Museum's attitude to culture is just antiquated

Outside the British Museum I sat down and wept. Inside, abandoned, alone and out of context were tiny figures that should have been elsewhere.

Not the Lewis chessmen -- whose temporary loan to Scotland this Homecoming Year should self-evidently be followed by a permanent exhibition in Uig, Lewis -- but virtually every other artefact, statue, portrait, rug, column and facade on display.

So little of British origin resides in a building that could be renamed The Grand Theft Museum that potent symbols of foreign cultures -- like the Elgin marbles -- predominate.

Half of Middle-Eastern antiquity sits inside for the delectation of local school groups, academics and Mediterranean tourists who flock to the fabulous, lofty and overwhelming building for access to their own past and culture.

Sadly, I discovered, I’m not sufficiently well educated to understand the significance of the Museum’s prize exhibits. Why should I be – they are not part of Northern culture. Walking about for an hour I didn’t encounter a single item that spoke directly to me about my life. So I asked directions for the Lewis Chessmen – up stairs and through three rooms exhibiting clocks, the 82 chess pieces sit in a space as dinghy and unimaginative as any in Stornoway Museum. The cabinet’s text captures none of the drama of their discovery, speculates little on their creation, and ponders no aspect of their use aboard a Viking longboat.

That of course is the British way. Onlookers should know these things and be able to bring the whole absent context of a vast seafaring Norse empire to mind as they stare at these solemn yet agitated little walrus ivory Chessmen.

Instead their sole interest to the kids who came past was their appearance in a Harry Potter film. To read more - click here.

Comments

[bru]

A trip to the British Museum is quite heartbreaking, incredible Spirit folded in upon itself until it becomes sad and unrecognisable.
Nice write :) i'm gonna buy the paper an' read the rest of that wee story.

[Bill Hilton]

Adrian Murdoch captures my view of this very well:

http://adrianmurdoch.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/04/antiquated-views-on-culture.html

And to think they used to call Edinburgh "the Athens of the north".