Ersatz Elgin

The V&A has a superfluity of plaster casts of sculptures. I haste past them as fast as crowds permit. The BM has a hall full of damaged carvings off the blown-up Acropolis: again, impressive, cluttered with rubberneckers all believing they are seeing Great Art, but all a bit Meh!

To Venice, and we see:

Like the Elgin Marbles, the Quadriliga are plundered goods, twice. They originated in Constantinople, until the Venetians sacked the city in AD1204 and nicked them, only to be claimed by Napoleon and lifted to Paris between 1797 and 1805. But the horses we see on the façade of St Mark’s are naff replicas: the originals were removed inside to protect them — and (as I recall) visitors pay extra to get close and personal.

Two-and-a-quarter hours on the train, and we are in Florence, and we ritualisticly view Michaelangelo’s towering David:

Again, we are being sold a pup. The original is, quite properly and securely, indoors in the Galleria dell’Accademia. Admission by ticket only.

In each case, the snappers happily record the views from Piazza San Marco and Palazzo della Signoria, tick the pages in their tour guides, and move on to the next Star Attraction.

Were the Elgin Marbles reunited back in Athens, for most tourists the disadvantage would be nil. Thanks to lowcost airlines and package holidays, getting to Athens (even for most native Brits) is as cheap and convenient as hiking to London.

If Kaiser Wilhelm could order up the Pergamonmuseum (though not survive in office until its completion), and it could prosper with its massive ‘reconstructions’, London could have a fully-falsified metops and frieze of the Acropolis in unauthentic resin. And peace with Greece would be restored.