British Museum sued over 3D Parthenon fragment copy

The British Museum’s reported refusal to grant a request by the Oxford-based Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA)to allow a 3D reproduction of a fragment of the Parthenon Marbles in its collection could land it in court, according to a report in the Guardian newspaper.

The IDA’s executive director, Roger Michel, told the Guardian that the institute will be filing an injunction “by the end of the week requesting the court to order the British Museum to grant our request.”

The IDA, which has supported demands by Greece for the Parthenon sculptures to be returned by the British Museum, is seeking to reproduce a part of the relief from the temple’s south facade using 3D printing.

“Copies [of the Parthenon sculptures] in the past have been low-quality plaster casts. This will be orders of magnitude better. It will help people see and feel the potential of this technology in ways mere words can’t describe,” Michel told the Guardian.