The British Museum

The Guardian’s recent interview with Neil McGregor, now heading the British Museum, struck me as an interesting attempt to rehabilitate the Museum as an international rather than a post-Imperial institution.

Lots of its collections are the result of colonialist plunder, the Elgin Marbles being the famous example, although I prefer the bronzes of Benin. If the British Museum wants to hold together as an institution, it needs to come up with a justification for having all these under one roof, and I thought Neil McGregor did a fairly good job of that.

Of course, I am somewhat sceptical about trying to label cultural artifacts as national treasures in the first place. I went to the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh recently. A prominent painting there portrays the founder of the Clan McKenzie saving King Alexander III during a hunt. It was painted at the request of the Clan Chief in the eighteenth century, who had got involved with the Jacobites and wanted to reingratiate himself by emphasising his ancestor's loyalty. It is undoubtedly a very Scottish subject, but it is painted by the American Benjamin West (the same who did the death of Wolfe at Quebec), so is it an American or a Scottish artifact?

Further into the Gallery, you can see Canova's Three Graces. I remember this caused a huge fuss when the owner wanted to sell it abroad. There was a massive fund raising campaign to save it for the nation, which I am glad of, since it allows me to see it. However, why is a sculpture by an Italian of a classical subject such an important part of "our" heritage?