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The Parthenon Marbles dispute and the debate over cultural repatriation
Who gets to claim art as their own? It’s a complicated issue, and elite art institutions are undergoing a reckoning over their Indiana Jones-style acquisition tactics of the past. GZERO’s Alex Kliment explores the complex debate of art repatriation and the controversy surrounding ancient artifacts displayed in Western museums. One of the most infamous cases involves the Parthenon Marbles (sometimes called the Elgin Marbles) at the British Museum, which the British took during Ottoman rule. The Greeks have been demanding the Marbles be returned for almost 200 years.
“I think this is really a moral or ethical case,” says Leila Amineddoleh, an art repatriation expert, “Should museums hold onto objects that were taken under either violent circumstances or were taken during a time of looting, theft or when a country was colonized?”
This question of who owns art has become more intensely political in recent years. On one side are the defenders of the “Universal Museum” idea, who say it’s important to have places where everyone can come see art from all over the world in one place. However, critics argue it’s a form of cultural imperialism that denies rightful ownership to the people who created the artifacts in the first place. Ultimately, the debate raises broader questions about museums' responsibility to address historical injustices, balance cultural preservation with global accessibility, and navigate the complex dynamics of ownership and cultural heritage.
Watch the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer episode: The identity politics trap
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld or on US public television. Check local listings.
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Hump day recommendations, Jan. 17, 2024
Visit: “Anyang” at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. This is the first major exhibition in the United States about the artistic and archaeological wonders found in China’s oldest imperial capital. The exhibit features some of the earliest samples of writing in human history, the so-called “Oracle Bone” characters etched into the belly bones of ancient tortoises, then cracked with red-hot irons to reveal the will of Shangdi. You’ll be amazed by the intricate bronzewares, covered in multimorphic animal motifs that shift with your perspective. My favorite? One of the earliest known depictions of a dragon, wrapping its serpentine body around a wide bowl. – Matt
Watch: "American Fiction." This poignant, hilarious satire is a deeply layered examination of race in the US and how narratives surrounding it are both shaped and perceived. Jeffrey Wright is fantastic as the lead character, Monk, a smug, grumpy novelist who has his world – and his assumptions about people – turned upside down as the film progresses. Highly recommend checking this out in theaters! – John
Listen/Read: “The Price of Netanyahu’s Ambition,” by David Remnick. I listened to this hour-long portrait of who Netanyahu is to Israelis and to himself in the aftermath of Oct. 7. I thought it painted a great picture of the political and media landscape in Israel right now and in the not-so-distant past. – Riley
Fight: Tyranny. Most conservatives who worry about “tyranny” seem to have in mind the supposedly coercive overreach of the government. But as the prominent arch-conservative Catholic writer Sohrab Ahmari sees it, the vast majority of the coercion that Americans experience in their daily lives actually comes from the private sector. In his book, “Tyranny, Inc.,” he argues that the court-backed power of employers, the massive privatization of public services, and the cult of deregulation have left Americans at the mercy of a new market-powered tyrant. Amazingly for a conservative, he ends up prescribing a revived New Deal to keep the playing field even. If nothing else, a bold attempt to break stereotypes of left and right — see if you find it compelling. – Alex
US bet on Pfizer and Moderna may lead to earlier COVID vaccine rollout
Ian Bremmer shares his perspective on global politics on this week's World In (More Than) 60 Seconds:
With COVID vaccine near, what will the distribution look like across the world?
Well, yeah, it is quite near. I mean, we're talking about approvals coming just in the next few days for the first in the United States and indeed in other countries around the world. That means that within weeks, you're going to know people that have actually gotten vaccines, and that's pretty exciting, especially with Moderna and Pfizer showing 95% effectiveness. I guess there are a few things that I would say. The first, hearing from the coronavirus task force that everyone in the United States gets the vaccine that wants to take it by June. I think that's right. I mean, there could be infrastructure and delivery hiccups. I hope there won't be. Everyone is going to be rowing in more or less the same direction on this because everyone understands how important it is to get it done.
I'm going to say it again. I don't think you're going to see a lot of people playing politics around taking the vaccine. There are anti-vaxers out there. I've already heard from a bunch of them, but you're not seeing that from Trump or his top advisors. You're not seeing that from Biden and from his incoming coronavirus task force. In the United States where everything gets politicized, a lot of people are going to be taking this coronavirus vaccine. And indeed, you already see numbers of people and their skepticism has been reduced significantly just in the last couple of weeks as we're learning more about it. I certainly feel much more comfortable that I will take these vaccines as soon as they are properly available to me. I'm not sure I would've said that three months ago, given where we were at that point. I feel very comfortable with that now. So that's number one.
Number two, the United States has bought as much as possible of not only the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but other vaccines too. And the reason they do that is because when you see start making those orders, you don't know which vaccines are going to work. Because the Europeans have bet more strongly on AstraZeneca, which is a vaccine that has had problems in testing and doesn't do as well, that implies to me that the Americans are going to be getting this rollout before the Europeans do. And that will have economic implications for getting economies back up and rolling early next year. So the US does have a structural advantage here.
Also, final point. Let's keep this in mind. Those two vaccines in the United States are really vaccines that are most useful for advanced industrial economies, because they require much stronger infrastructure. You've got booster shots you need to deliver and you also have to have not just regular refrigeration, but more advanced cold chain technology. You're not using that in most of the developing world. The Chinese are going to be doing most of the early-stage export of their less effective, but still effective, vaccine to the developing world. Just needs regular refrigeration. And that's a lot of influence. I think you're going to see an enormous amount of politics play out as we see Chinese export to the developing world. And if you think that people are concerned about Belt and Road and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, you've seen nothing before the kind of leverage the Chinese influence over their best friends who get their vaccines earlier than other countries do and what they want in return.
This is also going to be one of the biggest challenges for the United States and China in terms of navigating the relationship. I mean, a lot of people think that the US-China relationship is going to be at least more normalized, maybe a little bit better, maybe more promising under Biden. I'm not sure. I see the outbreak of serious trade confrontation and diplomatic confrontation with Australia right now. I see it with Canada right now. I see so many countries that are really antagonized by the Chinese government. And I see these issues getting worse. So even with a group that's rowing in the same direction as the Biden administration will, and with tweets not driving people crazy, I suspect this relationship is going to be very challenging. And I think vaccine rollout is going to be a big problem. So that was a lot of time on your question, but it's a really important question.
Why is everyone on Twitter talking about monoliths?
I have no idea. Some artists installed some metallic thing in the middle of Utah that nobody saw for awhile, despite satellite technology. Why not? Why did no one notice? Aren't there people that spend all their time just looking at the land and seeing what's new? You'd think that AI would have figured that out, but no. No, apparently nobody noticed it, and then suddenly in person they did, and then the obelisk is gone. And I honestly don't care. And we're going to find out that it's... Remember the guy that took the banana and nailed the banana to the side of a wall and said it was an art installation and was charging $80,000? And some other crisis actor came and took down the banana and ate it. And the whole thing was a set up?
It is kind of is annoying. I mean, at least Banksy does it with real talent. The banana guy just did it with a stupid banana. Right? I mean, I don't consider that art and this obelisk is kind of a stupid obelisk, and I don't consider that art either. This is probably the most controversial thing I'm going to say all day. So come at me haters. I don't care. I'm just not interested in a stupid obelisk. The only thing would make me less interested in it is if you put it in Rhode Island. How's that? And drew cats on it. That would really annoy me. But they haven't done that. It's just a stupid obelisk, but it's on my list of things that I find annoying. So there you go.