Hodge attacks Salmond's Chessmen gambit

Published on Saturday 26 January 2008 19:47

UK CULTURE minister Margaret Hodge has dismissed Alex Salmond's demand for the Lewis Chessmen to be returned to Scotland as "nonsense".

Writing in today's Scotland on Sunday, she accuses the First Minister of "creating conflict, not culture" with his call for the artefacts, found on a beach in Lewis in the 19th century, to be "seized" from their home in the British Museum in London.

And she suggests that the chessmen do no necessarily belong in Scotland anyway, pointing out that they were made in Norway and buried in Lewis at time when the Western Isles belonged to Norway, and were on their way to Ireland.

Hodge's intervention came as Scottish Culture Minister Linda Fabiani yesterday travelled to London to view the chessmen and met museum officials to discuss the artefacts' "repatriation".

Fabiani rejected Hodge's comments, saying: "This type of uninformed and dismissive attitude is not helpful.

"The reality is that under the current Treasure Trove system, the Lewis Chessmen would have stayed in Scotland and been displayed in Scotland's museums."

In spite of the UK Government's refusal to budge on the issue, Fabiani said she would continue to press the case for the return of the chessmen, which date back to the 13th century.

"I viewed the Lewis Chessmen at the British Museum – the set is a wonderful treasure which was found on the Isle of Lewis around 1831.

"The Scottish Government believes that it is unacceptable that only 11 Lewis Chessmen rest at the National Museum of Scotland, while the other 82 remain in the British Museum, and I shared this view with the British Museum."

Hodge suggests that Salmond has ignored the role of modern museums in sharing their collections with as wide an audience as possible in order to make a political point.

She writes: "It's not hard to imagine someone overseas wanting the glorious mummies and antiquities in the National Museum in Edinburgh sent back to Egypt, or the Burrell's Impressionist paintings repatriated to France.

"And maybe we could redress the balance still further. How about slapping in a claim for the pink granite of the Albert Memorial in London to be stripped out and 'sent home' to Mull? It's a lot of nonsense, isn't it?"