Спор о возвращении скульптур Парфенона сквозь призму деколонизации археологии и музейного пространства

Диалог со временем. 2025. № 93. С. 235–250.

Александрова А. К.

The dispute over the return to Greece of the Parthenon sculptures, currently housed in the British Museum, remains a classic example of the struggle for the restitution/repatriation of cultural property, which is directly related to the issues of the decolonization of archaeology and museum spaces. Although Greece has never formally been a colony, the Parthenon sculptures dispute fits into the framework of postcolonial studies. The British Museum bears a number of the colonial museum hallmarks, the most obvious of which is its refusal to return the cultural property to the countries of origin, including the Parthenon sculptures, the Rosetta stone and other exhibits. Greece's key argument in the dispute with the United Kingdom authorities and the British Museum is the need to restore the entirety of the world heritage site, which requires the return of the Parthenon sculptures to the Acropolis (or more precisely, to the Acropolis Museum, opened in 2009, designed to house all the surviving items from the Acropolis area and located directly under the rock of the Acropolis, with a view of its buildings). Moreover, the issue of the Parthenon sculptures has a national dimension for Greece. Greek identity is based, among other things, on the continuity between the Ancient and the modern Greece, and the Parthenon is a symbol of this connection. Accordingly, the fragmentation of the Parthenon evokes the national inferiority feelings in Greek collective consciousness. The discussions surrounding the Parthenon sculptures parallels similar problems related to other cultural artifacts appropriated in the colonial period by the European empires and can be analyzed from the post-colonial perspective as well as a separate issue of national identity and international relations.

Keywords: национальная идентичность, national identity, the British Museum, Британский музей, Greek-British relations, restitution of museum valuables, Acropolis Museum, греко-британские отношения, реституция музейных ценностей, Музей Акрополя, Parthenon, coloniality, Парфенон, колониальность

Publication based on the results of: From Antiquity to Modernity: Epistemology of the Development of Spiritual and Material Cultures in Non-Western Societies (2025)