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THE RETURN OF THE GODS ... AND THE RETURN OF THE INCE BLUNDELL MARBLES

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  THE RETURN OF THE GODS … AND THE RETURN OF THE INCE BLUNDELL MARBLES   Review of the ‘Return of the Gods’ exhibition at Liverpool World Museum   Roman marble copy of Apollo Sauroktonos ( Apollo the Lizard Slayer ) by Praxiteles (the original statue was made c 340 BC) In 1776, Henry Blundell of Ince Blundell Hall, Crosby, was invited on a trip which would change the course of his life – and provide an unexpected bonus for the people of Liverpool.   It was his friend Charles Townley, of Towneley Hall near Burnley (yes, the house does have an extra ‘e’), already a veteran of two Grand Tours, who suggested that Henry should accompany him next time he went to Italy.   Henry was fifty-two when he embarked on his first Grand Tour, which is a good reminder that this type of travel wasn’t just restricted to people in their late teens or early twenties. Charles Townley had already built up a substantial collection of ancient sculpture (his collection formed t...
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THE ELGIN MARBLES: NATIONAL TREASURES OR ILL-GOTTEN GAINS? - PART ONE

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  THE ELGIN MARBLES: NATIONAL TREASURES OR ILL-GOTTEN GAINS?   PART ONE: THE ELGIN MARBLES BEFORE LORD ELGIN This article is an extended version of a talk I gave on 1 September 2021 at the Atkinson Museum , Southport , as part of their Ancient Worlds lecture series The idea for this article (and the talk on which it was originally based) developed out of the work on Greek architectural sculpture which I used to do with my A-level Classical Civilisation students.   Every year we would spend weeks studying the sculptures from the Parthenon and other buildings on the Athenian Acropolis (the so-called ‘Elgin Marbles’), culminating in a visit to see these sculptures in the British Museum .   This inevitably drew us into the question of how these sculptures had ended up in the British Museum , and whether they should stay there or be returned to Greece . East pediment of the Parthenon (Photo Credit: Trustees of the British Museum) The debate over the Elgin Marbl...
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THE GERMANS GOT THERE FIRST: DONALD TRUMP & THE AMERICAN VALHALLA

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  THE GERMANS GOT THERE FIRST: DONALD TRUMP AND THE AMERICAN VALHALLA   One of Donald Trump’s last actions as President, on Monday 18 January 2021 (his penultimate full day in office) was to announce plans for a ‘National Garden of American Heroes’.   To use his own words, the plan is to create “a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live”, reflecting “the awesome splendour of our country’s timeless exceptionalism” (I’m pretty convinced he wrote the speech himself, including the split infinitive).   Although many aspects of the project are vague – the location has not been decided yet, and it’s unclear where the funding would come from such a large enterprise – the idea is to create a sculpture park featuring 244 statues of American worthies (all deceased, so Kobe Bryant and Whitney make the list, but not Michael Jordan or Beyoncé). Trump’s list is, to put it mildly, a mixed bag, ranging from semi-mythical frontiersm...
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