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Synopsis:
From one of Europe’s most original and brilliant classicists, an inspiring and deeply personal reflection on loss, memory, and what we owe the past and others, inspired by a night spent in Athens’ Acropolis Museum
One day in late spring, Andrea Marcolongo walks into an outdoor store in Paris to buy a camp bed, a sleeping bag, and a flashlight. Her destination: not a remote forest or mountain peak, but the deserted halls of one of the most famous museums in the world, the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, where she has been invited to spend a night completely alone.
But it’s hard to be truly alone when you’re surrounded by the scarred beauty of the Parthenon, lit only by the moon and summoning echoes and ghosts from the past. One of the shadows visiting Marcolongo is that of Lord Elgin, the English diplomat who in the early 19th century orchestrated the controversial removal of the Parthenon marbles from Ottoman Greece to London, where they remain today. The other is the memory of Andrea’s father, whose recent death she is still mourning.
Drawing on a lifetime of engagement with classical culture and its legacy, Marcolongo examines the burning question of the restitution of works of art removed during the age of imperialism, and the broader issue of the role of power and inequality in the history of art. As the night goes by, however, the empty space left by the missing statues—a wound filled with white plaster—starts evoking other, more personal absences. Surrounded and inspired by the ruins and splendor of the classical world, Marcolongo reflects on the ever-changing relationship between present and past, and on the choices and people that make us who we are, even—or perhaps especially—when we have to leave them behind. The result is a powerful and courageous book, one that crosses time and space to remind us that we cannot live in isolation but are continuously connected and indebted to others.
“Marcolongo is today’s Montaigne…There is wisdom and grace here to last the ages.”—André Aciman, author of Call Me by Your Name
Review:
In the second book by Andrea Marcolongo translated and released by Europa Editions this year, Moving the Moon: A Night at the Acropolis Museum finds Marcolongo spending the night of May 28, 2022 locked in the Acropolis Museum in Athens. She sets up a cot and has brought one book to read, which happens to be a biography of Lord Elgin, the main villain in the story of how the Parthenon was ravaged of all of its art, sculptures, and tons of marble. As Andrea settles in for the night, she tells the story of how the museum is nearly empty because the art and artifacts have never been returned from being taken and distributed throughout Europe. The marbles that Lord Elgin stole end up in the British Museum, and when the new Acropolis Museum opens, the gaps in the building, the pillars and the art are left empty and open.
Moving the Moon is a slim history of how conquering countries not only take land but take the culture and history of the defeated countries. Most of this type of pillaging ends up in museums, but in the case of Athens, many of the marble sculptures were broken apart before Lord Elgin arrived and were sold to private families. There could still be sculpted heads and marble pieces that have been in a manor for hundreds of years and the current family members have little clue as to its origins. Many museums are curated with items that were stolen from foreign lands They strip cultures and have little interest in giving anything back. They use the guise of, “If it’s not in this major city, it will no longer be seen if returned to its rightful owner.” Even when the Acropolis Museum was remodeled, those museums who have pieces that should rightfully be returned offered to “loan” them their artwork back. It is a weird aspect of world culture where people feel like they are doing lesser people a service by only giving them the bare minimum, in their best interests. The worldwide museum system is only a small reflection of a universal problem.
Andrea Marcolongo does a good job at writing history books from an interesting perspective, almost like she feels like she does not belong in the middle of this story. She writes as if she is an interloper, and she is relaying a story to the reader like it is the hottest gossip. The truth is that she is very good at telling the story and making it feel this way. If I am asked to to recommend any history book on Greek culture, I will always point to her books first. She writes like a friend telling stories, and these are the best types of history books.
I received this as an ARC from Europa Editions in exchange for an honest review.
Other Books by Andrea Marcolongo:
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