Museum in Athens.

A long-time advocate for returning the marbles, Christopher Hitchens weighs in with praise for the new museum in “The Lovely Stones,” Vanity Fair (July 2009).

In “Elgin Marble Argument in a New Light,” New York Times (23 June 2009), Michael Kimmelman resists taking sides but evinces historical awareness and a thoughtful appreciation of the difficulties each camp faces in making its case: “So both sides, in different ways, stand on shaky ground. Ownership remains the main stumbling block.”

The new $200-million building by Bernard Tschumi is itself front and center in Anthee Carassava’s article, “In Athens, Museum Is an Olympian Feat,” New York Times (19 June 2009).

The New York Times has also assembled a fine slide show of fifteen photographs of the new museum and its installations.

The classicist Mary Beard provides a response to some of the opening ceremonies in a posting from her own (often fascinating) blog, A Don’s Life.

Meanwhile, James Cuno continues to argue for the legitimacy of museum ownership over and against claims of national patrimony. His two books on the subject (one an edited collection of essays) are reviewed by Hugh Eakin in, “Who Should Own the World’s Antiquities?,” New York Review of Books 56 (14 May 2009).