評論
打印
Turkey’s cultural ambitions
土耳其的文化雄心
Of marbles and men
大理石和人
Turkey gets tough with foreign museums and launches a new culture war
土耳其對外國博物館采取強硬態度，并發動一場新的文化戰爭
IN THE spring of 1887 a Lebanese villager named Mohammed Sherif discovered a well near Sidon that led to two underground chambers. These turned out to be a royal tomb containing 18 magnificent marble sarcophagi dating back to the fifth century BC. The Ottoman sultan, Abdul Hamid II, ordered the sarcophagi exhumed, placed on rails and carried down to the Mediterranean coast, where they were sent by ship to Istanbul. The largest sarcophagus was believed to contain the remains of Alexander the Great. The coffin is not Turkish and Sidon is now in Lebanon, but the sarcophagus is regarded as Istanbul’s grandest treasure, as important to the archaeology museum there as the “Mona Lisa” is to the Louvre.
1887年春，一個名叫穆罕默德·謝里夫的黎巴嫩村民在西頓附近發現一口通向兩個地下室的井。這是一座建造于公元前五世紀的皇家墓室，里面有18尊雕刻精美莊嚴肅穆的大理石棺。奧斯曼帝國蘇丹阿卜杜勒?哈米德二世下令發掘這些文物，它們被裝上火車運到地中海沿岸，在那里這些石棺被裝船運到伊斯坦布爾。人們相信最大的石棺里安放著亞歷山大大帝的遺體。這些棺材不是土耳其的，而且西頓現在屬于黎巴嫩，但是這些大理石棺被看做伊斯坦布爾最偉大的寶藏。考古博物館對它們的重視，絲毫不亞于盧浮宮看重“蒙娜麗莎”。
The mildly Islamist government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, led by the Justice and Development (AK) party, likes to think of itself as the heir of the Ottoman sultans. The Turkish authorities have recently launched a wave of cultural expansionism, building new museums, repairing Ottoman remains, licensing fresh archaeological excavations and spending more on the arts. A grand museum in the capital, Ankara, is due to open in time for the centenary of the Turkish republic in 2023. “It will be the biggest museum in Turkey, one of the largest in Europe; an encyclopedic museum like the Metropolitan or the British Museum (BM),” boasts an aide to Ertugrul Gunay, the culture and tourism minister. “It’s his baby, his most precious project.”
伊斯蘭正義發展黨領導的溫和伊斯蘭政府（總理雷杰普?塔伊普?埃爾多安）喜歡以奧斯曼帝國蘇丹的繼承人自居。最近土耳其當局掀起一波文化擴張的浪潮，建造新的博物館，修復奧斯曼時代的遺跡，準許新的考古發掘，在藝術方面加大投入。2023年首都安卡拉的一座雄偉的博物館會向土耳其公眾開放。“它會是土耳其最大的博物館，是歐洲最大的博物館之一，是類似于大都會藝術博物館或大英博物館的百科全書式的博物館”文化旅游部部長圖魯爾?居納伊的助手豪情滿懷地說道，“這是他的孩子，是他最看重的工程。”
Turkey’s cultural plans at home are coupled with an unprecedentedly bold campaign to bring back treasures that it believes were stolen, which now sit in Western museums. These plans enjoy political support across the spectrum and the backing of all Turkey’s museum directors. The campaign targets many more objects and museums than the government has so far let on. “We are not waging a battle,” says Mr Gunay. “But this is definitely a struggle in the field of culture. And we are determined to boost our efforts in a more determined and more persistent way.”
土耳其國內的文化布局伴隨著一場空前激烈的戰斗，目的是要收回他們認為以前被盜走現在收藏于西方博物館的珍品。這個計劃得到了各階層的政治支持并受到土耳其各個博物館館長的力挺。這場活動瞄準的文物和博物館比迄今為止政府宣稱的還要多。居納伊說：“我們不是在發動戰爭，然而這的確是文化領域的斗爭。我們將義無反顧，我們的努力將會更堅定，更持久。”
The Turkish authorities are using a mix of entreaty and threats to ensure they get what they want. They are refusing to lend treasures abroad, dragging their feet on licensing foreign archaeological digs and launching public campaigns they hope will shame Western museums.
土耳其當局用懇求和威脅的手段確保得到他們想要的東西。他們現在拒絕把文物借給外國，拖延頒發外國考古發掘的許可證，而且挑起了旨在讓西方博物館羞愧的公眾運動。
