Submitted by Sir Joshua, Apr 4, 2007 08:10

It's hard to believe that the Met's Greek and Roman Galleries can get any better. On a recent visit I breathed a sigh of relief to see the famed Euphroneous kalyx crater back on it's pedistal albeit this time with the label stating: 'Loaned by the Republic of Italy.' Had it gone back (?) to Italy it could only be viewed in the basement of some bureaucratic museum building on the 3rd Wed. of every month when the building wasn't ciuso. But this isn't about sour grapes. But let's remember at the same time that Lord Elgin brought the famed Elgin marbles that Greece is always carping over the return of up from the bottom of the sea and didn't take them from the pediment of the Acropolis as some Melina Mercuri nationalists would have us think. Their heritage had been pirated by others and the Greeks didn't think enough of the marbles to dredge them up themselves. So much for the Nationalism canard of the last few decades.

The Met should proudly display these achievements of man as much as they display Byzantine artifacts, Rembrandt oils, and the gold ground main vein that Lehman left to the Met. These are human achievements, part of what Milan Kundera refers to as the 'Continuity of Consciousness.' The trail that man left as he crawled from the cave to the present moment. The Met is this countries Shatz Behalter, our Treasure Book of man's history. I look forward to seeing the new galleries with the other plebes.

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