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Vacancies at Oxbow

The British Consular Service in the Aegean and the Collection of Antiquities for the British Musuem

by Lucy Patrizio Gunning

The book tells the story of how the British consular service in the Aegean, in the years of the British protectorate of the Ionian Islands (1815-1864) became an agency for the retrieval, excavation and collection of antiquities eventually destined for the British Museum. Exploring the historical, political and diplomatic circumstances that allowed the consular service to develop from a chartered company into a state run institution under the direction of the Foreign Office, it provides a unique perspective on the intersection of state policy, private ambition, and the collecting of antiquities. It also examines the ideological context which justified the large scale removal of antiquities to Britain, contrasting the cynical approach of the consuls and other long-term residents in Greece (who tended to see the Greeks as incapable as looking after their own past), with that of travellers on the Grand Tour (who, like Byron, tended to blame Ottoman domination for the parlous state of antiquities). 224p (Ashgate 2009)

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