On the 20th of June, eight supporters for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles including for the firrst time, the Chair of the British Committee Janet Suzmann, stood outside the British Museum, handing out leflets and repeating slogans: BM Come Clean, Reunite the Parthenon Marbles, Tell The Story,Time is Now, Renite the Marbles in the Acropolis Museum in Athens. In the queue to get into the BM there were those that were looking forward to seeing the sculptures from the Parthenon too. They emerged disappointed. The Parthenon Galleries were closed.

The telephone call to the museum on the Monday, the 21st of June to ask how long the closure would last was met with: "not long, as the sculptures are a popular treasure of the museum." When asked when to call back, the reply was 'in a week's time'. That week became 8 weeks and then the article in the Art Newspaper: 'Is it raining again in the British Museum’s Parthenon gallery? A leaking roof has delayed the reopening of seven galleries of Greek art', written by Cristina Ruiz and published this Wednesday, 11 August 2021.The article was updated today, Friday 13th August to include a statement by Greece's Minister of Culture & Sport, Dr Lina Mendoni.

The statement from Minisiter Mendoni can be read in the Art Newspaper article, as well as on the official Greek Ministry's portaland below:

"This is not the first time that photographs have been published revealing that the conditions for exhibiting the Parthenon Sculptures at the British Museum are not only inappropriate, but also dangerous. In September 2019, when similar photos were published, we had stressed that these images fully strengthen the legal, ongoing and non-negotiable request from Greece for the reunification of the sculptures. The Parthenon Marbles, one of the greatest monuments of Western civilisation, must return to their homeland."

The leak that occured on 21 December of 2018 was questioned by Ta Nea's UK Correspondent Yannis Andritsopoulos and published in an article in January 2019, where he asked the Director of the British Museum, Hartwig Fisher, this question: 'There were several media reports last month regarding a leak in the Duveen Gallery where the Marbles are housed. As you can imagine there was a negative reaction. What’s your explanation about what happened?'

Dr Fisher's reply was: "We had a tiny leak in one area of the roof in the Parthenon Sculptures’ galleries. A small quantity of rain entered the gallery, but did not touch any of the Sculptures and this was fixed right away."

As the leak was fixed right away and was only 'tiny', 2 years and 5 months later, another leak? And why is this one taking months to repair ? With no date for when Room 18, the Parthenon Galleries at the British Museum, might be re-opening.

Many question the climate controls of the gallery even when there are no leaks. In the winter large blow heaters are positioned in the room to provide heating and in the hotter summer months, the Fire Exit doors are kept open for ventilation.

Whatever the long term prospects for the sculptures still in London (unnecessarily divided from the their surviving halves in Athens' Acropolis Museum), the lack of dialogue between two friendly nations, Greece and the United Kingdom, on this cultural matter, continues to be long overdue. All the efforts made by Greece since their independence over 200 years ago and at other key times, including in the 80's when the then Minister of Culture, Melina Mercouri visited the British Museum and vowed to keep campaining for ever or until the Parthenon Marbles were returned.

BCRPM began campaigning in 1983 and Emanuel Comino's Australian Committee started even earlier. The calls have not diminished and are echoed by the International Association supporting the Greek governments efforts. There is no time like the present to start a dialogue that would result in a long awaited reunification of a peerless collection of sculptures, which still belong to the Parthenon (as their name suggests).

The Parthenon still stands, with the Acropolis Museum in Athens offering an exceptional opporunity for all to see the sruviving pieces displayed the right way round, with direct views to the Parthenon. This context is one, which the ancients that created such an iconic building, would be proud to 'see' humanity respect.

Janet Suzman's commented on the current closure of Room 18: "Aware as we were of this, what is going on? Is the British Museum trying to Anglicise the Parthenon Marbles by covering them in damp? BCRPM is a little bit concerned. They would be much happier in that Attica light."

Additional statement made by Dr Mendoni, Greek Minister of Culture and Sport, 15 August 2021, in response to the conditions and ongoing closure of the Greek galleries in the British Museum:

"For decades, the main argument of the British, for the Parthenon Sculptures to remain in London, was that in the British Museum these masterpieces are exhibited in more suitable conditions than those that Greece could offer.

For 12 years, the Acropolis Museum in Athens, one of the best museums in the world, exhibits the Parthenon Sculptures in the most appropriate way, with direct views to the Parthenon itself. The sculptures in Athens await their final reunion with those illegally looted by Elgin. The British argument has long since been refuted.

Today, the conditions for exhibiting the Parthenon Sculptures at the British Museum are offensive and dangerous. The Sculptures cannot be expected to wait in Room 18 for the completion of the "masterplan" of the British Museum, which does not match those of the Parthenon Gallery, here in Athens.

Greece's constant and fair request for the return of the Sculptures to Athens is non-negotiable and today is absolutely relevant."

The Acropolis Museum presents the complete union of the Parthenon frieze, the meaning of the continuous relief band running along the upper, outer part of the temple’s wall.

The frieze displays the procession of the greatest festival that took place in ancient Athens, the Panathenaia: 380 human figures, men and women, pedestrians, horse riders and charioteers, 200 animals and objects and offerings to the goddess Athena, protectress of Athens, all frozen in time attending her birthday eternally.     

This application is an upgraded version of the online application www.parthenonfrieze.gr. This version integrates new functionalities, making it accessible to all modern media and platforms, adhering the best practices and guidelines in web design and UI/UX (user interaction/user experience).

This excellent application gathers photographs and descriptions of all the frieze blocks preserved today in the Acropolis Museum and abroad. Both general public and scholars have the opportunity to gain a thorough view of this unique sculptural work of art, through mobile devices: mobiles phones, tablets and laptops. One can explore the Parthenon frieze through the thematic sections: 'The Parthenon', 'About the Frieze', 'Explore the frieze' and 'Thematic Tours'. In the first two sections, users can learn about the history, the design and construction of the frieze, while in the following two they can explore the frieze either block by block, or through thematic tours of its scenes.       

The application www.parthenonfrieze.gr was developed thanks to the fruitful collaboration of the Acropolis Museum, the Acropolis Restoration Service and the National Centre for Documentation & Electronic Content.

"I was deeply moved during a recent visit to the Acropolis Museum in Athens", writes Alfredo Cafasso Vitale. His article was first published in ekathimerini on Thursday 02 June 2022.

With the kind permission from Alfredo Cafasso Vitale, the remainder of the article can also be read below:

This fragment, which is part of the eastern frieze of the Parthenon, depicts a foot and a part of the peplos of Artemis, and was acquired in 1816 by the British consul in Sicily, Robert Fagan. After his death in 1820, it was sold to the Museum of the Royal University of Palermo and from there it was then passed to the Salinas Museum.

The top floor of the Acropolis Museum is a virtual reconstruction of the Parthenon, and the area has been designed, with its position and glass, to reflect, and to not only display this reconstruction, but to also visually link it to the original near 2,500-year-old structure on the Acropolis hill. The Fagan fragmentis now displayed in a glass case, within its place in the reconstruction and also looking out at the actual historical site.

I hope this trip paves the way for a much more important and long-awaited journey of the marbles from the British Museum, “stolen” in the early 1800s by Thomas Bruce, then made Lord Elgin, ambassador of Great Britain to Constantinople.

During the period of Ottoman occupation in Greece, Elgin apparently obtained the permission of the sultan to remove the marbles. These were then dispersed in different locations (the same Fagan fragment came directly from Elgin). Some marbles were lost at sea, during transport, but most eventually arrived at the British Museum.

This process, which is not, in some quarters, considered to be a valid and genuine method of acquisition, has triggered fierce international debates, and has initiated official requests for restitution of the marbles by various Greek governments.

The Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer, in the preface to the splendid book by Christopher Hitchens, “The Parthenon Marbles,The Case for Reunification” underlined how the presence of the marbles in London represented the stone manifesto of British colonial arrogance, and how much the marbles belonged, representing their DNA in art, to the Greek people.

These sculptures by Phidias have been requested in vain for almost 40 years by various Greek governments (the first was Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri in 1984), and most recently by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in an interview on British television.

It should be noted that, as a student, Boris Johnson wrote, in an article in Oxford, “…it is evident to me, how much [these marbles] are woven into the Greek identity. It would be a wonderful thing if they could be returned.” Latterly, Ed Vaizey, former minister of culture of the Cameron government, recently stated that they should be in Athens.

The National Archaeological Museum of Athens has transferred its 10 fragments of the Parthenon to the Acropolis Museum, strengthening the reunification process and sparking a fresh discussion about the never dormant request for the return of the marbles.

I hope that the exchange program with Sicily will lead the way to a solution for the return of the marbles, which would, in turn, strengthen Greece’s cultural identity, and perhaps help reinforce it politically and economically. The country has been trying with all its strength and succeeding in re-emerging from the profound crisis of the last decade.

In another indication that perhaps the tide is turning in favor of the return of the marbles, the Musee des Civilizations du Quai Branly in Paris and the Berlin Ethnologisches Museum have initiated the return of African artifacts to Nigeria, improperly taken away during the colonial period from Benin City.

As a footnote, upon exiting the museum, I entered the metro, heading home, at the Acropolis station. Going down to the platform, I was greeted by the giant picture of Melina Mercouri in front of the Parthenon, wrapped in an elegant trench coat, a bundle of wild flowers in her hands, and an immense and radiant smile, which today seems even more radiant. The return process, dreamed of and initiated by her, seems to have perhaps gained some momentum.

‘200 + 20 years in captivity. The Parthenon Sculptures from Elgin to Boris’

Paul Cartledge spoke at the Culture Through Politics online event on Sunday 11 April 17:00 BST. His talk followed on from Professor Pandermalis, President of the Acropolis Museum and was made alongside other distinguised speakers. 

‘Decolonising’ the Elgin-Parthenon Sculptures

First, may I begin with a huge vote of thanks: above all to the ‘Culture Through Politics’ group for organising this exceptionally important webinar, but also to my very distinguished fellow-invitees, for their important contributions.

Second, let me say a word about the title of our public webinar debate: it alludes of course to a very specific and very special anniversary, a famous bicentenary. And as a Greek historian colleague of mine has acutely observed, you tell me what anniversaries you want to celebrate/commemorate and I will tell you who you are. ‘1821’, in other words, is for Greece collectively and for Greeks individually a magical year – their ‘1789’, if you like. Or, in a way, our – English - ‘1066’! For it marks the beginning of a new Hellenic identity, but not only Hellenic: in retrospect, we can see that it was only the first step on the road to political freedom and ultimately to democratic self-determination throughout the continent of Europe.

To me, however, as a historian of ancient/Classical Greece/Hellas, 2021 has another signification as a major anniversary year: it is the 2500th anniversary of what the Western world’s first historian, Herodotus of Halikarnassos, called τα Μηδικα, what we ancient historians call the Graeco-Persian Wars. As in AD 1821, so in 480-479 BC, democracy as well as freedom was at stake – as I have tried to show in a number of lectures both in Athens and online. And at the beating heart of that ancient Greek – and more especially ancient Athenian – achievement of victory and liberation there lay and there still lies a building, a unique and quite extraordinary structure, one that we today – not quite accurately – refer to for short as ‘the Parthenon’.

What I want to do in my allotted 10 minutes is try briefly to con-textualise what (Lord) Elgin and his cohorts did TO – that is, against – that building and structure in and around 1801. I do so in the hope – probably a vain hope – of bringing the UK’s current, classically-educated Prime Minister to a proper appreciation both of the enormity of that long ago act of vandalism and of what now urgently needs to be done with and FOR those Parthenon Sculptures that are currently not in Athens. Which brings me to …

Thirdly, my own chosen title: “‘Decolonising’ the Elgin-Parthenon Sculptures”. If I may, I shall begin with a little autobiography. I was born in 1947, so that by my early teens I was well aware of the – literal – decolonisation, the shedding of imperial possessions, that Britain was – under its then also classically-educated PNM, Harold Macmillan – in the process of beginning. India had already ‘gone’, ‘been lost’, to the British Empire, so the focus in and around 1960 was on the continent of Africa, and I was at first puzzled to hear that the very word ‘empire’ had become – in some, enlightened quarters - a ‘dirty word’, something to be spoken of with distrust if not contempt. As I entered my late teens – and Oxford University (to read Classics, pretty much the same degree as Macmillan read before me and Johnson read after me) – I became even more acutely aware that there was something called ‘the Third World’, encompassing huge swathes of Asia, Latin America and – of course – Africa. It seemed obvious to me that the ‘Third World’ did not exist as if by nature, but was the direct product of self-interested intervention and depredation, mainly economic but also cultural, by the countries of the ‘First World’.

By the time Melina Mercouri ,in the early 1980s, launched her campaign for the repatriation and reunification of what were then usually called ‘the Elgin Marbles’ in the British Museum, it was becoming clear to me that the fact that the British Museum held the Marbles of the Parthenon (and other Athenian monuments) was part of a broader, imperial or imperial-colonial story.

I became a very early member of the British Committee for the Restitution (now Reunification) of the Parthenon Marbles [BCRPM], as it became ever clearer to me that the ‘British Museum’ should really be known as the ‘British Imperial War Museum’. As regards specifically the Parthenon Marbles in the BM, this was not only because those Marbles had been acquired – stolen – when the British Empire was at its height and as part of a very dirty deal between Britain’s imperial representative in Constantinople and the local Ottoman authorities but also because the attitude of the British Museum Trustees towards their possession of the Marbles was – still, in the 1980s - precisely imperialist or colonialist: not only – in their view – had the Marbles been legitimately (as well as legally) acquired but also they thought the BM deserved to continue to hold them because, under the stewardship of the Trustees and the relevant Keepers and other curatorial staff since 1817, the intrinsic aesthetic and cultural value of the Marbles – the Marbles in London only, that is – had been somehow enhanced. Somehow, their stay in London was represented as so much part of the overall ‘story’ of ‘the Marbles’ that reunification of the ‘Elgin Marbles’ to Athens would somehow diminish them, all of the Marbles.

That indeed remained the status quo down to 2009 – when the entire BM colonialist-imperialist ‘narrative’ was disrupted, rendered null and void, by the foundation of the (New) Acropolis Museum (NAM), under the genial Directorship of Professor Pandermalis. A new justificatory strategy was therefore required by the BM’s Trustees, and they fell back on a supposedly decisive, and incontestable, distinction of hierarchy between ‘universal’ museums such as the BM and supposedly inferior (merely) local or national museums such as the NAM. All the while, the colonialist-imperialist line remained intact for the Trustees, who even invoked the ultimate absurdity that the Parthenon Marbles that were in the BM were better understood IN the BM – better there than anywhere else indeed, because they could be seen and appreciated in the context of all other ‘world’ cultures represented artefactually in that same (8 million…) collection. What the BM Trustees could not, however, either see or anticipate was that a big anti-colonial head of steam was building up, focused especially though not of course uniquely on artefacts looted from Africa.

I know a good deal about that anti-colonial head of steam because it has come to affect not only the Marbles but even my own discipline and profession of Classics, especially since the beginning of this year but not only since then by any means. In the very same decade that the BCRPM was founded (in 1983) scholars who were not actually Classicists began to put it about that Classics as a discipline was fundamentally flawed at its very roots and conception: it was at best an ethnocentric, at worst a racist and sexist, project of Western and male and white supremacy, rooted in the study of societies that were themselves based on slavery and generally sexist too. So, why bother to study two main ancient civilisations – the Greek and the Roman - that had so little that was admirable let alone imitable to offer us?

Needless to say, there are defences – very good defences – available to those who believe (as I do) that Classics has a great deal that is positive still to offer us, and that a key part of that is a story about freedom and democracy, a story that has at - and as - its centre the Parthenon. In my ‘Salamis 2500’ lectures I always end with the Parthenon and its place within the entire Athenian Acropolis building programme of the second half of the 5th century BC. I do so because the Athenians decided democratically to have the Parthenon built, in a quite extraordinary way, as an overpowering symbol: both of what it meant to be Greek, as the Athenians of the 5th century BC understood that – free both personally (free from) and politically (free to), self-governing, and of what it meant to be democratic – that is, giving the lion’s share of the political power of self-determination to the demos of the Athenians, the poor majority of the empowered (free, adult, male) Athenian citizens.

Of course, we must not hide the many features of ancient Athenian democracy that we today would not choose to repeat – the exclusion of women, the exploitation of non-Greek slaves – but these must be understood within the context of those, very different times. The positives also need to be emphasised, unashamedly. Which is why it matters so much to me that ALL surviving sculptures from the Parthenon currently outside Athens – not only but especially those in the BM – should be returned and reunified in Athens. As regards the BM in particular, the case for reunification is not only scholarly, not only aesthetic, but also – and perhaps above all – ethical and moral. And in that regard it is above all anti-colonial: an attempt both to repair the damage both physical and metaphorical done by Britain’s colonial representative Elgin 200 years + 20 ago, and at the same time to make a progressive statement of anti-colonialism today. It is a unique case but also one that is completely in line with and in sympathy with other campaigns affecting other museums and other cultures for the repossession and reintegration of culturally identifying material artefacts.

Professor Paul Cartledge 

Taxiarches, Order of Honour, Greece

A.G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow, Clare College, Cambridge

A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture emeritus, University of Cambridge

A number of masterpieces of ancient Greek theater are revived every week at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, as part of 'The Stones Speak' cultural programme. The theater performances feature texts of Greek ancient literature in three languages – Greek, English, French.

The performances will be held until the end of October 2019  at the Acropolis Museum every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 1pm with free admission.

The ideas and symbols that Greece inherited in humanity and defined the history of thought and art, as well as heroes of the past, all come alive through the 'The Stones Speak' cultural programme. The aim is to highlight the Greek cultural heritage to the maximum including “The Preface to the Odyssey” (in a solo performance), excerpts from Pericles “The Epitaph”, from Sophocles’ “Antigone”, Aristotle’s “Rhetoric”, Palatine Anthology, Plato’s “Symposium” and the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite. Especially at the Acropolis Museum will be the “Prayer on the Acropolis” by Ernest Renan.

With the presentation of the events at the Acropolis Museum, 'The Stones Speak' programme completes this year’s events, which began in July with the Byzantine and Christian Museum and continued in September at the Ancient Agora.

The 'The Stones Speak' is in its third year and is now established as an institution for Athens, honoured by the Greek Festival, which included them in its “Opening up to the City” programme.

The production of the 'The Stones Speak' was organized by “Smartconcepts”.

What really interests me is the apparent permanent intransigence of the Directors and Trustees [of the British Musem].These are not a collective body of 'idiotes', those aloof from public affairs, but intelligent, knowledgeable and articulate human beings.WHY do they not move? WHY is the decades old response always 'NO'.

Pericles would have been aghast at our lack of progress as a civilisation capable of change and altered thought. I am reminded that he said 'For we alone regard the man who takes no part in public affairs, not as one who minds his own business but as 'good for nothing'. Perhaps an inability to discuss and open fresh lines of dialogue with respect to the ongoing plight of the Parthenon Sculptures is just the same as not taking part.

The New Acropolis Museum approaches it's tenth birthday. We had hoped for success in 2004, then 2009 but still nothing, and again I ask WHY? What factor X beguiles and frustrates our efforts, the will of the British people and our Greek friends. What will stop the Trustees and successive Directors from ALWAYS saying 'NO' and encourage them to engage in productive dialogue.

Christopher Stockdale

Christopher has been actively involved in raising money for charities as well as campaigning for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. As a GP from Solihull, he swam from Delos to Parosfor the Parthenon marbles in 2000, he also cycled from the British Museum to the Acropolis Museum in 2005. He has also written a book, Swimming with Hero.

What can we say about the case for reunifying the Parthenon Marbles that has not been said a thousand times before? What more can we add to the numerous persuasive argumentsalready made for reuniting the dismembered components of Phidias's finest achievement? How many more times must we convene to reiterate the importance of restoring coherence to a work of art whose desecration at the hands of Lord Elgin damaged one of Greece's greatest gifts to the world?

The answer to these questions is that there will always be more to say about the case for reunifying the Marbles. There will always be new and ever more compelling arguments for reuniting them in Athens. And until that happens our generation and future generations will continue to convene and will go on reminding the British Museum of its moral duty to restore to these objects the dignity that Lord Elgin so rudely snubbed.The story the Marbles tell, is of a cultural moment that is a precious and irreplaceable part of our birthright as Europeans and the bedrock of our democratic ideals. That story loses much of its narrative charge while its components remain dispersed across different locations.

The Parthenon Marbles are more than just a work of art. They are more than a mechanism through which to increase the footfall of cultural tourism. They are more than a means by which to impose some meaning on the randomly accumulated collections of an encyclopaedic museum.

The reason the Parthenon Marbles transcend conventional museum categorisation is that they have the potential to demonstrate that in a time of global economic turmoil and geopolitical unrest cultural objects can unite us across national boundaries and remind us of our shared humanity. I say 'potential' because there is an irrefutable logic to the proposition that a united,coherent sequence of objects that speaks with such clarity of our shared background is more likely to foster unity among nations than a fragmented series of objects that continues to symbolise disunion and cultural rupture. For this process to begin, however, the dialogue between Greece and London must rise to a higher level based on mutual trust and generosity of spirit.

The Parthenon Marbles are unquestionably important within the cultural landscape, but they have become renowned for all the wrong reasons. While they should be celebrated for representing the zenith of the Periclean building programme of fifth-century Athens, instead they are more widely recognised as the most controversial and divisive objects in world culture. They should be peacemakers but we are not allowing them to take up that peacekeeping role. Thus they have become emblematic of the wider disputes between western museums and developing nations that have become known as the 'culture wars'. While the Marbles remain immured within the Stygian gloom of the Duveen Galleries where their true significance to European art and culture is so wilfully misinterpreted and misunderstood — our attempts to build harmony in the realm of cultural heritage will be impaired. The international museum community — but more specifically the British Museum — has the power to repair that rupture. The symbolic resonance of a unifying gesture of this kind could be profound and long-lasting.

Dr Tom Flynn

This extract is from a speech that Dr Tom Flynn made addressing a round table organised by the Swiss Committee for the Return of the Parthenon Marbles, held in the  European Parliament, Brussels, Belgium, on the 16th of October 2013.

08 March 2022 

Your Excellency, Mrs. President of the Hellenic Republic, Madam Vardinoyannis, Mr. President of the Acropolis Museum, honoured guests, women of the world.

Let me begin by thanking the Vardinoyannis Foundation and the Acropolis Museum for the very kind invitation to join with you all in Athens this evening. This is one of my favourite places in the world. I was here at the opening of the museum in 2009 and have been back on many occasions since. So it’s an enormous pleasure and honour to be amongst you and to see Professor Pandermalis again.

I found myself writing these words a week ago at a moment when for the first time in my life I sensed a genuine existential threat to the world order. That feeling of unease was amplified by the fact that my eldest son found himself stranded in Moscow where he has been teaching English for the past seven months to Russian schoolchildren. Restricted air travel into and out of Russia last week meant that he had to fly to Egypt in order to find a connecting flight back to London. But at least he got home safe. Not so, sadly, the numerous Ukrainian children trapped in their bombarded cities or trekking to safety in freezing temperatures under heavy artillery fire. I had hoped that by the time I delivered this talk the situation would have calmed down, but sadly the signs are ominous in the extreme. Encouragingly, however, the international community has shown rare solidarity in opposing the invasion of Ukraine.

So unity is one of the themes I’d like to explore this evening, to emphasise the importance of building and sustaining unity in Europe and where possible across the world. And culture can play a significant part in the process of unification. You can probably already see where I’m going with this, so let me turn to the main event. We are gathered here to celebrate International Women’s Day and I applaud the Foundation for linking the event to the topic of the Parthenon Marbles. At least I assume that is why I was invited? Because, yes, the Marbles are indeed a topic close to my heart, as close to my heart as are the women in my life for I am blessed with three sisters, which has given me invaluable insights into how feminine instinct is so often the right one and the masculine instinct frequently misguided.

So allow me to briefly explain the genesis of my commitment to the Marbles issue. I wrote an article for The Spectator magazine some years ago on the topic of museum deaccessioning. One person who saw that article was Eleni Cubitt, a founder and for many years the driving force behind the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, and who I’m sure will be remembered fondly by many of you here this evening. Eleni contacted me shortly after the article appeared and invited me for lunch at her favourite Greek restaurant in Islington. It became the first of many lunches and afternoon teas at her cosy little house in Highbury where we exchanged ideas and books over apple pastries and discussed the ways in which we might persuade more people to the Marbles cause. Eleni was a dear friend and a huge inspiration to me and to everyone involved in the Reunification campaign and her death a few years ago left a big hole in our lives.

My friend the American sculptor Richard Rhodes gave a TedTalk in Seattle recently in which he quoted the writer David Brooks, who advised that one should always have a permanent commitment to tasks that cannot be completed in a single lifetime. This resonated with me, for it prompted me into asking myself whether I was committed to anything, the completion of which might not be achievable in my lifetime. I concluded that the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles represents an issue about which I care deeply but that I have frequently despaired of ever seeing come to fruition. And yet, seemingly insurmountable tasks occasionally have a tendency to loosen under pressure from other forces — social, economic, geopolitical — that suddenly offer a glimmer of light. Such, I believe is the case with the Parthenon Marbles.

I was in my late teens when I first visited Athens and since then I have returned to this beautiful place more often than to any other European city. And this is where the beautiful goddesses enter the picture. I wrote my doctoral thesis on the great chryselephantine statue of Athena erected in the cella of the Parthenon during what is often referred to as the Periclean Building Programme of the mid-fifth century BCE. It was not the statue of the goddess that interested me so much as the nineteenth-century British reactions to her physical composition. As you are aware, she was constructed out of gold and ivory — and here I acknowledge the work of my American colleague Kenneth Lapatin, who has written the definitive account of the chryselephantine technique in the ancient world, which remains an invaluable resource on the subject. While I too became fascinated by Pheidias’s great gold and ivory creations, how and why they were made, what they might have meant to Athenian citizenry and so on, my own research was concerned with the controversy that grew up among European artists, critics, and academics in the early nineteenth century.

Archaeological and philological speculations about the lost statue of Athena, and the Zeus at Olympia began to appear around the same time that the Parthenon Marbles arrived in London. One of the most significant of such studies was the Jupiter Olympien, a reconstruction of the ancient chryselephantine technique assembled by the French academic Quatremère de Quincy in 1805. These various researches divided the artistic community, separating those who saw the gold and ivory tradition as evidence of the widespread use of polychrome sculpture among the ancient Greeks — and therefore an acceptable practice to emulate — and those who viewed it as antithetical to the aesthetic of pure white marble, which became the idée fixe of the neoclassical imagination. That cleaving to the neoclassical aesthetic survived into the twentieth century when even the Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum were subjected to the abrasive obsession of Joseph Duveen whose workmen misguidedly sought to restore the Marbles’ “original” whiteness by scrubbing them. It reminded me of the words of Richard Payne Knight, who, when confronted with the first lawnmowers in the early 19th century, said of their inventors: — “To improve, adorn, and polish they profess, but shave the goddess whom they came to dress.”

Of course, it was the luxurious and extremely valuable materials from which the Athena Parthenos was made that eventually brought about her terminal dismemberment. The gold plates were designed to be removable so that they could be used in the event of war or external threat. She was, then, literally a store of wealth, a convertible asset. The detachable nature of the gold plates may also have contributed to her eventual destruction for it seems possible that the tyrannical dictator Lachares fearing capture, stole the gold plates from the statue before fleeing Athens in disguise in the third century BCE.

In the early nineteenth century any number of lofty arguments were deployed to dissuade contemporary artists from emulating the ancient mixed media creations. For some critics the ‘realism’ suggested by their contrasting materials and particularly the use of ivory, veered dangerously close to waxworks, then commonly used for medical anatomical models and in Madame Tussauds lurid displays. Sculpture, it was argued, had a duty to rise above such carnivalesque persuasions. The liberal use of gold and ivory in the statue also unsettled those who looked to medieval ideas of the dubious moral connotations of luxuria. The Athena Parthenos as she was handed down in ancient testimony seemed to be the very embodiment of conspicuous consumption, luxury run rampant.

And so for me, while researching these critical reactions, the Athena Parthenos became an object of fantasy, of dreams, what she had really looked like was now lost in the mists of time, surviving only in the later written testimony of travellers like Pausanias, in a few small material fragments, and in several intriguing, small-scale souvenirs in marble of questionable reliability. An example of that category is the Varvakeion statue in the National Archaeological Museum here in Athens, which is a Roman copy and an approximation of how the Athena Parthenos might have looked. For me, Athena endures as a Parthenos Imaginaire, a figment of my fevered curiosity. Was she beautiful? I sense that is unlikely. Was she awesome? Sublime? My guess is she was all of these, a dazzling symbol of Athenian power, a triumph of the creative imagination and a demonstration of the collaborative nature of cultural production. 

Now if the composite nature of the ancient chryselephantine statues was the source of their eventual demise, in time it also came to fuel the various controversies surrounding the animated academic debates about polychrome sculpture that continued throughout the nineteenth century. The nineteenth century did indeed see a kind of chryselephantine revival, one of the most notable being the encouragement provided by King Leopold II of the Belgians, who donated ivory from the Congo to Belgian artists in the hope of persuading the Belgian people of the benefits of his colonial adventure in Africa.

If any single object came to embody the various debates about the mixed media of antiquity, it was surely the polychrome gilded bronze Minerva created by the French sculptor Pierre-Charles Simart for the Duc de Luynes, which was exhibited at the Exposition International in Paris in 1855. It survives today in its original location in the family château at Dampierre en Yvelines, outside Paris. On visiting the château I found myself pondering whether the Musée d’Orsay might be a better location for the Minerva where many more people would see her and learn of the archaeological research and fascinating currents of academic taste that surrounded her creation. Like the Parthenos, she was the product of diverse skills, crafts and materials – bronze, ivory, enamel, precious stones, silver and gold. But who am I to advise on where the Minerva ought to be displayed? Surely if I’m loyal to my Parthenon logic, the Minerva belongs in the place for which she was made, standing proudly in front of Ingres’ fresco L’Age D’Or,also commissioned by the Duke, and surrounded by the polychrome interior decorations of Félix Duban, a leading exponent of Beaux-Arts Néo-Grec architecture. Like the original Parthenon ensemble, the room in which the Minerva stands is a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk, a complete, total work of art in which all the individual elements are harmonically integrated into the whole. Remove one component and the magic evaporates.

So why am I rambling on about the chryselephantine statues when we’re really here to discuss the Parthenon Marbles. Well, here’s a thought experiment. Ancient testimony informs us that during the planning stages of the Parthenon building programme, Pheidias was for a time favouring constructing the statue of Athena out of marble. The demos objected, however, insisting on the use of precious materials. Had Pheidias prevailed, might we today have surviving fragments of a colossal acrolithic cult statue of Athena as we do for that of Constantine in Rome? And how might that have changed our knowledge of the temple and its purpose?        

Had such a thing survived, almost certainly Bernard Tschumi would have accommodated the ancient marble goddess as elegantly and sympathetically as he did with the surviving frieze and metopes upstairs. And here I will repeat another common criticism of the London display — the deliberate ‘inside out’ approach to their disposition. I’ll come back to this in a moment, but I think anyone who has visited this wonderful museum cannot fail to acknowledge the superior museology of the displays here in Athens.

I see this museum as unique among world museums in being an environment in which one can engage with the beauty and essential mystery of the ancient world in stunning proximity to the Parthenon itself, one of the greatest surviving monuments of the ancient world. It is not only a place to learn and dream. I see it as a kind of public studiolo, a place where the private imagination can enjoy free rein.

And here’s where I see another interesting parallel with the chryselephantine tradition. We know from the archaeological record that the Ergasterion, the workshop in which Pheidias constructed his chryselephantine Zeus at Olympia, stood alongside the site of the temple, and was orientated in such a way that its position mirrored that of the naos or cella of the temple for which the statue was destined. I meant to email Bernard Tschumi to ask whether this had been one of his reference points in deciding to position the Parthenon Galleries in relation to the temple itself — not that he needed any such pretext, for it is anyway a stroke of genius. In any event, I for one now see the orientation of the Parthenon Galleries as having an extra semantic charge, inviting me to ponder the creative practices of Pheidias and his contemporaries.

And this brings me to another point. When I was invited to speak to you this evening my first thought was: ‘What can be said about the Parthenon Marbles debate that has not been said already?” As the late great Sir Norman Palmer once quipped when getting up to speak last at a conference. ‘Everything has been said already, but not by everyone.’

I did not want to come here today to wheel out the now familiar arguments for reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. After all, I am in Athens with people far more knowledgeable about the issue than me. Over time, I have sought to focus my own contribution to the debate on the viability and sustainability of the concept of the Universal Museum, particularly as it is embodied in London. The ‘Universal’ component was eventually replaced by the notionally less controversial term, ‘Encyclopaedic Museum’, but the concept of universality has nevertheless become a fundamental tenet used by those seeking to retain the marbles in London. I don’t wish to rehearse my opposition to this concept here this evening as I vowed to try and adopt a positive outlook on this auspicious occasion. But I do want to draw attention to an aspect of the debate that is still not sufficiently explored. I refer to the continuing tendency of the British Museum to remove those specimens of the Marbles in London from their umbilical connection to the Parthenon. One former director of the museum went as far as to say, “The Elgin Marbles are no longer part of the story of the Parthenon. They are now part of another story.”

We may not understand the true meaning of the scenes enacted on the Parthenon Frieze, but we know that they are, and will remain, part of the story of the Parthenon. To suggest otherwise is akin to promulgating what recently became known as “alternative facts.” For it is arguably the very ‘story-based' nature of the Marbles that is their most notable feature. The frieze is among the earliest and most cohesive narrative projects in art history, a story of chthonic resonance to Athens and its citizenry. It is one thing to have wrenched half that story from the building itself, it is quite another to sever it altogether from its original meaning and context. Therein lies the pertinence of the concept of unification at this particular moment.

Today we are witnessing a hinge in history. A moment of potentially deep and lasting division in Europe. Countries from around the world and from all across the political spectrum have come together in unity to oppose a dangerous manifestation of fascism and a mortal threat to democracy. What is developing in Ukraine is, to borrow a phrase from Thomas Paine, “the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies.”  

By now you might have guessed how I’m going to conclude this brief talk. The need for unity among nations is more urgent today than at any moment since the Second World War. Unity can be expressed as it has been of late, in diplomacy and in vocal opposition to the agents of oppression and division. Following the invasion of Ukraine unity has also manifested itself in the cultural sector, whereby international organisations whose activities normally bring the world together have elected almost unanimously to exclude Russia from major events. The Champions League Soccer Final has been moved from St Petersburg to Paris, the Russian Formula One Grand Prix has been cancelled, this year the Russia Pavilion will be excluded from the Venice Biennale and a season of performances by the Bolshoi Ballet at London’s Royal Opera House has been cancelled. And just this morning I heard that the director of the Bolshoi Ballet has resigned. And let’s not forget the Eurovision song contest, which has also decided to exclude Russia, although as a citizen of the United Kingdom I would perfectly understand if we too were banished from future Eurovisions, if only on account of the uniformly poor quality of our entries every year.

But now that we have this beautiful museum with its purpose-built Parthenon Galleries, there is surely no more appropriate moment at which to return the London specimens to Athens. What a deeply symbolic gesture it would be to unify a group of objects that until now have been a source of controversy and division. Would that gesture not resonate around the world?

Is there any prospect of that happening? Some have suggested that London could have replicas made to replace the current display. Technology now exists that would make it possible to create copies from marble that would be indistinguishable from the originals down to the minutest detail. The suggestion has already been rejected by the British Museum on the grounds that its visitors would need to wrestle with the idea of the copy rather than the authentic object. But how can we be sure that La Gioconda in the Louvre is the original Mona Lisa and not a replica exhibited in order to protect the original? It is conceivable that we are already at the beginning of an inevitable journey away from our Romantic obsession with originality and authenticity.

The Institute for Digital Archaeology, a joint project between Oxford University, Harvard University and the Museum of the Future in Dubai, a world leader in digital imaging techniques, claims to be able to produce convincing replicas of the Marbles in Pentelic marble. The Factum Arte company in Madrid, part of the Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation, are also among the leading practitioners in recreating the world’s cultural heritage through rigorous high-resolution recording and “re-materialisation” processes. Such techniques would be capable of creating replicas of the Parthenon Marbles down to the minutest degree such that the naked eye would be unable to tell the difference between the original and the copy. Now, I appreciate that the very idea of the British Museum displaying replica objects would likely be might be met with a raised eyebrow among curators. However, the two galleries adjoining the Marbles room at the British Museum already contain replicas of some Parthenon sculptures that are still in Greece. Technological replication may have the potential to resolve what often seems an unresolvable conundrum — providing each side with the “golden bridge” — an elegant face-saving compromise, but the idea is unlikely to succeed while we still cleave to the aura of the original. Meanwhile, the ethical arguments for full reunification and repatriation of all the surviving marbles to their home Athens remains the most forceful prospect for resolution. Few are aware that ethics were also at the very centre of the debate back in the 19th century.

I was looking again at the minutes of the debates in the House of Commons in 1816 which sought to answer the question of whether to purchase the Marbles from Lord Elgin and if so at what price. Some honourable members made clear their scepticism about the purchase, one person opining that “the mode in which the collection had been acquired partook of the nature of spoliation,” while another opposed the decision to buy the Marbles “on the grounds of the dishonesty of the transaction by which the collection was obtained.” Needless to say, I’m being selective here to make the point that despite the eventual decision to buy the sculptures, there was nevertheless moral and ethical opposition even then to the circumstances in which they were acquired by Lord Elgin. But another paragraph stands out. It was decided to pay Elgin £25,000 for the collection in order to — and I quote — “recover and keep it together for that government from which it has been improperly taken, and to which this committee is of the opinion that a communication would be immediately made stating that Great Britain holds these marbles only in trust till they are demanded by the present, or any future, possessors of the city of Athens, and upon such demand, engages, without question or negotiation, to restore them, as far as can be effected, to the places from whence they were taken and that they shall be in the meantime carefully preserved in the British Museum.”

Well, we know they failed on that final commitment, but we live in hope that one day the Marbles in London will be reunified with their brothers and sisters upstairs.     

Before closing I should mention that my connection to Athens was strengthened five years ago when my business partner Angelina and I founded our art provenance research agency. Angie is Greek and her family home is here in Athens. She was saddened to be unable to join us here this evening as she currently has her hands full with her lovely new baby boy. Needless to say, she is as passionate as I am about the cause of reunification. 

And it is on that note that I dedicate this talk to the women in Ukraine. I’m sure you all join with me in standing in support of their struggle for freedom and peace. They will prevail.  

Finally I have our beloved Mary Beard to thank for an amusing anecdote on which to end. In the frontispiece of her excellent book on the Parthenon she quotes from a moment when the American baseball star Shaquelle O’Neal visited Athens. On arriving home he was asked by a reporter:

“Did you visit the Parthenon during your time in Athens?” To which he replied,

“I don’t remember all the clubs we went to.”

So let me close by thanking you all for inviting me back to the most beautiful club in the world.

Efcharistó.

“We disagree with UNESCO's decision; the Parthenon Sculptures were acquired legally“, UK government says in a Ta Nea aricle written by Yannis Andritsopoulos, 07 October 2021.

The British government has said that it will not abide by a recent UNESCO decision on the Parthenon Marbles also insisted that “the Parthenon Sculptures were acquired legally” and rejected UNESCO’s call to reconsider its position and to negotiate with Greece on the return of the 2,500-year-old cultural treasures.

Speaking to Greek newspaper Ta Nea, a government spokesperson said that the UK government “disagrees” with the decision, adding that it intends to challenge it before UNESCO.

The response came after the UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property (ICPRCP) voted unanimously for the first time at its 22nd session to include the return of the Parthenon Marbles in its decision document, marking a major step forward since Greece first introduced the request to the meeting’s agenda in 1984.

ICPRCP’s decision says that Greece’s request for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures is "legitimate and rightful" and calls on Britain "to reconsider its stand and proceed to a bona fide dialogue with Greece on the matter".

Most importantly, the Committee acknowledges for the first time that "the case has an intergovernmental character and, therefore, the obligation to return the Parthenon Sculptures lies squarely on the UK Government."

This is in stark contrast to the UK government’s assertion that it is for the British Museum, not the government, to discuss the issue and make decisions related to it.

“We disagree with the Committee’s decision adopted in the closing minutes of the session and are raising issues relating to fact and procedure with UNESCO,” a UK government spokesperson told Ta Nea.

“Our position is clear—the Parthenon Sculptures were acquired legally in accordance with the law at the time. The British Museum operates independently of the government and free from political interference. All decisions relating to collections are taken by the Museum’s trustees,” the spokesperson added.

A British Museum spokesperson told Ta Nea that “the Trustees of the British Museum have a legal and moral responsibility to preserve and maintain all the collections in their care,” adding that “the Parthenon Sculptures are an integral part of (the Museum’s collection) story and a vital element in this interconnected world collection”.

Greece insists that it is the rightful owner of the Parthenon Marbles. The Greek government says that the sculptures were illegally removed from the Parthenon during the Ottoman occupation of Greece in the early 1800s.

In his first interview with a European newspaper since becoming the UK’s prime minister, Boris Johnson dashed Greece’s hopes of getting the Marbles back, telling Greek daily Ta Nea that they were “legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the appropriate laws of the time and have been legally owned by the British Museum’s Trustees since their acquisition.”

The British Museums’ comment to Ta Nea in full:

“The British Museum has a long history of collaboration with UNESCO and admires and supports its work. The Trustees of the British Museum have a legal and moral responsibility to preserve and maintain all the collections in their care and to make them accessible to world audiences. The Trustees want to strengthen existing good relations with colleagues and institutions in Greece, and to explore collaborative ventures directly between institutions, not on a government-to-government basis. This is why we believe that working in partnership across the world represents the best way forward. Museums holding Greek works, whether in Greece, the UK or elsewhere in the world, are naturally united to show the importance of the legacy of ancient Greece. The British Museum is committed to playing its full part in sharing the value of that legacy.

“The Museum takes its commitment to be a world museum seriously. The collection is a unique resource to explore the richness, diversity and complexity of all human history, our shared humanity. The strength of the collection is its breadth and depth which allows millions of visitors an understanding of the cultures of the world and how they interconnect – whether through trade, migration, conquest, conflict, or peaceful exchange.

“The Parthenon Sculptures are an integral part of that story and a vital element in this interconnected world collection, particularly in the way in which they convey the influences between Egyptian, Persian, Greek and Roman cultures. We share this collection with the widest possible public, lending objects all over the world and making images and information on over four million objects from the collection available online.

“The approach of the Acropolis Museum and the British Museum are complementary: the Acropolis Museum provides an in-depth view of the ancient history of its city, the British Museum offers a sense of the wider cultural context and sustained interaction with the neighbouring civilisations of Egypt and the Near East which contributed to the unique achievements of ancient Greece”.

Britain had previously rejected Greece’s request to hold talks on returning the Marbles after Athens proposed a meeting between experts from the two countries.

Unanimous adoption five minutes before the end of the meeting

Yannis Andritsopulos of Ta Neawrites that the decision of the 22nd Session of the Intergovernmental Committee of UNESCO, the ICPRCP was taken with the efforts of  the behind-the-scenes diplomatic steps taken by Greece. The Zambia delegation introduced COM 17 to the plenary at the end of the Summit and the decision was adopted unanimously. Despite subsequent protests from the British side, due process had been followed throughout the proceedings of this session, a Greek government source told the "Ta Nea". The President of this Session of the ICPRCP read out the full text of the decision and asked its members four times if there are any objections. There was none.

To listen to the 22nd Session of the ICPRCP, follow the link here.

Greece was represented at the 22nd Session of the ICPRCP by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture Georgios Didaskalou, the new General Director of the Acropolis Museum Nikolaos Stampolidis, the Director of the department for the protection of cultural property of the Ministry of Culture Vasiliki Papageorgiou and the legal advisor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Artemis Papathanassiou. Greece exerted pressure for the decision on the issue to be finalised. "Although Britain does not accept dialogue, Greece continues to ask for this and on this occassion we asked the committee to do something more," added the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reprsentative, Ms Papathanassiou with the ICPRCP President accepting her request for the drafting of a decision to be adopted by the Comittee. 

Greece was represented at at the 22nd Session of the ICPRCP by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture Georgios Didaskalou, the new General Director of the Acropolis Museum Nikolaos Stampolidis, the Director of the department for the protection of cultural property of the Ministry of Culture Vasiliki Papageorgiou and the legal advisor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Artemis Papathanassiou.  

 "We congratulate Greece on this excellent result and hope that Britain will finally review its stance and engage in dialogue. At some point, the day will come when we will see the Sculptures reunited in the Acropolis Museum," commented Dr Christiane Titgat, president of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures (IARPS).

Dr Christiane Tytgat, President of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures (IARPS)

BCRPM observations, 07 October 2021.

Wednesday 06 October 2021, saw the final day of the Conservative Party Conference at Manchester Central Convention Complex.Prime Minister Johnson's speech included his take on how to conserve British heritage and culture:

"It has become clear to me that this isn’t just a joke – they really do want to rewrite our national story, starting with Hereward the Woke. We really are at risk of a kind of know-nothing cancel culture, know-nothing iconoclasm. We Conservatives will defend our history and cultural inheritance not because we are proud of everything, but because trying to edit it now is as dishonest as a celebrity trying furtively to change his entry in Wikipedia, and it’s a betrayal of our children’s education."

A reminder that goblal Britain can only claim to be global by being omnipotent? History doesn't have to be rewitten but it has to told as a whole story. And we come back to BCRPM's 20 June protest outside the British Museum, with a poster asking the BM to come clean. Janet Suzman wrote:  

' NOT explaining the full story of these Marbles, and is not worthy of such an august institution. Each case should be considered on its merits since each case is different. The Marbles case is unique.

The BM's Director, Hartwig Fischer, has developed a defensive trope about separation being a 'creative act'. Well, he would, wouldn’t he? The Marbles are one of the BM's star attractions.

The Rodin show a few years ago re-inforced the marbles' supremacy in execution and their diminished meaning in isolation. Imagine one of Rodin’s great figures from the group called The Burghers of Calais standing separated from its fellows in a far country? That would hardly be a ‘creative act’.

The BM is a great encyclopaedic institution while being an Aladdin's Cave of conquest. Imperial Britain took objects from other countries because it could.

But there's a mood abroad which abhors colonialist attitudes and entitlement that it must wake up to.'

For more on the 20 June 2021 protest follow, the link here.

We also believe, ladies and gentlemen, in the countless possibilities offered by science and technology. Earlier this week, at Olympia, that power of technology was on display with the launch of Ancient Olympia : Commons Grounds, a unique collaboration with Microsoft that is harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence and opening up a completely new way of expressing what our cultural heritage is all about.

The scale and depth of Olympia’s pastcan now be experienced on the site itself or remotely anywhere in the world, using cutting edge augmented reality tools.

This is about using innovation to deliver a new frontier in the preservation and public understanding of our cultural heritage – a mission all the more critical given the changing times we face.

Because climate change, pollution and international conflicts affect our present and shape our future. But they also have serious implications on our past.

Our changing environment and extreme weather events pose a direct and growing threat to great monuments of civilization. It is that threat that persuaded us of the need for action, which is why we launched what we considered to be an important initiative called “Addressing climate change impacts on cultural and natural heritage”.

I would like to thank UNESCO for its invaluable support in that initiative. Of course, it is impossible to overstate the importance of, and our commitment to, the third pillar of UNESCO: CULTURE.

There cannot be dialogue between nations, without dialogue amongst cultures. Something which presupposes respect for the history, heritage, and identity of each nation. To my mind that means that emblematic monuments, inherently connected to the very identity of a nation, should be a matter of that nation.

Take the Parthenon Sculptures, which make up a hugely significant piece of the world’s cultural heritage and are perhaps the most important symbolic link between modern Greeks and their ancestors.

Most of that collection can be found on display in the Acropolis Museum, a few hundred meters from the Parthenon. That they can be seen in situ, in their birthplace, connected visually to the monument which lends the sculptures their global significance, that really matters.

However, while a part of that collection remains exiled in London that impact can never be fully appreciated. That is why I believe it is essential that the Parthenon marbles in London should be reunited with the majority of the Parthenon Sculptures in Athens.

Last September a pivotal step was taken by UNESCOs Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property.

For the first time, it unanimously adopted a decision recognising that “the case has an intergovernmental character and, therefore, the obligation to return the Parthenon Sculptures lies squarely on the UK Government”.

The UK should move to a bona fide dialogue with Greece. And I urge them to do so. After all, this year marks the 200th anniversary of Greece’s War of Independence. There could be no better time than now, in which to reunite the missing section of the Parthenon Sculptures – in their birthplace – in Greece.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis

12 November 2021, Paris, UNESCO’s 75th Anniversary celebration

Publications that carried more on this include: 

Reuters 

eKathemerini

The Telegraph 

And on Saturday 13 November 2021:

The Independent

The Guardian

The Belfast Telegraph

The Metro

To Vima

And on Sunday 14 November 2021:

Parkiaki

From the Times'  Leading articles on page 27,  12 January 2022

To read the article on line, please visit the link here.

Tweet by Sarah Baxter, former deputy editor of the Sunday Times, who spoke alongside Janet Suzman and Paul Cartledge in Athens for the conference held at the Acropolis Museum on the 15th of April 2019: 

To the comment piece by Richard Morrison, chief culture writer for The Times on 11 January, 2022 and subsequent letter from BCRPM's Professor Paul Cartledge and Janet Suzman, on page 26, the Letters Page,12 January 2022. 

Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-12), Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Hellenic Issues, Congressman Gus Bilirakis (FL-12), Co-Chair of the Congressional Caucus on Hellenic Issues, and Congressman Donald Payne, Jr. (NJ-10) introduced a resolution calling on Great Britain to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.

This Stateside call for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles made by three US Congress Representatives Maloney, Bilirakis and Payne, was issued the day after Greece celebrated Independence Day, on 26 March 2019.

The sculptures from the Parthenon remain fragmented and maily exhibited bbetween two world-lass mseums, the Acropolis Museum in Athens, due to celebrate its 10th anniversary this June and the British Museum in London.

Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin paid men to cut off with huge metal saws, hammers and chiselsabout half of the integral parts of the Parthenon to then transport them to Great Britain, destined originally for his ancestral home in Scotland. Of the 97 surviving blocks of the Parthenon frieze 56 removed by Lord Elgin's men, 40 remained in Athens. Of the 64 surviving metopes 48 are in Athens and 15 in London. And of the 28 preserved figures of the pediments, 19 are in London and 9 are in Athens.

In 1816, Lord Elgin in a fire sale saw British Parliament vote to purchase the Marbles. They have for over 200 years resided in the British Museum, despite requests for their return. The first request was made after Greece gained her independence and many more requests continue to date. Countless efforts to find a way forward have tragically been blocked by the British Museum and UK Goverment. All requests have fallen on deaf ears including attempts by UNESCO to mediate.

To read the article in full, please follow the link here.

“The Parthenon Marbles belong in Greece, with the Greek people,” said Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney. “The marbles are some the country’s greatest examples of artistic expression and beauty and are vital pieces of Greek history. The people of Greece and those who visit from all around the world to see the magnificence of the Acropolis should be able to enjoy the Marbles in their rightful home. This resolution calls upon Great Britain to finally return these treasures.”

“Art provides a window into history and is the ultimate freedom of expression,” said Congressman Gus Bilirakis. “The Parthenon Marbles were made by the citizens of Athens under the direction of renowned artist Phidias to celebrate the pride and majesty of the City of Athens. To not house and view these citizen contributions in the city they were originally intended does a disservice not only to the people of Athens, but also to the civilization that paved the path for modern democracy and freedom. I sincerely hope to see these original works and other important elements of Hellenic history finally returned to their rightful owner for future generations of proud Greeks to enjoy.”

“The Parthenon Marbles tell a story of celebration for Ancient Greece, and the marbles are important to Greek culture,” saidCongressman Donald Payne . “To best serve history and to ensure the world can enjoy ancient history in its proper context, the Parthenon Marbles should be returned to Greece.”

Four video presentation in the Parthenon Gallery at the Acropolis Museumfeaturing 3D-imaging of the frieze blocks.

1. Illustration from the west frieze - the rider with the restless horse at the centre of the frieze. In 1801 the scene was intact. The rider's head of which Elgin had made a cast, was lost prior to 1870.

http://www.youtube.com/ west frieze

 2. East Frieze Block VI, restoration, length 4.20 metres, weight 7 tons

http://www.youtube.com/ BlockVI

3. Block II from the north frieze - the chiselling

http://www.youtube.com/ Block II from the north frieze

4. South frieze, Block III - until the mid 18th century the block remained intact. During the summer of 1803, Elgin's team used iron crow bars and exploited the natural cracks of the marble to detach the piece with the sculpted surface. The detached piece was transported to England and eventually found its way to the British Museum. 

http://www.youtube.com/ Block III from the south frieze

Wednesday 09 February 2022, was a great day in Sicilian and Greek relations with the arrival from the Acropolis Museum in Athens, the statue of the goddess Athena (Acr. 3027, second half of the fifth century BC.) to be exhibited in the regional museum, the Museo Archeologico Regionale "Antonino Salinas", Palermo.

The official delivery took place, in the morning, in the presence of  Minister of Culture and Sport of the Hellenic Republic, Lina Mendoni, and the director of the Acropolis Museum, Nikolaos Stampolidis, who entrusted this precious statue of the goddess Athena in the hands of the Regional Councillor of Cultural Heritage Alberto Samonà and the director of the Salinas museum, Caterina Greco. Also present were the Italian Deputy Minister for Culture Culture, Lucia Borgonzoni and Professor Louis Godart, President of the Italian Committee for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

The arrival in Palermo of the statue of Athena was possible following the agreement, encouraged by Alberto Samonà and signed between the two museums under Italian law, according to which Sicily granted the Acropolis Museum the fragment of the Frieze of the Parthenon that belonged to the English consul Robert Fagan and that, after being sold in 1820, was kept in the Museo Archeologico Regionale "Antonino Salinas".

It is the first time that the Acropolis Museum offers Sicily, for a long-term exhibition, an original testimony of Athenian history. Thanks to the agreement between the two museums, but more generally, Sicily and Greece, this heralds the start of a great path for cultural collaboration.

The presentation of the statue took place on Wednesday 09 February 2022, “International Greek Language Day”, a day celebrating the Greek language and culture.

At the end of the four years, the Acropolis Museum will send to Palermoa geometric amphora of the early eighth century BC.

Associated Press in the Washington Post also reports: 'Greece hopes the loan of the small Italian fragment — part of a 160-meter-long (520-foot) frieze that ran around the outer walls of the Parthenon — will boost its campaign for the return from London of the British Museum’s part of the Parthenon Sculptures. “Greece recognizes no rights of ownership or possession” to the sculptures in the British Museum, commented Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni who travelled to Palermo’s  A. Salinas Archaeological Museum for the handover. “(The deal with Italy) indicates the path that London can follow”, concludes Mendoni.

The statue of the goddess Athena which has been lent from the Acropolis Museum to the Museo Archeologico Regionale "Antonino Salinas", Palermo. The official ceremony held at the museum on Wednesday 09 February, pictured from left to right:Italian Deputy Minister for Culture, Lucia Borgonzoni, Professor Louis Godart, President of the Italian Committee for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles with Alberto Samonà the Councillor for Cultural Heritage and Identity of the Sicilian Region as well as Director of the Salinas Museum, and Minister of Culture and Sport of the Hellenic Republic, Lina Mendoni,

www.vanityfair.com

July 2009

This event was a panel discussion about the cultural repatriation of national treasures, inspired by the current status of the Parthenon Marbles.The event was held at the LSE by the Hellenic Observatory.

The debate over the reunification of the Elgin/Parthenon Marbles remains newsworthy. With attention post the Black Lives Matter protests signalling initiatives taken to return national treasures to their countries of origin, the campaign continues. For the Marbles, the British Museum has signalled a willingness to consider 'a deal', and the Greek Prime Minister highlighted Greece's willingness to discuss this further. He was due to visit the UK next month and have talks with UK's PM, although he did try to do this when Mr Johnson was PM too, gaining the support of UK audiences with his appearance on ITV's Good Morning Britain,16 November, 2021.

The panel that spoke on 18 October, considered the implications of reuniting the Marbles back to Athens and the issues that would arise should such a maganimous act take place any time soon.

Listen to Professor Paul Cartledge, BCRPM and the IARPS's Vice-Chair, alongside Ed Vaizey Chair of a new campaign the 'Parthenon Project', and Dr Tatiana Flessas, Associate Professor in Cultural Heritage and Property Law at the LSE. You can also revisit the talk that Dr Flessas gave on 09 October 2019 at the seminar held at the City of London University alongside BCRPM's Oliver Taplin, Jonathan Jones from the Guardian and Dr Florian Schmidt-Gabain, Attorney, Zurich, Lecturer in Art Law, Universities of Basel and Zurich.

Whichever side of the fence you may be sitting by, there is no doubt that the compelling moral and ethical reasons for reunificaton are as strong today as they were in June 2009, when the Acropolis Museum was opened. Considering also that the first request was made when Greece became indepependent, a request by the morden state of Greece to the UK, nearly two centuries ago.

Greece's requests have never waned garnering greater impetus through UNESCO's ICPRCP also. Yet the BM have remained firm in not wanting to reunite the marbles, that is up until this summer, when the new Chair of the British Museum Trustees, George Osborne suggested to Andrew Marr on LBC that a 'deal' could be made. This deal rests on Greece accepting to share half of the surviving, fragmented sculptures, and would be formalised as a loan agreement that would enable parts of the sculptures to travel back and forth with fragmented pieces currently held in the Acropolis Museum doing the same. With over 100,000 Greek artefacts in the BM, surely there are other exemplars to display in Room 18 which might allow Greece's justifiable request to be met with magnanimity, understanding and empathy? And let's also not forget that since Greek Minister of Culture Evangelos Venizelos in 2000 visited the BM, Greece pledged that should the Parthenon sculptures be returned, the Greek Government would make sure that the Duveen Galleries would always host Greek antiquities on loan for exhibitions. Greece would be willing to send rare and even newly discovered antiquities, which have never been seen outside Greece. This Greek offer has been repeated, and most recently by PM Mitsotakis when he was last in London.

“It is with a great sense of pleasure I learned that the Greek Minister of Culture and Sports Dr. L Mendoni has announced the reopening of all museums in Greece from June 15, said Emanuel J Comino AM, founder, and Chairman of the International Organising Committee – Australia – for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles.

“The timing is auspicious as on June 20, a mere five days later, we celebrate the eleventh anniversary of the opening of the Acropolis Museum.

The Acropolis Museum is rated one of the 10 best museums in the world. The reason why is obvious as soon as anyone steps inside. It’s a place deeply and dynamically connected with the Acropolis and the Parthenon.

Every time I visit, I’m not only moved by its superb design and the beautiful presentation of the remaining Parthenon Marbles, but I’m touched with a little sadness. I’m reminded of Elgin’s vandalism, and the Parthenon Marbles now kept in the British Museum. This strengthens my commitment to the campaign for their return.

The Parthenon Marbles kept in the British Museum must be returned to Athens and placed in the Acropolis Museum. This is the only place where the people of the world can begin to appreciate the fullness of their beauty and their contribution to the modern world. Only when they are together can people understand what they are telling us about more than 2000 years of glorious Greek history.

I have long recognised that the British Nation and its people strongly espouse and believe in justice, freedom and friendship. They have demonstrated this over the years, wherever these such values are threatened anywhere around the world.

So, it was with interest I also noted comments from Hartwig Fischer, British Museum Director, this week, he said:

“We stand with everyone who is denied equal rights and protection from violence in the fullest sense of these terms. These are challenges that we as a society must address, injustices that must be overcome.” 

These are sentiments that accord with my understanding of Britain as a country that espouses justice, freedom, and friendship.

Mr. Fischer added:

“We will continue to research, acknowledge and address the colonial history of Britain and its impact on our institution in exhibitions like Collecting Histories and Reimagining Captain Cook: Pacific perspectives from 2019. But there is much more to do.”

“Yes Mr Fischer, there is much more to do. The Parthenon Marbles were taken while Greece was under Ottoman occupation, and Britain was an expanding colonial power in the eastern Mediterranean. They were never given to Britain.

Let us hope your comments are not just empty words. It is time to act.”

The BCRPM concurs with our Australian colleagues in their eloquent plea to the Director of the British Museum and would add: “Yes, Mr Fischer, as you say, indeed there is much more to do. The movement unleashed in the world today needs to force those who have profited from peoples deprived of their selfhood by force majeure, to acknowledge that fact, and make restitution.” Dame Janet Suzman Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

Dame Janet Suzman with Emanuel J Comino AM, Sunday 14 April 2019 at the Acropolis Museum 

Our recent trip to Athens after a 10 year hiatus, highlighted the favourable and unfavourable changes in this capital city. I travelled with my husband and daughter, and the main aim was to refresh our memories of the cultural magnificence we (as British born Greeks), take for granted.

Having worked in travel for 27 years, I have been lucky enough to travel to many parts of the world both near and far, and both positive and negative changes are inevitable, as was the case on this occasion, when visiting Athens.

The central areas of Athens known as Syntagma Square, Monastiraki and Plaka, somehow did not compare to previous years as I remember them, where the hustle and bustle was leisurely, and probably more traditionally Greek. This area of the city is busy with traditional buildings, luxury hotels, bars, restaurants, shops and crowds filling this space. Time doesn't stand still and Athens has expanded, its population now over 3 million. This central area in my view looked tired, and in need of revival. Perhaps, this was partly caused by the economic crisis of the last 10 years and more recently, Covid 19 and its aftermath.

I was keen for my daughter to experience the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, just off Syntagma Square, below the Hellenic Parliament; and also to visit the Acropolis and of course the main star attraction, the Parthenon.

Once we reached the top of  the Acropolis, Athens' iconic tourist attraction, we watched the Greek flag gently blowing in the wind against a blue cloudless sky, and soaked up the many years of ancient history. I was consumed by a sense of pride and honour of my Greek heritage.

Even in November, the citadel was buzzing with tourists from different parts of the world. The evening view of the Acropolis from Monastiraki was captivating in that one picture was just simply not enough!

We then made our way down to the newly built Acropolis Museum which focuses on the findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis. The museum houses every artifact found on the rock and surrounding slopes dating back from the Greek Bronze age to Roman and Byzantine Greece. A plethora of artifacts with a wealth of information feeding the curious mind.

This modern museum, officially opened in June 2019, houses the original marble sculptures of the Parthenon, exhibited in the same way as they would have been on the monument. Sadly, it is obvious to also see, the missing sculptures, those so many refer to as the 'Elgin marbles', removed by Lord Elgin when Greece had no voice.

Lord Elgin was forced to sell what he had removed, to the British government in 1816, and in turn the government placed these treasures in trust with the British Museum.

The sculptures that are still in the British Museum's Room 18, have been replaced in the Acropolis Museum's Parthenon Gallery by contrasting, stark white plaster copies, further emphasising their harsh removal.

The importance of this collection of sculptures and why the calls for their return grows louder, and louder, is that these marbles deserve to be returned to their birthplace. They deserve to be housed in this amazing museum, to join their surviving halves, with direct views to the Parthenon. This would be the ultimate gesture of respect by the UK to Greece. The Parthenon Marbles were, and will always be referenced by the Parthenon, the jewel in the crown that is the Acropolis.

Athens will always hold a special place in my heart, and after this latest trip, in the hearts of my family too. Our short visit allowed us to re-engage with our Greek heritage but above all, enrich our minds with the profound cultural wealth present in this amazing ancient capital city.

We're looking forward to visiting again, this time, not leaving it so long.

Zoe Hawa