Using 3D machining, a digital archaeologist is trying to convince the British Museum to replace ancient sculptures taken from Greece with replicas of marble carvings.
Roger Michell and his team at the Institute for Digital Archeology (IDA) in Oxford, England, have programmed a robot that can produce realistic replicas of historical objects such as the Parthenon sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles.
Michel believes that the British Museum should display his imitations and return the original Parthenon sculptures to the Greek government.
The sculptures were brought to England two centuries ago by the British ambassador Lord Elgin, who carved them from the Parthenon in Athens. They have been on permanent display at the Museum of London since 1817.
Despite growing calls for their repatriation, the British Museum refused to return them to Greece.
“We will loan the sculptures, as we do many other objects, to those who wish to show them to other audiences around the world, provided they take care of them and return them,” a British Museum spokesman said in an emailed statement.
Roger Michel stares at a robot used to create 3D replicas of the Elgin Marbles while at the Institute for Digital Archaeology. (Submitted by Roger Michell/IDA/Robotor)
Michel said he was denied permission to scan the sculptures by the museum, so he and his team scanned the sculptures using 3D digital imaging software on tablets and smartphones while museum security watched.
“We regularly receive requests to scan the collection from a wide range of private organizations – such as the IDA – along with academics and institutions who wish to study the collection, and it is not routinely possible to accommodate them all,” a British Museum spokesman said.
These scans are now being used to make robot-controlled sculptures.
In an interview with CBC Radio’s Day 6, Roger Michell spoke with host Saroja Coelho. Here is part of their conversation.
How do you decide which artifacts to copy with this robot?
In this case, we’re looking to find the most iconic objects in the Parthenon sculpture collection: the horse that gave rise to the horse in the Staunton chess set. This is a universally recognized component of these sculptures. The metaphor we reproduce shows the great battle between humans and centaurs.
I think we wanted to make sure that we chose things that were easily recognizable so that people could make that visual comparison and be able to see for themselves the quality that we produce with this process.
In what ways did you try to collaborate with the historical owners of these objects before reproducing the artifacts?
Our first conversation was, of course, with the Greek Embassy in London.
We listened very carefully to the kinds of things that seemed important to stakeholders here, because as with all our projects, stakeholders come first. We are at their service.
The aim here is to do something to promote the interest of Greece and Britain and return these objects back home where they belong.
A robot carves a 3D replica of a horse’s head as part of the 2,500-year-old marble sculptures of the Parthenon. The work is being carried out at the Institute of Digital Archeology in Oxford, England. (IDA/Robot)
You should have scanned these originals at the British Museum. How did you manage to do it?
I believe we are operating entirely within the guidelines for visitors to the British Museum which allow 3D scanning from the floor. We worked with the security that was there. Sometimes they detained people. We received great support from the staff on the museum floor and we did not break any rules and got the necessary scans.
Michel and his team at the Institute for Digital Archeology are using robots to create exact 3D replicas of the Elgin Marbles. (Tobias Morgan)
What would you say about the meaning behind these sculptures?
These objects are the most emblematic values of Greece. They are similar to the Statue of Liberty in the United States, the crown jewels in England. The value of these objects goes far beyond their historical artistic value. These are symbols of the Greeks [Hellenic] Republic.
The Greeks seem to want some kind of admission of wrongdoing from the British. And there was really nothing wrong here. The reality is that at the time Elgin visited Athens, it was under the control of the Ottoman Turks. They controlled Athens for centuries – 400 years. That was what the government had to deal with at the time.
The story here does not suggest that the British are the bad guys. Perhaps the British are what happened next, holding on to these items long after realizing their value to the Greeks? Then, yes, there was wrongdoing.
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Ultimately, you want the British Museum to return these precious originals to Greece and display your replicas. How open do you think they will be to doing this?
They already display replicas in many situations at the British Museum – it’s not like a new concept. The reality is that reconstructions will provide museum opportunities that simply do not exist with the original material.
If you want to teach someone about the Italian Renaissance, don’t take them to a room with a bunch of cardboard jewels where all the paint has peeled off and the canvases have flashed. When they look at these Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum, all the color is gone, 30 percent of the material is gone.
They are not representative of what ancient times looked like, and that is what they show. They are still stuck in that romantic movement of the early 19th century. They want to show ruins. They don’t want to show real works of art.
The reconstructions will give them that flexibility to show these things, either in their current state of conservation or as they originally looked – truly reflecting the art of antiquity.
Crowds of people view pieces of the Elgin Marbles on display at the British Museum in London. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
The chairman of the British Museum recently said he was willing to lend the Elgin marbles to the museum in Athens. Why do you think there is so much reluctance to part with these artifacts forever?
The answer is that England has a very complicated relationship with its colonial past. They say the sun never sets on the British Empire. This was true for the 19th century.
Even now England has mixed feelings about giving up these trappings of its colonial glory. Britain has made antiquity part of its national narrative, it’s just not historically accurate.
Written by Bob Becken. Radio segment produced by Cassandra Yanez-Leighton and Yamri Tadesse. The questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
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