“Going to the British Museum with my Greek boyfriend”
This is the title that Madeleinyoul has given to the video of a few seconds that she uploaded to her TikTok account, which, yes, as you’ve guessed, shows her and her boyfriend having visited the British Museum.
In the video, Madeleine is lip-syncing to the song “Sorry” by Justin Bieber, the part of the song that says “Is it too late now to say sorry?”, of course, referring to the Elgin Marbles stolen from the Parthenon by the British.
Although the video is only 6 seconds long, it has gone viral because, judging from the thousands of comments, it touched a sensitive chord for us Greeks.
“Give us back the Parthenon marbles”
“Meanwhile, there’s nothing British in there 😂”
“We didn’t laugh much, though.”
“I don’t see the joke”
“Break up with her!!!”
The video may be just a classic silly video from the thousands that are uploaded to TikTok, but it nevertheless shows that even in England there is a latent sense that they have stolen ancient artifacts from other countries, and that this is not ethically right.
It also shows that in Greece, 222 years after the sculptures were removed from the Parthenon and placed in the British Museum, even the younger generations of Greeks have not forgotten and are asking for their return.
