Founders Message
In my first trip to Europe, in 1976, I noticed so many wonderful Greek antiquities in the various national museums.…
16 January 2022
Χαμόγελα αισιοδοξίας – Θετικό κλίμα για την επιστροφή των Γλυπτών του Παρθενώνα
[Smiles of optimism – Positive climate for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures]
Prof. Louis Godart, honorary president of IARPS and chair of the Italian Committee, and Prof. Paul Cartledge, vice president of IARPS and vice chair of BCRPM, talk to Real News, explaining why the article in The Times of London constitutes a boundary-mark in the campaign for the repatriation of the classical masterpieces.
At the beginning of 2022, there are enough reasons to look at the future with optimism, they say, while Dr Lina Mendoni explains the policy of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports.
Source: Real News
18 January 2022
Greece to step up Parthenon marbles pressure amid signs tide is turning
Campaign for British Museum to return antiquities boosted by support from The Times newspaper.
Source: The Guardian
29 January 2022
Marianna V. Vardinoyannis, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador: ‘Just a little more – Let us rise just a little higher’
“ … The dismemberment of this global monument-symbol remains an open wound, a deep wound, a pressing debt, and a pending moral issue, not towards our country and Greek civilization, but towards our global civilization as a whole. … This unique power and the very substance of the monument show us the path we must follow: the path of Dialogue. … All of us must continue the struggle. History has shown that each smaller or greater contribution, every effort has played a role in moving things a little further along, making international public opinion understand that these Sculptures are not just exhibits in a museum. The Sculptures are Greece, … they form part of one of the largest monuments of humanity.”
Source: The National Herald
2 February 2022
Writer Bruce Clark unpicks the dubious legality of Lord Elgin’s removal of the Parthenon Sculptures: Treachery, subterfuge and “a steady flow of bribes”.
Source: Greece is
4 February 2022
Paul Cartledge; vice president of IARPS and of the BCRPM, writes on the distinction between the exhibition “Ancient Greeks: Athletes, warriors & heroes” from the British Museum, now showing at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, and the British Museum’s controversial hold over the Parthenon Marbles.
Source: Neos Kosmos
5 February 2022
Repatriating spoils of empire is suck in all manner of legal and historical impasses that preserve the status quo.
An opinion-ed by Charlotte Higgins, the Guardian’s chief culture writer.
Source: The Guardian
6 February 2022
La question des marbres du Parthénon, sur l’Acropole d’Athènes, qui se trouvent au British Museum, à Londres, devient de plus en plus actuelle et épineuse pour les autorités britanniques. A mesure que la vague des restitutions et des échanges s’intensifie, elle conduit tous les pays qui détiennent des fragments du Parthénon à les offrir au Musée de l’Acropole, lequel, selon tous ceux qui l’ont visité, est un des plus beaux musées spécialisés au monde.
Co-signent : Hélène Ahrweiler, Louis Godart, François Roelants du Vivier, Dusan Sidjanski, Christiane Tytgat et Patricia van Gene-Saillet.
Source: Tribune Collectif – Le Monde
8 February 2022
Interview by Irina Korobina, president of the Russian Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.
Source: Greek City Times
8 February 2022
The House of Lords discuss Boris Johnson’s article he wrote, as a student, in 1986 and where he argued in favour of the return to Greece of the stolen Parthenon marbles., even showing the way to the way to do so.
Lord Dubs asks explicitly for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, with other voices joining his too.
The debate brings nothing new: the Lords repeated their well known stance and an amendment of the law that forbids the British Museum to concede artefacts was rejected.
Source: British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM); TA NEA
8 February 2022
The sculptures in the British Museum could be replaced by exact replicas, and it would be fitting to return them to Greece, says Roger Michel, Director of the Institute for Digital Archaeology in Oxford.
Source: The Guardian
9 February 2022
See the Extra edition of the IARPS Newsletter on this significant event.
The statue of Athena from the Acropolis Museum (inv. Acr. 3027) is placed in the emblematic archaic sculptures gallery of the Regional Archaeological Museum Antonino Salinas in Palermo, Sicily, for four years, to be replaced later on by a geometric vase.
This is a happy ending, for the moment, of months long negotiations between Greece and Sicily. Celebrations started on 10 January 2022 with the return of the “Fagan fragment” for at least eight years, from the Antonino Salinas Museum in Palermo to the Acropolis Museum in Athens.
To watch the video of the ceremony, use the link:
VIDEO | Dall’acropoli di Atene al museo Salinas, arriva a Palermo la …
Source: Press Office Ministry of Culture and Sports, Greece; Press Office Acroplis Museum; The National Herald
11 February 2022
During the cordial meeting the Italian Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini announced the intention of the Ministry of Italian Culture to support a quick procedure for a permanent return to Greece of the “Fagan” fragment. The restitution may take place as a result of the inter-institutional procedure, started at the request of the Sicily Region and that will be defined in the Committee for the Recovery and Return of Cultural Goods established at the MiC. Minister Franceschini has underlined the importance of this gesture which reiterates the excellent bilateral relationship between Italy and Greece and the community of views regarding the international protection of historical-artistic heritage. Franceschini told Mendoni: “we will always support the restitution of the Parthenon Sculptures”.
Source: Ministerio della Cultura
12 February 2022
Experts as Mark Stephens, leading cultural property lawyer, and Alexander Herman, Director of the UK -based Institute of Art and Law, believe that the British Museum has made a “massive shift” in its policy regarding the loaning of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, possibly opening the way for the first constructive discussions on the artefacts’ return after decades of dead-ends.
Read also the opinions on the issue expressed by Prof. Cartledge (vice president IARPS and vice chair BCRPM), Dame Janet Suzman (chair BCRPM) and Marlen Godwin (International Relations Officer BCRPM).
Source: TA NEA
12 February 2022
The struggle for the Parthenon marbles between Greece and Britain has placed Britain outside the mainstream when it comes to restitution in art and Brexit, naturally, has played a role.
Prof. Nikos Stampolidis, General Director of the Acropolis Museum, talking on the Parthenon Sculptures with Phoebe Greenwood.
Source: The Currency News
14 February 2022
How 3D printing could allow the marbles to return to Athens
The Times view on replacing the Elgin Marbles: Greek gifts.
Source: The Times
15 February 2022
A Greek Member of the European Parliament wants her colleagues to back Greece’s renewed call for the British Museum to return the Parthenon Marbles stolen mare than 200 years ago.
Source: The National Herald
18 February 2022
Dame Janet Suzman, chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM), on the originals and the perfect replicas.
Source: British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM) website
22 February 2022
Kostantinos Tassoulas, Greece’s parliamentary spokesman, opinion on The Times’ U-turn on the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Athens.
Source: Ekathimerini
22 February 2022
… “If I was not optimistic, would I work so hard for the reunion of the Sculptures? For the first time in almost five decades, so much pressure is being exerted on the UK. The international climate is extremely positive for Greece, for our legal and moral request that the Parthenon, the symbol of Western Civilization and Democracy, must acquire its integrity.
On the operating model of the Acropolis Museum as a guide for the other major museums in the country:
“We are currently undergoing a major reform in the institutional framework of the five major museums, so that they cease to be services of the Ministry of Culture with administrative and financial rigidities and function as Legal Entities under Public Law always supervised by the Ministry of Culture with greater administrative autonomy and flexibility, following the practice of the Acropolis Museum.”
Source: The National Herald
23 February 2022
The Acropolis Museum, in collaboration with the Acropolis Restoration Service (YSMA) and the National Center for Documentation & Electronic Content, presents a modern way of exploring the complete synthesisof the Parthenon frieze through the web application. Explore the Parthenon frieze stone by stone or through its thematic units. This application gathers photographs and descriptions of all the frieze blocs preserved today in Greece and abroad. Both the general public and
experts have the opportunity to discover the whole synthesis of this unique sculptural work of art.
Source: Acropolis Museum website
Edited by Dr Kris Tytgat, President of IARPS
