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The aesthetic prejudice towards white classical statues

9 January 2021

9:00 AM

9 January 2021

9:00 AM

Past Mistakes: How We Misinterpret History and Why It Matters David Mountain

Icon Books,, pp.400, 16.99

In the 1930s curators at the British Museum, under orders from Lord Duveen, a generous donor, scoured and hacked at the friezes and statues of their Parthenon collection. They were trying to remove the smudges and stains thought to be discolouration, to restore the marbles to their original colour — white.

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