Enrico Tosti-Croce was driving in Villarrica, in southern Chile, when he heard on the radio that the Greek authorities was asking the British Museum to return its well-known Parthenon Marbles. Since 1983, the Greek authorities has been combating for the repatriation of the sculptures, which arrived in London within the early nineteenth century by way of Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
“After I heard the information, I stated: ‘Wow, I’ve a bit of piece of the Parthenon’,” Tosti-Croce tells The Artwork Newspaper.
Tosti-Croce arrived in Valparaíso, Chile, in 1950 from Genoa by means of Buenos Aires on the age of two and a half, alongside together with his mom and youthful sister. His father, Gaetano Tosti-Croce, had gotten there the 12 months prior.
Enrico Tosti-Croce Courtesy Enrico Tosti-Croce
Gaetano Tosti-Croce was the chief engineer of the Console Generale Liuzzi submarine, sunk by British destroyers on 27 June 1940—17 days after Italy entered the Second World Battle. He spent the warfare as a prisoner of the British in India. When the battle ended, Gaetano returned to Italy, retired from the navy and emigrated to Chile.
Together with the household throughout the Atlantic got here a 1.2kg piece of marble, a trapezoidal fragment carved with lotus flowers, which Gaetano had taken from the foot of the Parthenon when he visited Athens with the navy within the Thirties. The piece remained as an decoration within the household’s varied houses in Viña del Mar, a coastal metropolis simply north of Valparaíso.
When Enrico Tosti-Croce’s dad and mom died in 1994, he inherited the marble piece and took it with him to his residence in Santiago—and later to Villarrica, the place he moved together with his spouse and youngest daughter after he retired. “When somebody got here to my home for the primary time, I might present them that stone and say: ‘That is from the Parthenon’,” he says. “Some believed me, others did not.” He was repeating what he had heard from his father.
Gaetano Tosti-Croce Courtesy Enrico Tosti-Croce
Upon studying of the restitution request from the Greek authorities, he thought: “It’s my duty to return it,” he says. He emailed the Greek embassy in Santiago concerning the piece. The embassy requested him for {a photograph} and particulars of its form and weight, which he fortunately supplied. Later, throughout a visit to Santiago, he delivered the marble fragment to the embassy. He instructed the official who obtained it that he would respect any details about which a part of the Parthenon it got here from.
Months later, he obtained a letter from the Hellenic Ministry of Tradition thanking him for his gesture. He was stunned to be taught that the piece had been a part of the roof-gutter of an archaic temple, in all probability the Hekatompedon—the primary monumental temple on the Acropolis constructed within the first half of the sixth century BC. “It turned out the piece wasn’t from the Parthenon, however from a good older temple,” Tosti-Croce says.
The Greek embassy will honour Tosti-Croce in Santiago on Tuesday (4 November), whereas Greece hopes that others—just like the British Museum—comply with his lead. Requested about his emotions after returning the fragment, Tosti-Croce stated: “After I left the Greek embassy after handing over the piece of marble, I felt a particular type of satisfaction. I do not even know how one can describe it… I felt like I had carried out one thing good.”
