When the chair of the British Museum, George Osborne, hosted its annual dinner for trustees this month, the choice of venue was as notable as anything he had to say. Guests were seated not in the museum’s Great Court or Egyptian sculpture gallery as in previous years, but rather – “for the first time in as long as anyone can remember”, noted Osborne – the Duveen gallery, home of the Parthenon marbles.
It was a conscious choice, Osborne told guests, precisely because of the sculptures’ controversial status. “We should not shy from that controversy. I think too often we’ve thought: let’s keep quiet, if we don’t talk about things that are difficult, then no one else will.
