“Armed” with Modern History. The Statue of the River God Meander at Miletus, 1909-2023.
Nisan Lordoğlu, Julia LenaghanIn 2023 during preparatory work for moving old objects into new storage at Miletus, the authors noted a large arm in a blue marble with broad white veins in the stone storeroom, the “Steindepot” (Fig.1a-c). Almost immediately we recognized it as belonging to the statue of the River God, the Meander, which is currently on display in the Miletus Museum and is carved in the same distinctive marble. The stone conservators and museum staff tried the arm against statue and the observation became a fact. The find compelled the authors to investigate how and when the arm had become disassociated from the statue. That history, not the ancient history of statue, is the focus of this article because it importantly reflects on the positive evolution of cultural heritage protection and equally demonstrates the mutability of the connection between nationalism and cultural heritage. Safeguarding art objects through time has become a national duty but peoples and interests are constantly in flux.
