Chris Hastings in the Mail on Sunday, 04 December 2022 writes: 

George Osborne is in secret discussions with Greece's Prime Minister over returning the Elgin Marbles

• George Osborne, chairman of the British Museum, in talks over Elgin Marbles
• Believed he and Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis discussed their return last month
• The marbles were removed by Lord Elgin between 1801 and 1812 from Greece

British Museum chairman George Osborne has been discussing the possible return of the Elgin Marbles to Greece with its prime minister.

The talks between the former Chancellor and Kyriakos Mitsotakis are believed to have taken place last month during the Greek leader’s visit to the UK.

The talks have led to renewed speculation that the museum could announce the return of some or all of the Elgin Marbles to Greece either as a loan or as part of a permanent repatriation.

The marbles, dating back to the 5th Century BC, were removed by Lord Elgin between 1801 and 1812.

Greece, which would place them in a museum close to the Parthenon from where they were taken, has said it will offer the British Museum antiquities never before seen outside the country.

Actress Dame Janet Suzman, who chairs the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, said: ‘This is a very positive step forward. 

'George Osborne might be interested in a legacy and this might be a very enlightened one.’

Letter in the Financial Times 10 January, 2024: Give Parthenon marbles a one-way ticket home

One of your predictions for 2024 (FT Report, December 30) is that Britain will return the Parthenon marbles to Greece, albeit via a loan agreement rather than a full return.

You are probably right but I don’t think it is so much a question of if, but only when the marbles will eventually return to their home country. However, the idea of a temporary loan is not the solution.

The sculptures are far too fragile to be shipped between the two countries on a frequent basis. It is a forgone conclusion that it will have to be a one-way ticket.

The Elgin marbles have been well cared for by the British Museum but circumstances have changed. It is now widely acknowledged that the new Acropolis Museum is the appropriate home for the sculptures. This is also backed by a large majority of the British population.

Put it another way. The Parthenon marbles have been on loan to Britain for more than a century and now the time has come to return them to their country of origin.

Angus Neill Art Dealer, London 

22 August 2019 during a State visit to France, Greece's Prime Minister Mitsotakis asked President Macron for the loan from the Louvre of a metope.This request was made for Greece's bicentennial independence celebrations in 2021. The Louvre would, in return, receive a collection of bronze artefacts from Greece. 

Paul Cartledge, professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge and the vice chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles and the IARPS (International Association) commented to The Art Newspaper: " We hope for and expect much more: the reunification in the Acropolis Museum of all bits of the Parthenon held in museums outside Greece—not only [the sculptures] from the British Museum. The Greek government will certainly reciprocate most handsomely with spectacular loans, such as those going to the Louvre no doubt will be.”

To read The Art Newspaper article, please follow the link here.

On 22 March, Alexander Herman wrote an article also in The Art Newspaper explaining the difficulties that surround recognition and admission of title. If the British Museum were ever to consider a long-term loan of the pieces, Greece would need to first accept that the trustees hold title, an acceptance successive Greek governments have never been willing to make.

"But title need not be so contentious. Perhaps the Greek government could accept the simple premise that the trustees hold title under English law, but go no further? This would not have to relate to the circumstances of acquisition in Athens. It need only be a recognition that a run-of-the-mill Act of Parliament settled the question of English title back in 1816. Likewise, the British Museum would need to understand that title is a nationally derived right and does not automatically guarantee rights at an international level. This could perhaps allow the parties to put the question of title aside" writes Alexander Herman.

While a loan might not result in Greece's long awaited permanent restitution, it would bring some pieces back to the Acropolis Museum, where they would be seen by millions in their original context with views to the Parthenon, which still stands. Marking a memorable event and breaking of the deadlock by starting a dialogue between London and Athens.

Read more on this article here.

31 August & 01 September Helena Smith reported in the Guardian and Observer that Prime Minister Mitsotakis would be looking for a loan from the British Museum to coincide with Greece's bicentennial independence celebrations in 2021.

Prime Minister Mitsotakis explained that “given the significance of 2021, I will propose to Boris: ‘As a first move, loan me the sculptures for a certain period of time and I will send you very important artefacts that have never left Greece to be exhibited in the British Museum’.”

Adding: “Of course our demand for the return of the sculptures remains in place. I don’t think [Britain] should be fighting a losing battle. Eventually this is going to be a losing battle. At the end of the day there is going to be mounting pressure on this issue.”

There are 21,000 known archaeological sites in Greece,” said the culture minister, Lina Mendoni, a classical archaeologist. “We have 10 times more than we can possibly exhibit. Almost every day something valuable is found. We want to export these cultural assets.”

Read the updated Guardian (04 September 2019) article here.

I was asked to be the Chair of the BCRPM because of my long-standing sympathy with the magnificent fury of Melina Mercouri, who came whirling into Britain many years ago like a mighty wind, to stir up the clouds of dead leaves that often litter the venerable institutions of this land. She demanded the return of the marbles. She is long gone, but the wind still blows, sometimes stronger, sometimes just a breeze to disturb the quiet. Those winds have started up again as the arguments about Brexit swirl this way and that, and they have started up in France as it recognises certain acquisitions in its own collections need justifying, and the windy debates continue in other far countries once colonised by Great Britain in its Empire heyday.

One of the most mightiest of those Institutions, The British Museum, is the keeper of so many of the world’s treasures they are almost beyond counting, because Empire-builders brought back wondrous artefacts from across the world when Britain ruled the waves. As we know the star attractions of the British Museum's astonishing collection are the Parthenon marbles, those breath-taking fractions of a breath-taking whole. The Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Lord Elgin, brought them to England and for two hundred years they have awed the millions of visitors who shuffle across the floors of the mighty Museum. They are seen in a severely walled gallery, sitting with great respect and decorum on harsh concrete plinths, with greyish light partly revealing their astonishing beauty.

Last year some of these pieces of sculpture were brought down to another larger gallery to show Rodin’s work alongside them, and how inspired he was by them. A breath of fresh air rushed round the figures and we saw anew how wonderful they are, in fact unmatchable. Emotionally charged, muscled Rodin figures paled beside the stillness of their haunting super-reality. The curators had presented the figures as solo works of art separated from their original function of being parts of a larger whole, wrenched from an integral part of an ancient belief-system.

Melina was an actress, I am an actress; that probably means we are basically open-minded. Acting requires you to be non-judgemental about a character and thus to depict its point of view, often very far from your own in real life, as truthfully as possible. I am no scholar, no academic. My position on the BCRPM Committee is one of a perfectly ordinary museum visitor and as such I can see so clearly that the marbles are in the wrong room. They need the sweet Attic sunlight shining on them and a blue sky beyond; they ask to be re-connected to their other half in the New Acropolis Museum where a space for them awaits. They need to be seen in sight of the Parthenon itself, which still astonishingly stands, in full view of that space, so that I, the visitor could turn my head and exclaim “Now I see - that’s where they came from!” No more gloomy light, no more orphaned statuary. They need to be re-joined to their other pedimental half which sits in this fine museum so that I, the visitor, can understand the whole silent conversation between them.

I simply do not trust the jargon of art historians or artistic directors however eminent who enlarge rather pompously on ‘creative acts’ - meaning the marble figures take on another equally important resonance by having been violently parted from their siblings. Chopped off in fact; the wounds are visible. I have no reason to disrespect the director of the British Museum but if I were playing him I would have to understand his motivation in speaking such transparently suspect words. It’s clear that it would be more than his job is worth if he allowed his natural intelligence to win over his enforced hypocrisy; he is required to speak diplomatically. So it is not he who is at fault; it is the Trustees of the British Museum who must surely be rather smug closet colonialists that they still don't choose to entertain what is only right and just. After more than two centuries, it is high time those marbles were returned to their rightful place.

I end by quoting from an eminent member of BCRPM, Alexi Kaye Campbell, who wrote most eloquently in The Guardianrecently: “Asking for something back of huge significance which has been taken from you when you were under foreign occupation is a demand for simple justice”. Europe has felt the dread hand of occupation far too often, and it behoves Britain and its premier institutions to start to accommodate the other point of view.

Greece’s ask is wholly justified. It must keep blowing zephyrous winds towards England.

Janet Suzman

The above article was published in Greek , Saturday 9 February 2019, in Ta Nea, Greece's daily newspaper.  It was also re-printed in Parikiaki.

Reaching an agreement for the permanent return of the Parthenon Sculptures from the British Museum to Greece  “is difficult, but not impossible,” said Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni in Parliament on Monday, 23 January 2023. Dr Mendoni reiterated the government’s stance that this specific cultural request “remains national, unanimous, consistent and clear.”

Greece does not recognize the British Museum's claim of ownership with regards to the Parthenon Scultptures currently exibited in Room 18, as they comprise a product of theft. Dr Mendoni added that “the government has been working from the start systematically, responsibly, and effectively to achieve the national goal – the return and reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures to the Acropolis Museum in Athens.”

ANA-MPA news

On August 2016, H E Ambassador Dimitris Caramitsos-Tziras came to London to start his term as Ambassador of Greece in the UK. In these three years that he has lived and worked in the UK, he has witnessed a sea change, from the outcome of the UK's Referendum and the on going Brext negotiations, to the election of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, plus the ongoing plight of the Parthenon Marbles, sadly still divided bettween Athens and London.

Yannis Andritsopoulos, UK correspondendant for Ta Nea, interviewed Ambassdor Dimitris Caramitsos-Tziras and the article can be read in Greek online here: https://www.tanea.gr/print/2020/09/26/world/brexit-mia-tainiacrdixos-xapi-ent/.

Taking up his post in London in the summer of 2016,  Ambassador Dimitris Caramitsos-Tziras experienced Britain's post Brexit Referendum division. This was followed by a myriad of consultations and challenges. Now as he prepares to return to Athens, the final outcome is still uncertain. "The British people were divided and the civil service unprepared. The lack of a plan was obvious. The further the negotiation progressed, the more the goal posts were moved. It was more of a process of internal political controversy. This is a disappointment for a country so big and powerful." Commented Ambassador Caramitsos-Tziras in Ta Nea.

"Recently, the no deal debate has reignited... I have always believed that this was part of the negotiating tactic and not a substantive intention. Personally, I believe that neither side wants a no deal, nor does it want to bear the burden of a deadlocked negotiation that would have economic, political and social implications for both. Clearly, though, the possibility of no deal has not gone off the table."

And on Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Ambassador acknowledges that Johnson is 'a product of the British educational establishment' and yet has "elements of modernity in his politics - a policy not always of principles and beliefs, but of realism, sometimes cynical. As a personality, he's very interesting. I've met him a few times. He always felt the need to show or demonstrate his ability to speak the Greek language. We covered the classical poets to the irregular verbs in Ancient Greek, which he  test my knowledge!" Adds the Ambassador.

And on the matter of the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, Yannis asked the Ambassador: "Do you think the British will return them?"

The Ambassador's reply sums up the current position:"Thanks to Greece's efforts, the pressing issue remains in the public debate. There is hope that some British leaders will see it differently. I believe that Britain is missing the opportunity to be at the forefront of international developments, at a time when everyone is talking about the return of certain cultural treasures. Prime Minister Johnson has the opportunity to make a magnanimous gesture that would be a reflection of the true spirit of these times."

H E Ambassador Dimitris Caramitsos-Tziras concludes his term of office in the UK on 30 September 2020

On our part, Chair Janet Suzman and Vice-Chair Professor Paul Cartledge plus the 13 members of our Committee (BCRPM), wish to thank the Ambassdor for his help and support over these past three years. Most memorable was the Ambassador's letter to Dr Hatwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum on 26 April 2018. The  Ambassador poliely turned down the opportunity to attend the opening of the 'Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece' exhibition. You can read the letter heretoo. For BCRPM's press release on the Rodin exhibition, kindly follow the link or read more on articles written at that time, check out https://www.parthenonuk.com/latest-news/41-2018-news/393-rodin-bm-exhibition-not-a-justification-for-keeping-them-in-london and https://www.parthenonuk.com/component/content/article/26-articles-and-research/400-the-rodin-exhibition-at-the-british-museum-is-now-open?Itemid=101

Ian Jenkins (Senior Curator of Antiquities, British Museum) died suddenly last Saturday 28 November 2020.

We disagreed of course on the proper abode of the 'Elgin Marbles', but he was a very great scholar/connoisseur and good friend over many years, the last of them blighted by Parkinson's, and I am very sad that he is no longer with us.

What not many people will know is that he came from what would once have been called a 'humble', that is a working-class, background: his mother, he told me as we were visiting the Greek section of London's West Norwood cemetery together, had been 'in service'.

He wrote many excellent books and exhibition catalogues, including on the Parthenon sculptures, but my favourite remains Vases and Volcanoes: the Collection of Sir William Hamilton.

More controversially, he convened and edited the proceedings of a conference devoted to the 'cleaning' of those Parthenon Marbles confined in the B.M.

A recent, revealing interview with him was published in The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies' ARGO magazine, you can read this by folowing the link here.

Rest in peace.

Professor Paul Cartledge

A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture Emeritus

University  of Cambridge Faculty of Classics

The headline of Niko Efstathiou's article in Kathimerini, 05 February 2023, post his visit to London took our breath away: 'In London, the return of the Parthenon Sculptures seems all but inevitable'.

For most of us, and not just in Greece and the UK but globally too, this has been a hope that has burned passionately for what seems like forever.

That Niko encountered visitors in the British Museum's Room 18  admiring the fragmented and divided Parthenon Marbles, also saying how they hoped to see them reunited, was nothing new. This has been happening for sometime. More so however since the opening of the superlative Acropolis Museum in June 2009.

"No major news has surfaced in the past few months, since British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s last-minute cancellation of a meeting with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis in late November reinvigorated a decade-old cultural debate. But today, the sentiment in London is that the return of the 2,500-year-old marble sculptures and reliefs is all but inevitable." Writes Niko as he goes on to outline the strong public support, which has also been there for sometime.

The British sense of far-play to the fore: if these sculptures were removed when the country of origin had no voice, we ought to do the right thing, and return them to the country of origin. A sentiment echoed at UNESCO's ICPRCP and translated into recommendations and conclusions to highlight the ever pressing need to find a solution to this, long running, cultural heritage dispute. A dispute that has kept the media writing, and voicing their observations. There has been no end to the coverage for this just cause.  

"In an exercise where legal formulation meets branding, significant efforts are being made by both parties to keep the agreement’s messaging positive, and the wording around ownership vague enough so that both Greece – which regards ownership over the artifacts as key in any potential agreement – and the British Museum – which is restricted by laws, such as the British Museum Act of 1963, that ban the removal of artifacts from its collection – can come to a consensus." Continues Nikos in his article and indeed we reflect on how many times BCRPM's Chairs and Vice-Chairs have urged the UK to consider amending the law. An amendment that was not given the consideration it deserved  because of fear. The fear of  'what else' would be requested and spurious 'floodgates' arguments stopping any sensible progress. Fear by the UK's PMs, and MPs. 

And Nikos goes on to add: "In the meantime, if there is one thing pushing the deal closer towards fruition it is the British Museum’s leadership".  Totally on point, as the British Museum and the UK Government were never keen to engage in dialogue.  Now under the leadership of George Osborne, the British Museum is looking for a 'win-win' long term partnership where cultural artefacts are given maximun mobility, and these peerless sculptures are allowed to travel back to Attica.

We will never forget when one of the sculptures, Ilissos, travelled to St Petersburg, nor can we forget the equally unsupportive reaction of those that hold the British Museum in the highest esteem. It was not, that Director's finest hour, made worse by what hasn't made relations between the West and Russia any better. The annexing of Crimea it seemed was just the begining of a grander scheme to gain more land, and Russia invaded Ukraine on the 24 February 2022. Ilissos' move from London to St Petersburg sparked more support for the reunification of these sculptures, than it did for the relations betweeb Russia and the West.

And so to 2024 and two friendly nations looking to a museum “partnership that requires no one to relinquish their claims.”

"Paradoxically, though the explosive diplomatic spat that took place in November suggested that the current UK government will not back a potential deal, Downing Street’s impulsive reaction may have also triggered a change in British politics. Sunak’s panicked decision to cancel the meeting with Mitsotakis ended up being widely criticized by all sides of the political spectrum, among others by Osborne himself, a former chancellor of the exchequer for a Tory government, who suggested it was a “hissy fit.” Continues to write Niko. Indeed what was PM Sunak thinking?

“I jumped up and down with joy when it happened, because obviously it was a mistake,” recalls Dame Janet Suzman, actress and chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, while detailing to Kathimerini her reaction to Sunak’s controversial snub. “I honestly think it is not something he thought about very deeply, it was a surface reaction in reply to an analogy used by the Greek PM on British TV. But it created a tidal wave of publicity for the return of the sculptures, so we were naturally quite thrilled in our organization.”

British politicians making mistakes, errors in diplomacy and international relations? Did this snub help the request for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles? Our Chair, Janet says yes.

"As much as Greece would like to keep British politics out of any potential agreement, guaranteeing governmental support would make the deal with the British Museum far easier to implement. Herein lies the last factor most probably aligning with Greece’s case – at least very soon. Brits are heading to the polls in less than a year for national elections, and with polls unanimously showing the Tories trailing the Labour Party by unprecedented margins, a change in government seems almost certain. By all accounts, Sunak’s most likely successor, current opposition leader Keir Starmer, will be far more cooperative in the case of the Parthenon Marbles’ reunification." Writes Nikos. And indeed this sentiment was also echoed by Victoria Hislop during her interviews, whilst in Athens for the launch of her latest fictional novel, which was published also in Greek. A book launch that took place at the Acropolis Museum, on Thursday, 25 January.

And PM Mitsotakis' endevour, his mission to reunite the sculptures, a mission he has continued to push on with for nearly two years. “Let me be clear, we will insist on their reunification,” he said in New York.

"And though it is now waiting time, and the exact details of the deal are far from set and still kept away from public scrutiny, it is hard not to see that his vision – once a huge point of contention with Britain – is more likely to materialize than ever before." Concludes Niko Efstathiou.

To read Niko's toughtful article in full, follow the link here.

The Sunday Post's Ross Crae wrote an article on the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, to read the article published on Sunday 12 December, kindly follow the link here. 

Isabel Ruffell, professor of Greek drama and culture at Glasgow University, reflects on the Parthenon Marbles. She is quoted as saying: “It is morally indefensible for them to be in London. It’s bizarre that you’ve got all these bits from the same building all over Europe.

These are iconic images of profound significance to the people of Greece. Their removal belongs to the smash-and-grab period of classical archaeology, which is intertwined with our colonial past, and we need to face up to that.

You’ve got these really high stakes pieces of sculpture that matter a great deal to one of our fellow European countries and it seems slightly peculiar that we’re not giving them back. It’s really quite childish in a way.”

She, too, believes the Acropolis Museum in Athens would be the best place to show the marbles in all of their glory. “From an educational point of view, the British Museum display is really unhelpful,” she said.

“The Panathenaic frieze is inside-out, and the other frieze elements dislocated in other ways. The display in Athens, which is waiting for their return, will display the surviving material in a way that is as close as possible to the original layout.

“It is a fabulous museum. It has really good displays of some of the other stuff that was on the site so you get a much better sense of what it was like – it was incredibly crowded. It’s not just the edited highlights, you see the whole lot. A lot of museums have big aesthetic treasures completely divorced from context.

“Having them in this austere white room in the British Museum is a very strange, misleading way of looking at it.

“As someone who has benefited from the school trip to London in my time, it is very educational and useful but you could do that with plaster cast or loans of material. I think museums are quite co-operative on the whole these days, so these kinds of things are not unprecedented, loan deals and plaster casts and so forth.

“If the goal here is to provide a resource to people to learn, which is what it should be, then there are ways of doing it without having to do the ‘it’s mine, you can’t have it back’ kind of thing.”

Professor Isabel Ruffell has now joined BCRPM as a member and we're delighted to welcome her.

Two letters in the Guardian's letter's page, Wednesday 01 June 2022. Could we prefix the headline with #WednesdayWisdom?

It is dishonourable for the British Museum to keep the Parthenon marbles.

It should make no difference whether the Parthenon marbles were “removed from the rubble” or not. They must be given back. If our neighbours’ house is on fire while on holiday, and we rescue their valuables, we should surely give them back when they return. To keep them would be dishonourable.
David Simmonds
Woking, Surrey

As a secondhand bookseller, I arrived at the home of Harold Plenderleith shortly before he died in 1997 to buy books. He had been chief conservator with the British Museum, and I made the mistake of asking him for his views on repatriation of the Parthenon marbles (Greece rebuts British Museum claim Parthenon marbles were ‘removed from rubble’, 23 May). “Never!” he replied, “Never! We looked after the marbles when they would have been destroyed [by pollution?] had they stayed in Athens.” His vehemence tired him so much that he had to go back to bed. I assumed that this was the line taken by all staff at the time, and daren’t ask about the notorious scrubbing incident that took place while he was a junior in the early 1930s.

Shortly after, Glasgow Museums returned a ghost dance shirt to the Sioux community and my friend, the poet Anna Crowe, wrote a poem on it including the words: “We still believe some form of words, / or ritual will come between / us and another’s anger. Not seeing / that our invisibility’s what’s required.” Those at the British Museum still struggling to retain the Parthenon marbles should take heed.
Margaret Squires
St Andrews, Fife

The Times, 04 December 2021

The Parthenon Gallery in the Acropolis Musem, Athens, Greece.

 George Osborne wrote a Comment piece on page 29 of the Times on Saturday, it was entitled: "It's right to be proud of the British Museum". 

He goes on to ask: "Should we be ashamed of Britain’s past or should we celebrate it?"

He adds: " humans are capable of acts of great kindness and appalling brutality towards one another. The artefacts in the British Museum, with their depictions of love and war, reflect that truth over the course of two million years. It is why they help us understand ourselves better. That was the founding purpose when it was established as the first national public museum of the world in 1753, and it remains the purpose today. It was a product less of the British Empire (which was largely created in the following century) and more of the European Enlightenment."

And he does conceed that much has changed in the last 260 years, praising the 'magnificent Norman Foster roof over the Great Court at the Millennium', which he feels helps the British Museum to confidently call itself “the museum of the world, for the world”.

Although he insists that the British Museum is also 'just a museum', and that it cannot resolve the contractions between the Enlightenment as a western construct and universal human rights, or support those that question the very existence of the British Museum.

"Of course, there are those who demand the return of objects they believe we have no right to hold. That is not new either. Lord Byron thought the Elgin marbles should be back at the Parthenon. Our response is not to be dismissive. We are open to lending our artefacts to anywhere and to who can take good care of them and ensure their safe return — which we do every year, including to Greece."

Sadly he suggests that museums of culture ought not shrink in the face of  'culture wars' - why wars and not cultural cooperation? And that the British Museum needs to tell the story of common humanity. Surely common humanity needs to uphold respect for all countries cultural heritage! 

To read the full article, follow the link to The Times.

UK Ambassador to Greece Matthew Lodge tweeted the link to George Osborne's article in the Times and John Tasioulas, Director, Institute for Ethics in AI, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford and a member of BCRPM, quoted Ambassador Lodge's tweet:

TA NEA, Monday 06 December 2021

Yannis Andritsopulos, UK Correspondent for Ta Nea writes:

Suzman and Cartledge respond to Osborne

Reactions to the statements made by the new Chair of the British Museum on the reunification of the “Elgin Marbles” and their "loan" to Athens

The new Chair of the British Museum, George Osborne, was provocative and uncompromising on the question of the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.

A week after the 'Ta Nea' reported that in a conversation former British Minister, Dennis McShane had with George Osborne, the new Chair of the British Museum rejected any talk of a permanent return of the Sculptures, speaking with "contempt" on the subject. Osborne "struck out once more" on Saturday: in an article in  "The Times" where he calls the Parthenon Sculptures "Elgin Marbles" and suggests that Greece discuss the possibility of borrowing them on the condition that Greece could "take good care of them and ensure their return" to London!"

It should be noted that the term "Elgin Marbles" has been officially abandoned by the British Museum for many years. The Museum now uses the name "Parthenon Sculptures", both in the signage of the hall that houses them (closed for a whole year after a water leak from the roof) and on its website.

"Surely there are those who question our right to exist. They did it in 1753, they do it again in 2021. Of course there are those who demand the return of items that they believe we have no right to possess. This is nothing new either. Lord Byron believed that the Elgin Marbles should return to the Parthenon," George  Osborne wrote in the Times.

And attempting to appear "magnanimous," he adds: "Our response will not be dismissive. We are open to lending items in our collection to anyone who can take good care of them and ensures their safe return - something we do every year, including with Greece," he says, ostentatiously ignoring the request for permanent reunification of the sculptures.

In response to Osborne, the Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Sculptures (BCRPM), Janet Suzmantells 'Ta Nea': "I will remind him that Lord Byron's reputation remains heroic, while that of Lord Elgin is ragged. He cannot present the error as correct in pretending that the return of the Sculptures is a trivial matter. Greece must take them back and place them where they belong: opposite the brightest building in the world from where they were snatched."

Speaking to 'Ta Nea', Cambridge Professor Paul Cartledge, Vice-Chair of the BCRPM noted: "An old joke says: Why is the museum called British, since very few of the 8 miilion objects held by the BM are actually British-made'. Are the exhibits actually British? Is the name, British Imperial War Museum more accurate? The time has come for the Sculptures to return permanently to their home."

This is not the first time that Britain has proposed to lend Greece the Parthenon Sculptures. In the exclusive interview with 'Ta Nea' in January 2019, the director of the British Museum, Hartwig Fischer, said that Greece could borrow the "Marbles" for a limited period of time ("there are no indefinite loans", he explained at that time), but if Greece accepts that they belong to the Britain ("we lend to those who recognize the ownershiop as belonging to the British Museum ").

Almost 15 years earlier, in April 2007, his predecessor Neil McGregor said that lending the "Marbles" "for three months, six months" would be possible if Greece recognized the British Museum as the legal owner.

Essentially, what they are asking of Greece is to give up its claim to the Sculptures, "renouncing" its long-standing position (recently reiterated by Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Lina Mendoni) that they are stolen.

The British Government is demanding the same. In August 2018, in a letter from Culture Minister Jeremy Wright to his Greek counterpart Myrsini Zorba, published by 'Ta Nea', the British minister made it clear that "the museum's commissioners will consider any request for lending and, subsequently, returning any part of the collection, provided that the institution requesting the loan recognises the British Museum as the owner".

As is well known, Greece cannot accept Britain's ownership of the Sculptures, and will not agree to a loan as long as this condition is set.

Osborne was elected Chair of the Museum in the summer and assumed the post in October. After his ministerial tenure (2010-2016) he assumed the duties of director of the newspaper "Evening Standard" and advisor to the capital management giant BlackRock and investment bank Robey Warshaw.

In his article titled "It is right to be proud of the British Museum", he writes that "we do not feel ashamed of the exhibits in our collection" (some of which were controversially acquired during the colonial period and claimed as stolen by various states), since, as he also states, "we remain one of the few places on Earth where you can admire under one roof, the great civilizations of the world."

To read the Ta Nea article online follow the link here. 

It’s a bit disappointing that such a factually doubtful argument is sketched in by Jonathan Sumption about the Parthenon marbles, in complete contrast to his nice assessment of the travails of English National Opera, where a grossly unfair and skinflinty case has been put by ACE in wrenching this marvellous opera organisation limb from limb.

These scupltures were removed without express permission from the occupying power by Lord Elgin, Britain’s ambassador to the Ottoman court, who wanted them to adorn his Scottish pile. The museum in Athens which Sumption airily dismisses was expressly built to house them, is gloriously modern, and is directly opposite the Parthenon so the visitor will at long last be able to make visual sense of where the figures stood before being hacked off the building by Elgin’s clumsy workers.

UNESCOhas voted as one to have them returned to their home turf. The Hellenic Republic itself has committed to have them returned the moment it gained its independence from Ottoman rule. Nor can the British Museum claim to have cared for them with curatorial exactitude; in Duveen’s day they had them scrubbed with wire cleaners to restore ‘whiteness’ to the Pentelic marble thereby removing the precious patina that had protected them.

Besides that destructive gaffe, Room 18 leaks and had been closed for a year and it has no air conditioning so cold and heat are always wafting through these rooms. And by the bye, there are far more than just 'three sadly deteriorated panels' in that Acropolis Museum, there is also the other half of the matchless pedimental figures and they deserve to be seen as a whole. Not to mention the frieze and the metopes. 

As to the hysterical slippery slope scenario that Jonathan Sumption fears, the Greeks are not asking for a single piece bar the British Museum’s ill-gotten Parthenon marbles. I don’t know what special hot-line he might have to lament the loss of all the world treasures he cites, but apart from the Benin Bronzes, Rosetta Stone, Hoa Hakananai'a,  we have not heard of any decimatory demands from elsewhere. Those museums that have opted to return seminal cultural objects taken in colonial days will have shown an openness of mind that the BM might well emulate in this instance.

I suggest former Judge Jonathan Sumption sticks to opera as his pet subject, and leaves Greek sculpture to its own battles.

+ PS: London: the British Museum displays around half of the surviving works: 56 blocks of frieze (247ft), 15 metopes (panels) and 17 pediment figures.
Athens: the Acropolis Museum displays 40 blocks of frieze, 48 metopes and 9 pediment figures. Fragments from the same pieces are in London and Athens. One can’t help wondering if Jonathan Sumption would perhaps enjoy his Rheingold more if he watched the first half in London and flew to Bayreuth during the long interval for the second bit?

Jonathan Sumptions article ( 'The cringing self-abasement of Britain’s museums') was published in The Spectator on 25 February 2023. Janet Suzman's response was sent into the publication to both the letters section and editorial. No part of Janet's response was published.

“Friendship seems to hold states together, and lawgivers care more for it than for justice; … and when men are friends they have no need of justice, while when they are just they need friendship as well, and the truest form of justice is thought to be a friendly quality.” Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII, Ch 1.

Greece has been friends with the people of the United Kingdom for centuries, through good times and bad.

In October 1940, when Mussolini sought to occupy strategic Greek sites, the Greek Prime Minister (even though he was not democratically elected) simply declared, "Ohi!" ("No!") and Greece became the only European country that did not capitulate to the Italian fascists and the German Nazis.

Inspired by the Greek resistance, Churchill said “Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks!”

On being asked in Parliament during the war whether it would consider returning the Parthenon marbles to Greece as a gift in exchange for its loyal bravery, the British Foreign Office conducted an in-depth process of consultation that received positive answers from all involved, including the British Museum itself. The Museum conceded that “the Greeks regard it as a spoliation of their national heritage under Turkish tyranny” and that “the point is that the Acropolis of Athens is the greatest national monument of Greece, and that the buildings to which the Marbles belonged are still standing or have been rebuilt”. The relevant official in the Foreign Office, however, felt that the matter would best be deferred for further consideration until the end of the war, when transport would be safer and the return “would set the seal on Anglo-Greek friendship and collaboration in the way that would most appeal … to Greek patriotic sentiment”.

The long history of friendship and good feeling in Britain towards the cause of the reunification of the marbles is demonstrated by the many British scholars, writers and intellectuals who have made public statements in support of the cause, the most notable being Lord Byron. The BCRPM is continuing a long and honourable philhellenic tradition in seeking to encourage the Aristotelean idea of a just and friendly act: for the return to Athens of the Parthenon Marbles would be just that. It is time.

Jane Suzman

Chair, British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles

25 June 2020

From Janet Suzman
Chair: British Committee for the Reunification
of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM)
1st January 2024

It really is very dispiriting that eminences like Lord Sumption (Sunday Times Dec 31st 2023) still make so many wrong assumptions. (Sorry). Here are some of them:

He fails to find a difference between a bas relief (the frieze, running round the perimeter of the building) and the 3D sculptures (metopes and pedimental figures). He can’t see why those pedimental figures make a stunning triangular pedimental shape when placed together, quite lost by enforced separation. The half of the extant frieze not in Bloomsbury is in Athens.

He avers that Lord Elgin obtained a ‘decree from the sultan authorising him to remove the sculptures.’ No such document has ever been found, only a permit (a ‘firman’) from a high official in Constantinople allowing him to retrieve ‘qualche pezzi di pietra’ already fallen down (it is an Italian copy) and to make drawings of pieces out of reach. Elgin, who kept a careful record of his expenses, bribed functionaries at every level to turn a blind eye to his crude attack on an already fragile building. Tourists reported shocking falls of precious metopes and such smashing to pieces, and a disdar – a guard at the time – was described as weeping at the mayhem inflicted on the building.

Elgin commandeered a ship of the line to transport his booty to Britain – so, taxpayers’ money – and had every intention of displaying the pieces at Broomhill, his Scottish seat, and none of sharing them with the public. Only when bankrupted after his rich wife left him did he turn to the British Government for a hasty sale.

Yet what’s done cannot be undone, and what matters now is a solution to a modern moral maze and not an old blame-game. And yet, Lord Sumption widens his argument to justify how artifacts have always voyaged to distant lands for our enlightenment. But this avoids the point; these Parthenon Marbles are sui generis. Elgin took far more than those cut off the Parthenon, but Greece is not asking for the caryatid he stole from the Erechtheum, nor is it asking for the Winged Victory of Samothrace from the Louvre.

In 2019 at a conference in Athens, I was invited into the then President’s rooms in his official residence where he took care to explain to me that Greece is proud that Hellenic pieces are in the Louvre (apart from Parthenon pieces…) and proud that around the world Greece’s treasures are displayed. “Let me be clear: we want only those pieces that Elgin took off the Parthenon itself”, he told me. The Greeks first claimed those Marbles when it was freed of Ottoman rule and became the Hellenic Republic in the 1830s. Melina Mercouri cast a spotlight on that claim in the 1980’s. Boris Johnson, when he was still an honest scholar, wrote a spirited article for the Oxford Union paper pleading for their return to the land of Achilles. The world is today more aware of cultural plunder than during colonial times. The British Museum is the only major museum in the world staying silent about its often ill-gotten contents. All of UNESCO is aware of this silence and is finding it embarrassing.

Sumption seems unmoved that panels from Duccio’s altarpiece are divided between nine museums, as if it might be diminished in some way were the whole to be displayed as Duccio intended. That altarpiece is a separate inspiration, whereas the Parthenon marbles are part of the very fabric of the building; it is one thing, conceived and carved as one thing. Alexander Herman (‘The Parthenon Marbles Dispute; Heritage, Law, Politics’ – Hart, Bloomsbury, 2023) makes this point: ‘Because we live in democratic times, we tend to have a predilection for remnants that connect us to the Athenian prototype. For this reason the Parthenon as a symbol continues to dominate’.

After two hundred years in London and badly displayed in a grey gallery in Bloomsbury since the 1960s, the Marbles have done their work of enlightening Europe to the glories of the ancient world. The United Kingdom is second to none in classical scholarship; the British Museum has millions of other ancient artifacts in its collections, and wonderful objects are promised for exhibition by the Greeks themselves to compensate for the (inevitable) return. George Osborne, Chairman of the BM Trustees, is embarking on an important act of international co-operation.

As to numbers, only one sixth of the 6 million annual visitors that enter its portals visit the Duveen Galleries. Approximately that same number passes through the Acropolis Museum in Athens, and why, one wonders, should not a Greek child be as astounded as a British one at the god-like figures caught in a high wind off Mount Olympus, and be as proud as Punch that his distant ancestors were so utterly brilliant with white stone? Why should the Greek people not thrill to such visions? They might be as far down the line as the Druids are to the English, but just listen to the fuss if half of Stonehenge had been nicked and plonked in Potsdamerplatz.

To read Lord Sumption's article, 'The Elgin Marbles weren’t stolen — Greece is just exploiting our weakness' follow the link to The Times.

A trustee of the British Museum has confirmed the institution is in talks with the Greek government about the disposition of the Parthenon Marbles, but has told Al Jazeera that a deal may be elusive.

“There is certainly movement, but it is being overhyped,” said Mary Beard, professor of classics at Cambridge University and a trustee since 2020.

“I think something is really happening … There have been discussions between [board of trustees chair] George Osborne and [Greek premier] Kyriakos Mitsotakis,” she told Al Jazeera.

“There is real desire to do something. After 200 years, surely we can get somewhere better than where we are,” Beard said. “Is the problem going to be resolved? I’m not sure.”

Read the artucle aptly entitled: "Rumours of Parthenon Marbles’ return ‘overhyped’, experts say"

The British Museum claims Elgin “was granted a permit” to “draw, measure and remove figures”. But critics say he stretched that to remove far more than was intended.

“Among the bribes Elgin is known to have given is 100 pounds to the Kaimacam [district governor] in Constantinople to release the second shipment [of Marbles], and an amount to the Disdar [fortress commander] in Athens equal to 35 times his annual salary. Elgin documented all expenditures because he was financed by his in-laws,” said Elena Korka.

 An Economist survey in 2000 found that two-thirds of British MPs would vote for the Marbles’ return if a motion were tabled.

A Sunday Times survey in August 2022 found that 78 percent of Britons would return the Marbles, and a poll this month by the Evening Standard found a clear majority of 53 percent of Britons favouring their return – more than the majority that voted for Brexit.

“There’s a very important change in the UK in public opinion and individuals who have an opinion on the matter, from the entire political spectrum, who now openly argue in favour of the marbles’ reunification, recognising their uniqueness,” said Mitsotakis.

We would add that public opinion has always favoured the reunification, especially amongst those that were told the whole story about the Parthenon Marbles removal at the start of the 19th century, by Lord Elgin. What has changed is museums around the world entering into talks between on the matter of returns and restitution of artefacts to their countries of origin. Museums are listening to what their publics want to see, and are looking to the future. 

Jonathan Sumption dismisses any questions that might arise about Lord Elgin's legal title to the sculptures removed from the Partheon at the start of the 18th century. His article 'The Elgin Marbles weren’t stolen — Greece is just exploiting our weakness' (thetimes.co.uk) goes on to state:  

"For most people, however, the issue is moral and cultural, not legal. So be it. What would be morally or culturally admirable about removing the Elgin Marbles from a museum in London to a museum in Athens?

Cultural artefacts have always moved around the world."

To read, BCRPM's Chair, Janet Suzman's response to Jonathan Sumption, please follow the link here. 

Christopher Price, long servicing Vice -Chair of BCRPM, wrote extensively on the merits of cultural mobility, and yet when it came to the Parthenon Marbles, he would have argued that they deserve, (those that survive), to be seen in the context of the Parthenon. An iconic structure, which not only stands, and has been restored and preserved for all humanity, but one that crowns the Acropolis. The emblem of UNESCO.

Jonathan Sumption goes on to list fragments of the sculptures from the Parthenon elsewhere: 'Paris, Vienna, Copenhagen' yet forgets to mention those museums that did have fragments, and that have returned them to be reunited in the Parthenon Gallery of the Acropolis Museum. Those frafments include returns from Heidelberg, Palermoand The Vatican. 

BCRPM agrees wholeheartedly that the Parthenon Marbles, culturally have a great significance for all humanity, yet is right for the UK and the British Museum to dicate how that cultural patrimony ought to be exhibited and understood, even appreciated by all humanity, especially as the removal of the pieces still in London took place when Greece had no voice?

Even without the sculptures in Room 18, the British Museum would still retain its status as a universal museum. In fact it would be elevated even further. For it is cultural co-operation in the 21st century that matters to most. Any references to cultural dispute sound so out of step, and look at the reaction at UNESCO's ICPRCP sessions especially towards the UK and in relation to this impasse. Culture matters, and it matters globally. In the case of this very specific request, Greece's ask is wholly justified. BCRPM's founders, with past and present members, stand by this, as do many all over the world.

Jonathan Sumption goes on to write: "Let no one say that the return of the marbles would set no precedent. The world is watching this dispute.This is a fight that we cannot afford to lose, and certainly cannot afford to concede." And yet again, this is misleading. No mention of the fact that in the British Museum there are 108,184 Greek artefacts, of which only 6,493 are even on display. Or that this is the ONLY request made by Greece since independence, and continues to be the only request made to this day.

The world is watching but only in astonishment at the UK's lack of that very British sense of fairplay. Dare we add, diplomacy and regard for international relations too? How can we forget PM Sunak's decision not to meet with PM Mitsotakis in November? Will any Greek person, or anyone around the globe, forget that snub? Many however, were in admiration of King Charles' tie, worn at COP28, when he met with PM Sunak. The message? Not all world leaders behave like a Head Boy that's not prepared to do more than cancell a pre-arranged meeting that covered timely topics including the continued division of these specific sculptures. 

"The Greeks are pressing their claim because they sense weakness. Since it was first formally advanced in 1983, they have skilfully exploited the relentless denigration of Britain’s past.They calculate that modern Britain lacks the self-confidence to defend itself. Are they right? The present negotiations implicitly concede that they may be.

Rishi Sunak should probably not have rudely cancelled his meeting with the Greek prime minister. But his statement that it should be unthinkable for any responsible British prime minister to contemplate ceding possession of the Elgin Marbles showed a sounder instinct than George Osborne’s." Concludes Jonathan Sumption.

The first request for the return of the sculptures removed only from the Parthenon, came shortly after Greece gained independence. Jonathan Sumption's reference to 1983 is the plea made by Melina Mercouri at UNESCO and that was the year that BCRPM was founded, nearly 150 years after the first request. Repeated requests made by Greece for these specific sculptures. So many have worked on the ways that would make the reunification work, and continue to provide the British Museum with artefacts not seen outside of Greece. For the last 23 years the offer of 'other artefacts' to be made available to the UK, has been on the table too.

Many have voiced their concerns at the UK's lack of empathy or understanding. Polls continue to support the reunification, yet few voices, including Jonathan Sumption continue to justify the division of this peerless collecion of sculptures. BCRPM continues to also add: the time has come to do the right thing by the Parthenon, and to add another chapter to the story of these priceless artefacts. Tell the story. 

Josh Murfitt is a photographer based in Edinburgh, specialising in fine art and cultural heritage photography and digitisation. In 2019 for his MA in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism at the University of Westminster, Josh created a photomontage aptly entitled 'A Creative Act'. At that time, Josh had been working in a museum part-time for around 4 years, and had become interested in the discourse surrounding historic museum collections, including the restitution of some cultural artefacts held in British museums. The case of the Parthenon marbles was (and still is), one of the most publicised of these.

Josh's photomontage works are based around the Parthenon sculptures in their current display setting at the British Museum, considering the history of their removal from Athens and the political and moral issues surrounding this. To make these works, Josh combined vintage tourist postcards showing scenes from the Acropolis with his own photographs made inside the Duveen Gallery, Room 18, at the British Museum. Whilst it directly references the case of the Parthenon sculptures, the series can be related to wider debates around museum collections, restitution, and legacies of the British Empire in that context.

North Frieze

Hermes

Selene

Explore more of Josh's exceptional work by visiting https://www.joshmurfitt.co.uk/ 

 Yannis Andritsopoulos, London Correspondent for Ta Nea, Greece's daily newspaper visited the Tate Reading Rooms to see Kenneth Clark's original letter.

Kenneth Clark, a British art historian and Trustee of the British Museum, was in favour of the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece in the 1940s, it can be revealed.

Ta Nea, Greece’s daily newspaper, has seen and photographed a letter written by Clark in which he states explicitly that the so-called 'Elgin Marbles' should be sent back to Athens, with the aim of reuniting them with the rest of the Parthenon sculptures in one place.

"I am, quite irrationally, in favour of returning the Elgin marbles to Greece, not to be put back on the Parthenon, but to be installed in a beautiful building on the far side of the Acropolis, which I think the British Government should pay for. I would do this purely on sentimental grounds, as an expression of our indebtedness to Greece," the letter reads.

Clark wrote this letter on 3rd September, 1943. He sent it to Thomas Bodkin, then director of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and Barber Professor of Fine Art at the University of Birmingham. At the time, Clark was Director of the National Gallery. His letter is currently kept in Tate Britain.

This is the only time that a British Museum Trustee has gone on record as being openly in favour of the Parthenon Sculptures’ reunification, a view standing in stark contrast to the position of the British Museum that the Elgin marbles should stay in London.

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos told Ta Nea: “The request for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures had found, since 1943, an "unexpected" ally in Lord Kenneth Clark, who is included among the most important 20th-century art historians and who, in this capacity, participated in the administration of the most relevant British Institutions, such as the British Museum, the National Gallery, the National Theatre, the Royal Opera House.”

“This example clearly evinces the gentility and nobility of Kenneth Clark’s character as well as the strength and conviction of his ‘cultural morality’. These elements, in conjunction with the expression of his respect for the World Cultural Heritage and the roots of our Civilisation, make him a great representative of Britain’s tradition. Clark’s case also evinces how "miserable" and completely unworthy of Britain's tradition as outlined above is the attitude of the British Museum's officials today, who thus end up appearing inferior to the circumstances and the necessities pertaining to the defence of World Cultural Heritage and our common Civilisation and, furthermore, unrepentant accomplices of Elgin's cultural crime,” Pavlopoulos added.

Professor Anthony Snodgrass

“Kenneth Clark’s (slightly unexpected) support, for a position now widely held in the U.K., is one pleasant revelation. More important, however, is his perceptive emphasis on the need for separate solutions to individual cases; and, yet more striking, the uncanny accuracy of his prediction, for the Marbles “to be installed in a beautiful building on the far [that is, South] side of the Acropolis”,” said Professor Anthony Snodgrass, Emeritus Professor in Classical Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, Honorary President of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

“More than sixty-five years later, the greater part of this prophecy was to be precisely fulfilled; it only remains for the natural sequel, the 'reintegration' of the Marbles, to be enacted too," he added.

Professor Judith Herrin

“How splendid that Kenneth Clark's 1943 vision of the reunited Parthenon marbles has been perfectly realised in the New Acropolis Museum,” said Professor Judith Herrin, Constantine Leventis Senior Research Fellow Emeritus at King's College London, and one of the longest serving members of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

“On 20th June the superlative Acropolis Museumwill celebrate its 10th anniversary, having welcomed over 14 million visitors from all over the world and one can but imagine how elated Kenneth Clark would have been. Not only to see the top floor of the museum, the Parthenon Gallery but also the floors below and the opening of the area that has been painstakingly excavated to reveal 4,000 metres of homes, workshops, baths – an entire Athenian neighbourhood that existed from classical to byzantine years. What a pity that he is not alive to physically see all this and yet he too would have continued to have added his voice to the reunification of the Parthenon marbles. Britain has not paid for this museum and yet what is still missing are the many pieces that Lord Elgin so crudely removed from a building, currently displayed in the British Museum, the wrong way around, miles away from their other halves. Here’s to the day when they can be reunited in Athens and with views to the Parthenon, which still stands,” she added.

The Parthenon Sculptures have been displayed in the British Museum since 1817. They were removed from the Acropolis in Athens in the early 19th century by British diplomat Lord Elgin. Greece has challenged claims by the British Museum that Lord Elgin had obtained permission to transfer the Marbles from Athens to London and has demanded Britain open negotiations over their return.

Kenneth Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. He was the National Gallery’s youngest ever Director. He achieved international fame as the writer, producer and presenter of the BBC Television series Civilisation.

Published in Ta Nea, Greece’s daily newspaper (www.tanea.gr)  . To read the origial article , follow the link here. 

Publication date: 14 June 2019

King’s Classics Department is hosting a competition to produce creative writing pieces of audio description (AD) that describe the Parthenon Marbles/ Sculptures exhibited at the British Museum.

The competition is open to King's students of all levels from all Faculties.

Entries can consider the whole of the Parthenon Marbles/ Sculptures, individual monuments, or anything in between. Inspiration could include helping someone visualise the sculptures, providing a historical or interpretive overview, or sharing a subjective response to the artwork.

Judges for this year’s contest are:

Tom Harrison (Keeper of the Department of Greece and Rome, British Museum)
Sarah Howe (Lecturer in Poetry, King’s College London)
Jonny Marshall(blind art lover and Research Officer, Royal National Institute of Blind People)
Jaime Prada(Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager, British Museum)
Will Wootton (Reader in Classical Art and Archaeology, King’s College London)

The deadline for submission is Wednesday 03 April 2024, and winners will be announced in early summer 2024.

For more information visit King's College London, news.

Yesterday, I spoke to British artist Tomas Watson, whose new exhibition of artwork, entitled: Kormos: Form and Transformation begins today in Sigri, on the island of Lesvos.

For Tomas, the Greek word "kormos" in the exhibition title carries significance as it is used here to mean “trunk, torso, and core". Whilst "trunk" in English has narrower meaning, for this purpose “kormos” captures more than one aspect of a physical form.

A former student of The Slade School of Fine Art, Tomas received a Greek government scholarship to come and paint in Greece and has been living there since 1994. “What drew me to Greece was the light.” he explains. He has lived in Athens, the islands of Astypalaia, Andros, and Lesvos, where he runs the painting and creative writing retreat, he recently founded with his partner the writer, Efrosini Camatsos.

In 1998, Tomas received the BP award for a self-portrait and composition set within a colourful Dodecanese kitchen on the island of Nisyros, where he was staying at the time.

On the back of his BP win, a portrait of the novelist and philhellene John Robert Fowles was commissioned and put on show at London’s National Portrait Gallery in 2001.

Tomas remembers the sitting well, “I happened to be reading The Magus, which moved me. He was always jotting notes in his little notebook whilst I was painting him, and sometimes would doze off. One of these times, his notebook fell off his lap, and as I picked it up, I saw he had been writing about me: “T.W.: your dark eyes, cautious to comment.””

Tomas’s aim for the current show is for it to travel, to be seen widely in Athens and beyond.

The show consists of forty-one works. It ranges from drawings in charcoal, ink, pencil, and gouache, etchings, and collage, to oil on canvas. The smallest work is 24 x 30 cm, and the largest 150 x 200 cm. Eighteen of the forty-one works are of the Parthenon Marbles.

“The images have been arranged to create dialogue between differing forms,” he says.

The painting of Hermes (figure H, west pediment) hangs next to a painting he made of a male torso from a live model in a similar position to the statue and is next to an ink drawing of a petrified trunk.

The rising goddess painting (figure K, east pediment) has been placed next to a painting of a seated woman in rich drapery. 

On the inspiration behind these artworks, he further explains:

“I happened to be in London for three weeks in February 2020 and decided as I couldn't work in the house I was staying in, I would draw from sculptures in museums, as I used to do when a student at The Slade. I started with the Horse of Selene and continued with several of the Parthenon Sculptures. I photographed the sculptures which interested me visually, then, Covid hit, and I had to return to Greece. 

During the severe lockdown that followed, I continued working on the studies I had started in charcoal, gouache, and tempera, and also began much larger works in oil on canvas or linen. Initially, what drove me to do this was a need to return to an aesthetic, which has been buried under the weight of uninspiring contemporary art, but which I feel is becoming more valid and needed.

While doing these pieces over a period of two years, it became clear to me that in my own small way, as a British artist and in a symbolic sense, I was "returning" the marbles to Greece.

My work throughout my career has largely been based on the human figure. I have always painted human bodies; however, not in their entirety. I have concentrated on the part that I am particularly interested in – the torso, the back, shoulders, and often in the form of studies or fragments. So, when the Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest approached me to do an exhibition, the theme organically came about. Whether it is petrified trunks of trees, fragmented torsos of marble sculptures, or my own studies from live human models, I found that I treated the subject in the same manner.”

To view the exhibition brochure, follow the link here.

Tomas Watson is represented by London’s Jill George Galleryand Accesso Galleria, Tuscany.

Kormos: Form and Transformation opens August 26, 2022, at the Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest.

For details, visit lesvosmuseum.gr

For information about the retreat, visit sigriartsretreat.com

Interview by Christina Borg for BCRPM

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