Supporters

Since the British Committee renewed the campaign to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, opinion has grown in favour of our contention that all the displaced parts of this unique monument should be preserved where it is - in Athens. Below are a selection of supportive views:

The British Museum could become a truly moral, world Museum of the 21st century, recognising that Athens, having built a home for the Parthenon sculptures, is worthy of exhibiting the surviving fragmented pieces in the Acropolis Museum.

It would be a good thing if the British Museum gave the 2,500-year-old sculptures back to Greece. Even in England the polling is in favour of returning the marbles.

Where is that firman? (the Ottoman document used by Elgin as the basis of proving the supposed legality of the Marbles’ removal) Does it exist? Recognising that what you did in the past isn't always the right thing for the present. You can't justify something now with what took place 200 years ago.

It is remarkable that the British side continues to advance the British Museum's deliberate, if not abusive, argument that 'it holds the Parthenon Marbles for humanity', thus trying to justify an absolutely wrong doing as a demonstration of its commitment to humanity's culture. Ιt should also be underlined that the stance of praising the grandeur and the legacy of the Greek civilization (as the British Museum does during its exhibitions, when it exposes part of the Parthenon Sculptures together with other exhibits or borrows part of them to foreign museums), while at the same time refusing to let the Greeks have their cultural treasures back, incoherent and problematic as is, can not but deceive the public opinion in the UK and all over the world.

The Parthenon marbles, under the Greek light, are an integral part of Athena's temple, still standing, encircled by the remarkable array of monuments - hallmarks of justice (the Areopagos), art (theatre of Dionysus), learning (Hadrian's library), and democracy (the Agora) - are enduring symbols of our western civilization. Ripped out of their context and set in the Bloomsbury gloom they are a sad symbol of pillage, war and colonialism.

The Parthenon Gallery in the New Acropolis Museum provides a sweep of contiguous space for the 160-metre-long Panathenaic Procession as it never could be seen anywhere else, facing the Parthenon itself high on the Sacred Rock. But there are gaps in their magnificent frieze, left blank. They are there to be filled by an honourable return of the missing parts from the British Museum. Reverence - and justice - demand this.

Cultural heritage should refer to those objects which are of central significance and vital importance to the sense of identity and dignity of any human group and whose removal by force or deception or even ignorance could cause great sorrow, pain and outrage to people who believe such objects belong to them as an integral and essential part of their history and their heritage.

England can take a lead on this kind of thing...."If [the marbles] were all together, the Greeks are nothing but generous – they'd loan it back every once in a while ... like people do with art.

If Lord Elgin decided he wanted to put those marbles in Edinburgh at the museums they would have been back years ago. I have no reservations about what's happening and how it is wrong. And it is theft. And those Elgin Marbles should go back to Greece.

"If it would be me, I would give them back immediately."

Bill Clinton

"The return of the [Parthenon] Marbles should be the goal of all the countries that will participate in the Olympic Games. So by the time the Games are here [Greece], they will be in their rightful place."

Sean Connery

"The only thing British about them is the fact that one of our ambassadors filched them."

Christopher Price

"The Parthenon without the Marbles is like a smile with a tooth missing."

Rt Hon. Neil Kinnock (Former leader of the Labour Party)

"The Parthenon Marbles are a serious matter to Greece... Our relations with democracy in Greece could be greatly improved if the Government could show the intelligence and magnanimity to deal with that matter..."

Rt Hon. Michael Foot (Former leader of the Labour Party)

"The Parthenon and its missing friezes are part of Greece's birthright, a defining symbol of Athens and its democracy."

Karl E. Meyer (New York Times)

Proposed a resolution for the return of the Parthenon Marbles currently being held at the British Museum to Greece. Mr Godart suggested this at the (2-day) conference organised by the Greek Ministry of Culture and UNESCO held in Athens (March 17-18, 2008) entitled 'Return of Cultural Objects to their Countries of Origin'.

Louis Godart (Advisor to the President of the Italian Republic on Culture)

A number of other notable supporters have made their views known. These include (but are not limited to):

    Prince Charles
    Sir John Mortimer CBE, QC
    Lord (Ted) Willis
    C.M. Woodhouse DSO
    Lord Ponsonby
    Spike Milligan
    Judi Dench
    Vanessa Redgrave
    Ian McKellen
    Fiona Shaw
    Joanna Lumley
    Angela Lambert
    Emma Thompson
    Jonathan Dimbleby
    Julie Christie