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Your move ... Scots want chess set back
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent25.03.09
THE BRITISH Museum has put a set of elaborately carved chess figures at the heart of a new gallery despite demands that they be returned to Scotland.
The 82 Lewis Chessmen, which are between 800 and 900 years old and made from walrus and whale ivory, were seen in a Harry Potter film and inspired the children's TV series Noggin The Nog.
Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland, wants them repatriated to Edinburgh to be reunited with the rest of the set discovered on the Outer Hebrides in the early 19th century.
Just as the Greek government wants the Elgin Marbles in London to be returned to Athens, Mr Salmond claims it is "unacceptable" for the British Museum to have 82 of the figures while the other 11 are in the National Museum of Scotland.
But the British Museum is refusing to back down and insists the chessmen are the highlight within the new Paul and Jill Ruddock Gallery of Medieval Europe.
The gallery aims to show that medieval Europe was as important as ancient Egypt and Rome. The lushly decorated display includes relics of the bones of 11,000 virgins of Cologne said to have been massacred by Attila The Hun and a reliquary of St Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury who died in AD 958; the so-called Royal Gold Cup originally owned by Charles VI of France, and the only surviving citole, a precursor to the guitar, owned by Elizabeth I.
James Robinson, curator of the medieval collections, said of the chess pieces: "They act as the gateway for all the different themes. They speak about feudal society because all the orders in society - king, queen, bishop, infantryman - are there.
"But also we're showing the influences coming into Europe from the Islamic East. Chess is a game that comes to Europe through the Islamic countries of southern Spain and Sicily." The chessmen were probably made in Norway when chess was popular among European aristocracy. It is thought they were on their way to being traded in Ireland but ended up in Scotland.
The pieces were bought by the British Museum after their discovery in 1831. It emerged later that 11 pieces had been already sold. These are the ones now in Scotland.
A spokesman for Mr Salmond said: "The Scottish government believes it is unacceptable that 11 Lewis Chessmen rest at the National Museum of Scotland while the other 82 remain in the British Museum and will continue to campaign for a reunited set of Lewis Chessmen in Scotland."
The British Museum stresses it often lends the works and a new tour to Lewis and Edinburgh is planned for next year. Mr Robinson said putting them in the context of world cultures at the British Museum gave them their "proper global status".
The new gallery cost around £2million. Paul Ruddock, who helped fund it, is chief executive of Lansdowne Partners, an investment management firm, who fell in love with the medieval collection of the British Museum when he was given a replica set of the Lewis chessmen as a child.
PRECIOUS WORKS CAUGHT IN A TUG OF WAR
The Elgin or Parthenon Marbles
The Greek government has been calling for the reliefs and sculptures to be returned since they were taken from the Acropolis by Lord Elgin in 1799 in a dubious deal with the Ottoman authorities and given to the British Museum.
The Benin bronzes
About 1,000 brass plaques were stolen from the royal palace in the kingdom of Benin, Nigeria, by British troops in 1897 and given to the Foreign Office. Around 200 were handed to the British Museum. The Nigerian government has made repeated calls for repatriation of the bronzes.
The Axum obelisk
In 2004 Italy agreed to return a 1,700-year-old 160-ton granite obelisk looted by Mussolini's forces from Axum in Ethiopia in 1937. It was a symbol of national identity to the Ethiopians.
Aboriginal remains
In 2006 the Natural History Museum repatriated the remains of 17 Tasmanian Aboriginal people after a claim from the Australian government and following new legislation on collections of human remains. Opponents of the move argued they were a loss to science.
Statue of Aphrodite
The Getty Museum in Los Angeles agreed in 2007 to return a limestone statue of Aphrodite bought in 1988 for $18million and 40 other Italian antiquities to Italy.
Nazi looted art
Galleries and museums including the Courtauld, Tate and British Museum, have returned or paid compensation for works of art to the heirs of Jewish owners who were robbed by the Nazis.
Reader views (13)
No thanks. We don't want Gordon Brown back! Keep the chess pieces, keep anything, so long as you keep Brown too. We have enough clowns up here, thank you. Not all of us wanted the parliament Blair forced on us. It's cost us a fortune and it looks scruffier than Steptoe's back yard. Yes, of course, Whitehall is full of greedy, pocket-lining con-men. But at least they're professionals. All we have up here are a bunch of amateur greedy, pocket-lining con-men who can only be big fish in a small pond. They'd have rings danced around them in Whitehall. They play on our national inferiority complex--that ridiculous thing so many Scots cannot help but show off. Okay, we're a wee nation and have a big chip about England, that's understandable. England's always been a world power. (And it's always the wee dogs that bark the loudest.) But do we really have to advertise to the world that we feel so inferior to the English? Take it from me--I spend a lot of time there--it only bemuses them. Quite rightly too. The only way we will get rid of political crooks is by sticking together and hammering them together.
- Martin Horan, Perth, Perthshire
In response to the jolly little Englanders letters, firstly we will have Brown & co. back if you take back all your lot that we have up here along with all these asylum seekers you keep busing in to our cities in the early hours of the mornning.
As for the tax you bleat on about coming north(?) Well once again amnesia sets in. England gets plenty of revenue from Scottish oil, whisky plus plenty more.
The U.S.A. had to fight a war to get short of the British yoke as did the Australians,Canadians,new Zealanders,south Africans,Indians,Pakistanis,the Irish and more!
So how long will it take for you dwindling lack lusterd little Englanders to let the message sink in? No one wants England/Britian telling them what to do in their own country!
- Jimmy, Glasga
"The pieces were bought by the British Museum after their discovery in 1831."
Now I wonder who it was in Scotland that sold these pieces to the British (note: not the ENGLISH-) Museum - a Scotsman perhaps? The one who found them perhaps? The one who had a right to dispose of them as he saw fit, perhaps?
What legal right does Mr Salmond base his claim upon?
For that matter, how much loot was carried north after Robert the Bruce invaded England in 1311 after the Scots won their independence? No doubt that is being sent back south in a display of pious righteousness so that the perfidious English can see how it's supposed to work.
This retro-reclamation of "heritage" items is nothing more than political posturing. Meaningless even if the much abused term 'national pride' is (mis)used as an excuse. My guess is that he needs a nationalistically emotive boost in the polls for himself and his party.
- Rogan, Irving
As a Scot, I think it would be nice if they could be shared on an annual basis, but agree with the previous poster who said the greater claim is surely that of Norway or Iceland!
- Scots Lass, Scotland
The chess pieces were only found in Scotland and were designed and made in Norway. I hardly think are an integral part of Scots culture
- Chris Bond, London
Yes please, let's have the Scottish MPs who plague Westminster repatriated, return the chess pieces, in return we will have the billions given to Scotland back in sterling please.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
In addition to English tax money comming back to England, for which I would happily send the chessmen back, could they also take back, Gordon Brown (Scot), Alistair Darling (Scot), Bank Of SCOTLAND, Halifax Bank of SCOTLAND, and the bulk of Scottish MPs, so that the number of electorates in a Scottish seat is about the same as an English Seat.
- Jeremy E, London
So Mr Salmond wants the pieces returned to Norway or Iceland, where they were made, presumably, being a man of logic and principle.
- Mdj E10, london uk
Could we trade and return Gordon Brown to Scotland instead?
- Marianne, SW France
No you can't have those Chess Men back! How about a few third rate Scottish politicians instead?
- Chris, Brighton, England
Has Scotland been made a country of its own i thought it was part of the united kigdom
so what is the problem they want our cash but give nothing in return?
- Terry Chambers, London
Can we English please have our Tax money back we wasted on Scotland !
- Joe, Swanley Kent
If Salmond really wanted to safeguard Scotland's heritage, he would put a stop to the widespread destruction of historic areas in Edinburgh (e.g. the Caltongate development). Here, he just looks like a Scottish Nero standing aside while the capital is destroyed.
- Rob, Rochester
