The fragments of the Parthenon sculptures that are exhibited in the British Museum have made headlines again, after an interview with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in which he expressed his objection to the sculptures’ repatriation. Johnson’s refusal is of little consequence. The sculptures are not the responsibility of the British government but of the Trustees of the British Museum; it is their opinion that counts.

Thirty-eight years after the beginning of systematic efforts for the repatriation of the sculptures, the British Museum’s opposition to the reunification of all the remaining fragments in the Acropolis Museum has no substantial basis, neither moral nor scientific. Since 2009, the Acropolis Museum has been the ideal place for the exhibition of all the sculptures that once decorated the Parthenon. The website of the British Museum gives a shaky justification for the Trustees’ objection to the unification of the Marbles: “The Trustees of the British Museum believe that there’s a great public benefit to seeing the sculptures within the context of the world collection of the British Museum, in order to deepen our understanding of their significance within world cultural history.” In other words, viewing the sculptures of Pheidias along with the sculptures of ancient Egypt or Rapa Nui takes precedence over the integrity of a work of art.

This cannot be taken seriously. Imagine that the score of a lost symphony by Tchaikovsky was found and its sheets were scattered in private collections around the world; and imagine that the collector who is in possession of 60% of the score prefers to have the parts recorded on his sheets performed together with music from the Andes or China, instead of allowing the performance of the entire composition. The argument of the British Museum carries similar weight.

So, why does the British Museum insist on its position? The reason, admitted or not, is simple: If the British Museum were to bring the Parthenon sculptures to Greece in any way that might create any suspicion that they have been in its possession illegally, this would set a precedent and might call into question the legitimacy of its collections that were acquired before the establishment of international legal norms for the protection of antiquities and cultural heritage. This is why the British Museum does not rule out sending the Parthenon sculptures to Athens as a loan, but under one important condition: “that the borrowing institution acknowledges the British Museum’s ownership of the object.” For the British Museum, this is not a whim; it is a matter of survival. All Greek governments have declared that they will never acknowledge that the British Museum is legally in possession of the sculptures. Hence the deadlock.

Can Greece break the deadlock by raising legal claims for the return of the sculptures? Lord Elgin was in possession of an administrative document – a letter from the Kaimakam, superior administrative official of Istanbul, to the Ottoman authorities in Athens – when he removed the sculptures from the Parthenon; however, according to Turkish historians, such an act would have normally required a firman (a royal mandate or decree) from the sultan. Elgin claimed that he had been given a firman, but no such document was ever found. The problem is that when the British Museum acquired the Parthenon sculptures in 1816, following a decision by the British Parliament, there was no international law for the protection of cultural property, no Greek state, and no Greek laws for the protection of antiquities. To submit the matter to a British or an international court means accepting unpredictable risks.

By contrast, things are clear from a moral and scientific point of view. Elgin committed greedy and ruthless looting. Anyone who reads the reports of his agents about the brutal way in which the sculptures were removed from the Parthenon still feels the repulsion and indignation that Lord Byron expressed in his poem after his visit to Athens (1811).

Scaped from the ravage of the Turk and Goth,

Thy country sends a spoiler worse than both.

Survey this vacant, violated fane;

Recount the relics torn that yet remain:

“These” Cecrops placed, “this” Pericles adorned,

“That” Adrian reared when drooping Science mourned.

What more I owe let Gratitude attest –

Know, Alaric and Elgin did the rest.

That all may learn from whence the plunderer came,

The insulted wall sustains his hated name.

For today’s civilized world, it is of no relevance what document Elgin had or did not have in 1801. Today, priority must be given to the restoration of a work of art of emblematic significance to world culture. It is in this spirit that the motto of the international committees for the Parthenon sculptures is “Marbles United,” not “Marbles Returned.”

Given that the legal issue of ownership has not produced – and it is unlikely that it will ever produce – any results, it is time for another approach. The proposal is simple: The Greek Parliament’s Committee on Cultural Affairs should appoint a committee of Greek and foreign experts and generally respected figures who will approach the British Museum not on behalf of the Greek state, but on behalf of the Acropolis Museum, in order to examine the conditions under which the reunion of the sculptures will become possible. Since every Greek government would like to triumph over a success and every opposition would look for reasons to stigmatize the government, this committee should be appointed by an increased majority, in order to have cross-party support. In a period of increasing polarization, it would be a real gift to the Greek citizens to have an atmosphere of cross-party understanding on this issue.

Solutions can be found. For instance, the Collection of Antiquities of the University of Heidelberg was in possession of a small fragment of the Parthenon frieze. In 2006 the university did not “return” but “donated” it to the Acropolis Museum. The act of donation – the transfer of ownership from one museum to another – freed the university from any suspicion of illegality, and the fragment found its place in the frieze. There is a difference between a government’s claim for the return of stolen property and and a committee’s efforts to restore for all humanity a monument of universal importance. By shifting the focus from law to culture and from a dispute between a state and a museum to a cooperation between two museums, a new dynamic can be created. Otherwise, Greece will continue to have the right on its side and the British Museum the sculptures in its rooms.

Angelos Chaniotis is professor of ancient history and Classics at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, NJ.

British Government 

Congratulations to Mrs Vardinoyannis for her comprehensive article on the overall issue of the divided sculptures from the Parthenon and for her contribution to this noble cause. Among other things, her article published in VIMAGAZINO and other outlets, highlights the importance of the recent ICPRCP Committee’s emblematic Decision which recognized for the first time the intergovernmental character of the difference over the Parthenon Sculptures and its adoption, is due to the hard work of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with the Greek Culture Ministry.

“JUST A LITTLE MORE, LET US RISE JUST A LITTLE HIGHER”

article by Marianna V. Vardinoyannis, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador

Published in VIMAGAZINO, January 2022

“All the electric lights won’t stop them from constantly seeking the sweet light of Homer,” renowned French sculptor Auguste Rodin said to Angelos Sikelianos upon seeing the Sculptures “imprisoned” in a dark hall of the British Museum. And he was absolutely right.

Greece is the homeland of the Parthenon Sculptures, Athens is their birthplace, and Greek light is the only light that can bring out their greatness. Only bathed in Greek light can these wonderful creations of human civilization, and, of course, only intact in their entirety, shine and transmit throughout the world the fundamental universal human principles and values of Democracy, Equality Before Law, and Freedom of Speech, just as our ancestors envisioned them.

It has been 221 years since the Greek Sculptures were taken from the hill of the Acropolis. From 1801 and for about a decade, Lord Elgin forcibly removed the Sculptures, even using saws, in order to transport them to the Great Britain. The Sculptures were purchased by the British Museum a few years later.

During these two centuries, 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.

These Sculptures are not isolated works, but “architectural sculptures”, the decoration of an indivisible whole, a unique architectural work of global history: the Parthenon. A creation that has dominated the Sacred Rock for 2,500 years, looking out onto the Athenian landscape, and challenging historical time, wining the wager of eternity against natural disasters, wars, and geographical and political changes. Despite being manmade, it survived through centuries of human history, remaining the most powerful symbol of Athenian democracy, the first democracy in the history of our societies. A symbol for the entire Western world.

This unique power and the very substance of the monument show us the path we must follow: the path of Dialogue.

About 40 years ago, my dear friend, the late and one and only Melina Mercouri, began a courageous effort as Minister of Culture, opening an international dialogue and raising the issue at the UNESCO Forum of Ministers of Culture in Mexico, with the Forum ruling in favour of the return of the Sculptures to Greece. Melina realised very early on that the path to the return of the Sculptures could only be opened through the creation of international alliances and the launching of an international dialogue based on our country’s just arguments.

From the outset, I had the great honour of being at her side, a companion to her at every step of this “beautiful struggle”, utilising the “weapon” of cultural diplomacy at all my international meetings. And from the moment I had the honour of being elected as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, the return of the Sculptures has always remained the focus of my activity. I was one of the last people she spoke to before she passed away. “Marianna, I want you to promise me that you will continue to fight for the return of our Sculptures. When they return, I will be reborn,” were her last words to me. And these words never ceased to be in my thoughts and priorities.

I feel that it was not just I who kept this promise, but the entire Greek people. Every Greek woman and man, every one of us who, throughout these years, never, not even for a moment, stopped envisioning this dream becoming a reality. Every smaller or larger effort, on a national or international level, by the State, Civil Society, institutions and agencies, international committees in many countries, and international organisations, contributed to the significant shift in the climate surrounding the matter recently.

I remember when we held the exhibition titled ‘The unity of a unique monument: Parthenon’, together with Jules Dassin and the ‘Melina Mercouri Foundation’ at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris in 2003, the first voices of support for our country were heard, albeit timidly, within the international organisation, while another great success was the attendance of the UK Ambassador! That is when, through great struggle, we started to acquire important allies, such as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Jean Michel Jarre, who, at two concerts at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus organised by our Foundation and the ‘Association of Friends of Children with Cancer ELPIDA’, turned the interest of the global community towards Greece, composing the ‘Hymn to the Acropolis’ and performing it for the first time anywhere at the Holy Rock of Athens.

At the same time, in collaboration with leading international figures in the Arts and Culture who joined in the Heroes struggle for the return of the Sculptures, our Foundation launched major initiatives such as conferences, publications, colloquiums, and our international ‘Return (the Parthenon Sculptures) – Restore (Unity)– Restart (History)’ campaign, in collaboration with the Melina Mercouri Foundation.

Since Melina Mercouri began this struggle, the State has taken important steps on a diplomatic and legal level, while at the same time Greece’s voice in international fora is gaining traction.

The courageous Resolution of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committeeon the promotion of the return of cultural goods to their countries of origin or their restitution in the event of illegal appropriation (ICPRCP) in September 2021, which for the first time recognises the issue of the return of Sculptures as an intergovernmental issue, and not an issue between the two Museums, was the culmination years of systematic efforts. It is also noteworthy that the Resolution calls on the United Kingdom to reconsider its stance and enter into good-faith dialogue with Greece, while also recognising our country’s just request.

The ICPRCP is the only competent UNESCO Committee on matters of negotiation, mediation, and conciliation on international cultural disputes between states and it meets every two years, with the next Meeting scheduled for May 2022. Although this Resolution is not legally binding, it is particularly important that it was reached by the ICPRCP, which is the only international Intergovernmental Commission in the framework of UNESCO – in other words, within the UN – and is a strong international message that the British side cannot ignore.

In 2021, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis – in addition to his bilateral meeting with the British Prime Minister – visited UNESCO headquarters in Paris twice, drawing on the strength of the International Organisation and cultural diplomacy. In September 2021, he raised the issue with UNESCO’s Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, in the context of their meeting, and a few months later, in November 2021, in the context of UNESCO’s 75-year celebrations, Kyriakos Mitsotakis talked about the return of the Sculptures before 192 Heads of State and their representatives.

During these visits, at which I had the honour of being present, and through discussions with Heads of State and world figures of culture, it became clear that there had been a shift in the climate in favour of our country’s just request.

This was also apparent at the recent ‘Greece and Cultural Heritage’ Symposium, which our Foundation hosted at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris on the margins of the 41st General Conference of the Organisation. During the Symposium, which was held in the context of ‘Initiative 21’ and was attended live by representatives of the 193 UNESCO member states, there were many important voices that spoke of the need for the Sculptures to return to Greece, including Her Excellency the President of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, as well as the internationally renowned Professor of History at University of Cambridge, Paul Cartledge.

Paying close attention to the developments on the international cultural scene, allows one to observe that this shift does not concern Greece alone. The past two years have seen intense international movement on the issue of the return of stolen cultural treasures to their countries of origin. These are mainly treasures exported illegally during the years when colonialism flourished, from countries with a pronounced colonial past, which today have launched a systematic effort to ‘balance the books’ with regards to past illegal possession of their national cultural treasures.

French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed the former President of the Louvre Museum, Jean-Luc Martinez, as the competent Ambassador for international cooperation and setting the criteria for the return of cultural treasures to their countries of origin. Germany has signed an agreement with Nigeriaon the gradual return of cultural goods, while countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria have made similar agreements.

The climate with regard to cultural heritage monuments is clearly changing, leading many Museums to change their stance and return national cultural treasures to their countries of origin. Obviously, this climate favours the cause of the return of the Parthenon Sculptures.

The return of the famous ‘Fagan fragment’ from the Antonino Salinas Museum in Palermo to the Acropolis Museum on 10 January 2022, through the process of “long-term deposit”, shows the way and is an important weapon on the Greek side of the argument.

This year, for the first time, the Venice Biennale, Europe’s leading cultural event, which will open its doors in the spring, intends to organise a photography exhibition dedicated to the Acropolis and its Museum. The exhibition will be based on the iconic black and white photographs of emblematic photographer Giannis Giannelos, which form the basis of the exceptional collectible publication of our Foundation, ‘Acropolis, the New Museum’, published by ‘Miletus’. Browsing through this book, which moved the people responsible at Biennale so much that they asked us to hold a separate and autonomous exhibition, one realises that this is the natural space of the Sculptures: under sky of Attica, bathed in Greek light.

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 are our national pride, on them is carved our history, and they form part of one of the largest monuments of humanity.

“A little longer
And we shall see the almond trees in blossom
The marbles shining in the sun
The sea, the curling waves
Just a little more
Let us rise just a little higher...”

Let the words of George Seferis, with the music of the great Greek, and my beloved friend, the late Mikis Theodorakis, be our compass, our beacon, and our strength in our “just and beautiful struggle.”

Marianna V. Vardinoyannis, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador

THE GUARDIAN 16 November 2021

On Tuesday, 16 November 2021 in the Guardian Peter Walker and Helena Smith wrote that it has long been the official UK position that any return is a matter for the British Museum.

The wider debate about museums returning artefacts taken from other countries during colonial times, has so far been resisted by the UK with the mantra of “retain and explain”. And that the British Museum’s consistent view is that the sculptures were acquired legally, with Elgin receiving formal consent from the Ottoman empire to remove the section of sculptures. “His actions were thoroughly investigated by a parliamentary select committee in 1816 and found to be entirely legal, prior to the sculptures entering the collection of the British Museum by act of parliament,” the museum says on its website.

BCRPM Vice-Chair Paul Cartledge was quoted in the same Guardian article saying that this amounted to “a sleight of hand”.

“It’s a nonsense,” he added. “Even if the trustees agreed to relinquish them, the final decision to rescind the act of 1816 which declared the Elgin Collection to be owned by the nation would legally have to go through the British parliament. There is no doubt that the pressure is building up for genuine, post-imperial reconciliation in the cultural sphere and Johnson is trying to evade it.”

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

THE TIMES

  Josh Glancey of The Times tweeted on the same day about the British Museum's website statement:

And BCRPM member Benjamin Ramm replied 

Variations in the British Museum's statements, half truths on the information provided in Room 18, have left generations questioning what really happened bewtween 1801-1805 for Greece to have lost to another country half of its surviving Parthenon Marbles, with the Parthenon itself still in Athens.

A helpful video can be found on the Acropolis Museum web site.

GBNews 18 November 2021

On Friday vening BCRPM's member Professor John Tasioulas joined GBNews and took a pragmatic approach on the issue too.

Today, Saturday 20 November, Simon Jenkins wrote in the Guardian and the article headline reads: 'Give the Parthenon marbles back to Greece – tech advances mean there are no more excuses. To read the full article follow the link here. 

THE GUARDIAN 20 November 2021

Simon Jenkins pragmatic approach concludes: 'This issue, so important to the Greeks but not to the British, could be sorted out with goodwill in an instant. Precisely such a negotiation on the marbles was demanded in September by UNESCO, and rejected by Britain. If it requires a “perpetual loan” or an act of parliament, then get on with it. If money is required, raise it. Johnson is being feeble in fobbing off Athens’ request as not being under his purview. The museum is a state institution. Instead of keeping his promise and doing the right thing by the marbles, he has performed another U-turn and funked it.'

THE DAILY MAIL 20 November 2021 

Prime Minister Mitsotakis wrote in the Daily Mail and adds: "Now, given the Prime Minister has told me he would not stand in the way of Greece establishing a formal dialogue with the British Museum over the future of the marbles, I can only assume things will be different – that he will not obstruct any future agreement and, instead, the Prime Minister would seek to amend the relevant legislation to allow the sculptures’ return."

THE TELEGRAPH 20 November 2021

The Telegraph published a double page spread in the main section of Saturday's paper, witten by Gordon Raynor, with the headline questioning:'Could we be on course to lose 'our' Marbles?'

BCRPM's Chair Janet Suzman is quoted:"The British Museum is demonstrably behind the curve.Other world-class institutions have started returning items, so it's a bit smug for the British Museum to refuse to engage. It just keeps trotting out the same mantra it has clung on for the past 200 years. It's terribly impolite for them to just stay silent on this."

The British Museum's reasons for keeping the Marbles in London and divided from their surviving half in Athens is that: " there is a positive advantage and public benefit in having the sculptures divided bewtween two great museums, because in Athens they are seen against the backdrop of Athenian history and in London visitors gain insight into how ancient Greece influenced other civilisations."

Janet adds that this is just "childish, finders keepers stuff. They were forcibly removed, they were brought to Britain, they have excited the western world and classical scholarship went up. They have done their job and it's time for them to go home. It is a moral obligation.

She continues:" Anyone who goes to the museum in Athens can see, that is where they should be displayed. In the British Museum the experience is quite depressing."

To read the full article, visit the Telegraph.

More on this also in the Greek Reporter.

01 December 2021, press release from the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sport

Following media interest in an agenda item, item 27 of the 48th Meeting of the Central Archaeological Council of Greece, which took place on Tuesday 30 November 2021, the Ministry of Culture and Sport informs that it welcomes the process of returning a fragment of the Parthenon frieze to Greece. That the Acropolis Museum will begin the final stages of this process once the Central Archaeological Council provides its opinion on the matter at its forthcoming meeting, as this is required by law.

The fragment is from Block VI of the Parthenon’s east frieze (Ν.Ι. 1546), currently held at the Antonio Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum in Palermo, Italy. The Antonio Salinas Archaeological Museum has expressed the intention to provide a long-term loan of the fragment to the Acropolis Museum for four (4) plus four(4) years. These loan periods are specified by Italian legislation.

Provided the Central Archaeological Council delivers a positive conclusion, it is planned that the fragment will reach the Acropolis Museum before the end of 2021. In return, Greece will provide the Antonio Salinas Archaeological Museum with a statuette of the goddess Athena, subsequently replaced with a vessel from the earliest phase of the Geometric Period. The two ancient objects will be displayed at different times at the Palermo Museum. The Acropolis Museum will loan both of these to the museum in Sicily. According to Italian Law, the duration of the counter loan is also for four (4) plus four(4) years.

Talks on this long term loan of the fragment between the Regional Government of Sicily and the Minister of Culture and Sport, Lina Mendoni, began in January 2021, as did discussions between the two museums.

The return of the British Museum's Parthenon Marbles to Greece, according to Reuters' report on Sunday, may be possible 'even if the two sides cannot come to an agreement over who owns the sculptures'.

Greece's request for the return of the sculptures began shortly after independence. The more recent request was made by the then Minister of Culture, Melina Mercouri in 1983, when the Greek government formally asked the UK government to return the marbles to Greece and, in 1984, listed the dispute with UNESCO. The Greek government has always only requesed the return of the sculptures that Lord Elgin removed from the Parthenon at the start of the 19th century.

The Pope last year announced that he would donate three fragmented pieces from the Vatican Museums to Greece. The signing of the agreement took place in Rome on  Tuesday 07 March 2023.

Talks bewtween Greece and the British Museum have been going on since late 2021, and were disclosed when Prime Minister Mitsotakis came to London in November of 2022 to address the LSE.

The British Museum's Parthenon collection could be returned to Greece under a long-term cultural partnership agreement, Reuters reported on Sunday 12 March.

The plans, which have been discussed with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and British Museum's Chair George Osborne, would see a rotation of Greek masterpieces offered to the British Museum, including some that have never been seen outside Greece*.(This was offered by Greece for the first time in 2000, 23 years ago!).

Such an arrangement could avoid the requirement for a change in the law to allow the British Museum to dispose of its artefacts, the same point raised in 2000 also.  And yet,  George Osborne has played down the prospect of a permanent return of the marbles, instead suggested an arrangement where the marbles can be shared by both museums and seen in London and Athens.

This story is set to run for a little longer.

Read the aricle by Liam Kelly, Arts Correspondent for the Sunday Times, and for those that read in Greek in Ta Nea, although there are paywalls.

12 March 2021

Yannis Andritsopoulos, London Correspondent for the Greek daily newspaper Ta Neain an exclusive interview asked UK Prime Minister Johnson about the Parthenon Marbles.

Prime Minister Johnson was asked specificlly about Prime Minister Mitsotakis' plea to have the Parthenon Marbles back in Greece.

Sadly PM Johnson chose to answer the question by repeating that the UK governments standpoint is based on legal ownership. Yet the question remains, if the legality was uncontestable, why did the UK government not retain ownership and instead transfered it to the British Museum?

In today's exclusive interview with the Greek daily newspaper Ta Nea, when asked about the Parthenon Marbles, British PM Johnson said: “I understand the strong feelings of the Greek people – and indeed Prime Minister Mitsotakis – on the issue.But the UK Government has a firm longstanding position on the sculptures, which is 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.” 

In this wide-ranging interview, Prime Minister Johnson also covered topics from post-Brexit Britain to ‘Global Britain’ serving UK citizens and defending UK values by extending the UK’s international influence.

He also said the UK: "remains committed to working alongside our partners in the region and the UN to find a just and sustainable solution to the Cyprus problem.” Adding that Britain is following developments in the region closely and "welcomes the resumption of Greece-Turkey talks" urging all all parties to prioritise dialogue and diplomacy.

"I am of course a keen scholar of Greek history, the decisive impact of Navarino on the success of the Greek War of Independence and Britain’s crucial role in it. The Ancient Greeks founded western civilisation and gave us science, culture, philosophy, comedy, tragedy, poetry, mathematics, literature, democracy – to name just a few. But modern Greece’s emergence on the international scene as an independent nation state has also had enormous significance for the world. Greece plays an important role in Europe, NATO and in a pivotal region connecting Europe to the Middle East.

Despite some of the challenges the country has faced over the past two hundred years, Greece today is a well-governed, prosperous, creative, peace-loving international partner in the family of nations and makes a crucial contribution to the world stage." Concluded Prime Minister Johnson.

And BCRPM would add: the halves from the Parthenon currently displayed the wrong way round in the British Museum's Room 18, were removed when Greece had no voice. As an independent nation, Greece has been asking politely for some time for the UK to find a way to reunite the sculptures in Athens, so that the surviving pieces may be viewed as close as possible to the Parthenon. The BCRPM sincerely hopes that the UK can begin talks to find a solution to this unecessary division of this peerless collection of sculptures from the Parthenon.   

The interview by Yannis Andritsopoulos was published in the Greek daily newspaper Ta Nea (www.tanea.gr), today 12 March 2021. To read the interview in English, visit the linkhere. 

Professor Armand D'Angour, is Professor of Classics at Jesus College Oxford, and as the newest member of BCRPM, outlines his thoughts on the continued plight of the Parthenon Marbles: 

When I was at school studying Classics in the 1970s, the general view in the UK was that the Elgin Marbles had been legally acquired from the Greeks (via the Turks), that they were the essential centrepiece of the British Museum collection, that they had been nobly rescued from destruction by Elgin, that they were far safer in the clean air of London than in traffic-plagued Athens, and that returning them would set a terrible precedent that could lead to the world's museums being denuded.

Now, as a Classics Professor, I know that none of those arguments hold true. First, the acquisition by Elgin was for his personal profit and aggrandisement, and was dubiously legal - his alleged firman seems not even to exist; and it was completed through agreement with Turkish rulers of Greece and not Greeks themselves. Secondly, the display of the marbles in the Duveen Gallery is far from ideal; a colourful and well lit set of replicas would be much more appealing - not to mention the wonderful objects Greece might offer on loan in return, or a display of some of the BM's many other millions of objects currently in storage. Thirdly, the Marbles were not kept safe, but damaged with inappropriate cleaning fluids; the beautiful new museum on the Acropolis is a much worthier site today, and traffic is far worse in London than it is in Athens! Few objects have such iconic national status - and if they do, there would be a strong case for their return too to their place of origin.

These are arguments from common sense and history. The main arguments, though, that have persuaded me personally that the time has come for the reunification of the marbles in Athens are moral and emotional. It feels to many, Greeks and non-Greeks as if they are a vital part of the Greek land and soul; and that their theft by Elgin, compounded by a high-handed attitude to their return, remains an open wound.

The tale is told that when the Greeks were fighting for their independence, a group of soldiers observed the Turks stripping lead from between the stones of the Parthenon for use as bullets. Relatively uneducated and rustic Christians as the soldiers were, they felt strongly that this was a dreadful desecration of this pagan monument that had eternal significance to Greeks. They sent a delegation to the Turkish commander with a box of bullets - the very means of their own possible deaths - telling him that they would prefer them to be used than for the great ancient monument to be fatally damaged. Unhistorical as this anecdote undoubtedly is, the fact that it has often been told by Greeks is indicative of their strong feelings about this unique monument.

The emotional resonance of the Parthenon to Greeks - something increasingly recognised and appreciated by British people - makes for me one of the strongest cases for the reunification of the Marbles.

British Museum, Room 18, The Parthenon Galleries, at 16:07,  after the voices of the women of Troy had concluded their stories, readings from a novel 'A thousand Ships' by Natalie Haynes,part of Project Season Women, directed by Magdalena Zira and Athina Kasiou, Professor Edith Hall unfurled a flag with a heartfelt request: Reunite the Parthenon Marbles.

A team of twenty actresses from Cyprus and the UK performed readings in both English and in Greek over a period of five hours in three different locations of the British Museum.

Professor Edith Hall described the day of readings as a "grand epic gesture.... reclaiming the stories of the Trojan War" and after the readings, Edith with the help of two students, unfurled a flag with the image of the Parthenon Gallery on the top floor of the Acropolis Museum and the words: Reunite the Parthenon Marbles. To reunite the surviving sculptures from the British Museum with those in the Acropolis Museum, would be a grand epic gesture, especially as this request has been voiced by Greece since 1843. 

This year is also Melina Mercouri's year and just two Saturdays prior, during the 'BP or not BP?' protest, again in Room 18, three presentations were made to state the case for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

On this Saturday, after the staged readings from Natalie Haynes novel 'A Thousand Ships' in the context of Creative Responses to Troy, accmpanying the current exhibition Troy:myth and reality, Edith Hall added the following statement as Kitty Cooke and Lucy Bilson held up the flag:

"I have been involved in this amazing production of 'A Thousand Ships' as mentor and friend of Natalie Haynes and PhD supervisor to two of the directors, Magdalena Zira and Helen Eastman. But what I am going to say is entirely as an individual, a Professor of Classics at London University and most of all as a proud member of the BCRPM. This intervention has nothing to do with the theatre companies and actors involved today. Listening to these beautiful stories, born in the poetry of Homer in ancient Greece, I cannot pass up the opportunity to argue that these equally beautiful sculptures from ancient Greece, crow-barred and stolen from their homeland two hundred years ago, deserve to be reunited in their homeland with the total work of art that is the Athenian Parthenon. Thanks to my brave allies Kitty Cooke and Lucy Bilson, brave undergraduates studying Classics at University College London."

Photos courtesy of Sarah Pynder.

The 14 texts which follow, each reflecting the writer’s viewpoint, are so rich and comprehensive that it is impossible for an introduction to fully encompass their essence. In most cases, the beginning, middle and end of the text refers to the barbaric act committed by Elgin.

I have therefore chosen not to repeat those well-known, well-rehearsed and well-discussed issues. Instead, I chose to contribute certain new arguments to the cause of returning and reunifying the marbles or sculptures of the Parthenon in the Acropolis Museum, which is their newly designated place of protection and display, a place that stands in close dialogue with the very monument from which those severed members originally came.

As a rich body of international bibliography on the subject makes clear, it is now obvious to all that the so-called firman which Thomas Bruce, the Earl of Elgin and ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1799-1803, is supposed to have procured from the Supreme Porte, in other words from Sultan Selim III, does not exist. If such a document had existed, it would have been submitted to the examining committee of the British House of Commons in 1816 – and the whole question of legality, and restitution claims by the Greek state, would have taken a different turn.

According to Elgin’s testimony to the committee, the original document sent by the Turkish authorities to Athens was lost. The Reverend Philip Hunt, the ambassador’s assistant, offered in testimony what he could recollect, 14 years later, of a translation of a French version of the original firman into Italian and later rendered into English.

However:

ONE

Official firmans of the sultan were always made in two copies, of which one was kept in the official archives and the other was sent to the designated recipient. In the course ofall the investigations made hitherto, the original, archived version of the firman has never been found.

TWO
Genuine firmans were despatched through a special designated messenger or an authorized individual or delivered by captains of the Turkish navy. In this case the so-called firman was brought to Athens by Philip Hunt, Elgin’s assistant.

THREE
For the actions that Elgin was seeking to undertake on the Acropolis, formal permission was indeed necessary because according to an unwritten Ottoman law, marble in all its forms – works of art, ancient or otherwise, and the raw material itself – belonged to the sultan. All the more so if marbles were to be removed from such a well preserved surviving decoration of a monument that was well respected by Ottoman officials as a “temple of the idols” – namely the Parthenon.

Thanks to the authentic firmans that were issued over the years for various purposes, we can ascertain what a genuine sultan’s firman looked like, what formalities it observed, what turns of phrase and calligraphy were used, and all its other features. I will not enumerate the hundreds of examples that might be mentioned. I will focus instead on two sultan’s firmans which are of immediate relevance, because they concern two protagonists of our story – Lord Elgin and Lord Byron. They are also, of course, close chronologically. The first is dated 1802 and was brought to light by Dyfri Williams. It is the official passport-firman granted to Elgin which authorized his trip to Athens and the Aegean archipelago. The second was granted to Byron in 1810 and is presented here for the first time, thanks to the generosity of a particular individual. It is the official travel document which was issued to Byron: its interpretation and presentation are the work of Ilias Kolovos, a scholar of Ottoman history.

When one compares these two original passport-firmans, they turn out to be very much alike in format, despite the fact that Sultan Selim III died in 1808 and was replaced on the throne by Mustafa IV. If we then compare those two documents – the one issued to Elgin and the one granted to Byron, which is available to us in Turkish (in Roman script) as well as English translation – with the so-called firman granted to Elgin which supposedly allowed him to remove sculptures from the Parthenon – at least according to the Italian translation, and its later English rendering. It becomes clear – as was demonstrated by the Ottomanist scholar Vasilis Dimitriadis at a conference on the Parthenon and its sculptures – that Elgin’s so-called permit is anything but a genuine sultan’s firman. He would have needed to get the personal authorization of the sultan, instead of merely relying – as he did - on the deputy to the Grand Vizier, Sejid Abdullah. That deputy was standing in because the actual Grand Vizier – Kor Yusuf Ziyauddin Pasha, otherwise known as Djezzar, (the butcher) – was at the time in Egypt.

Given that the so-called permit for the removal of the sculptures was not a genuine sultan’s act, but merely a decision issued by the deputy to the Grand Vizier – assuming that the Italian translation is real and accurate –how can anyone justify the still-adamant denial by the British authorities and the British Museum that what took place was an act of vandalism – indeed, a plundering of sculptures that were integral to the monument, constituent parts of the Parthenon? Or justify their refusal to return and reunify the marbles in the Acropolis Museum?

To put it more bluntly, how is it that certain officials – in the British Museum and elsewhere in Britain – still regard as acceptable a flawed purchase in 1816, and an arbitrary decision by Parliament in 1963, insofar as these relate to the ongoing captivity of the Parthenon marbles?

This is not the place to delve deep into the reasons for that insistence. Let me focus instead on some initiatives aimed at resolving the issue, in accordance with the realities of the 21st century. In addition to the strong and respectable arguments laid out by many people over two centuries – especially by Melina Mercouri in 1982-83 – all the way up to 2021, a number of developments stand out.

ONE
In September 2021, UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property (ICPRCP) adopted a decision which clearly recognizes Greece’s aspirations as rational, justified and ethical. It also affirmed the intergovernmental nature of the dispute and called for consultations between Britain and Greece.

TWO
A particular methodology was followed in the return and reintegration of the so-called Fagan fragment from Palermo. This was the first return which was treated as a matter from State to State. Initially, in January 2022, the return was presented as an unspecified “deposit” – and then, in June 2022, came the permanent reintegration of the fragment into the Parthenon frieze: an act that was underpinned not merely by legal norms and technicalities but also by the friendship between two nations - Greece on one hand, Italy and in particular Sicily on the other – who share common values.

THREE
In March 2023, Pope Francis returned three fragments of the Parthenon, as an expression of universal truth, for the definitive reunification of the monument’s scattered sculptures.
The British government and the British Museum would do well to ponder the significance all these developments, while also considering certain other factors such as:

ONE
The consistent majority of British public opinion [in favour of return]

TWO
The continued support expressed by the near-entirety of the British press

THREE
International public opinion, which favours the reunification of this world-renowned monument…so that it can be properly presented in all its integrity as a work of supreme architectural and sculptural beauty; and experienced as a symbol of democracy by people of allgenerations and national origins.

And in case those arguments fail to persuade doubters of the moral soundness of Greece’s case, I will add yet another one.

Over the past few decades, there have been some well-known cases of restitution of art works – for example to Italy or to Africa. Such returns have even been made by Britain. Let me specify one example.

On August 1, 2008, the upper section of a funerary monument was returned to Greece from New York.

It was made of Pentelic marble and it dates from the late fifth century – about 410 BCE, shortly after the completion of the Parthenon. Μy Professor George Despinis, as early as 1993, had proven that the piece came from a funerary monument whose lower half had been discovered in the soil of Attica – in Porto Rafti – and was then conserved in the Museum of Βrauron in Attica.

After some negotiations, the purchasers of the upper part – who were American citizens –gave that segment back to Greece, while Greece acknowledged that the purchase had been made in good faith. The matter was settled and the two parts of the funerary monument are reunited in a Greek museum.

I will now refer to a rather similar case, concerning the Parthenon. The lower part of segment number XXVII of the Parthenon frieze – showing a charioteer, part of a chariot and a stable lad –is in the Parthenon Gallery, while the upper part is in the Duveen Gallery of the British Museum.

Just about anybody will readily understand the similarity of the two stories. In particular, the morally equivalent fate of the piece of marble that was broken off and plundered by Elgin’s team and the severed upper part of the funerary monument – while in both cases, the lower sections remained in the place where the works had been fashioned.

So given that the principle of repatriation was applied in the case of the artefact in New York, exactly the same norm should apply in the case of the broken segment from the northern side of the Parthenon frieze.

One could of course take the argument further and note that in the case of the funerary monument, the buyer was in legal terms an individual rather than a state; and then observe that under international law, no state can retroactively justify illegal acts by one of its citizens on foreign soil - given that in such cases international law supersedes anything enacted by local or national legislatures.

In view of all that, how can it be that a state, in this instance the British state, vindicates the vandalism and plunder perpetrated by one of its subjects? Considering that Elgin, as a private individual, committed an act of vandalism, along with his associates, and broke off sculptures from the Parthenon - only to transport them to England in order to decorate his home, where they would have stayed if he had not gone bankrupt.

People who persist in justifying the purchase of 1816 must surely accept this: the mostone might say is that this decision amounted to a “receipt of stolen goods” in good faith – as was the case with the purchase of upper part of the funerary monument from Brauron.

In no way can they justify the illegal actions of a British subject, Lord Elgin – in view of the considerations I have laid out.

Nor, by the same token, should any government οr state wish to carry the moral burden that results from such tainted acts. I believe the moment has come for our British friends to take a noble decision and rid themselves of the moral burden which Elgin - rashly, and in pursuit of personal gain – laid on Britain, the British Museum and the people of Britain.

The above text was the lead article in a Kathimerini supplement published 17 March 2024, entitled:H AΡΠΑΓΗ, 'Tthe Grab, Elgin and the Parthenon Sculptures'

In the same supplement BCRPM member Bruce Clark's article 'Laws, democracy and hypocrisy' was also plublished.

Photo credit for the images of Professor Stampolidis: Paris Tavitian 

Wednesday 29 January 2020 at the Acropolis Museum, the launch of the published proceedings of the 15 April 2019 International Conference: 'The Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures'. The conference was held under the auspices of the President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopios Pavlopoulos. A number of campaigning committees attended and some also spoke at the conference, including Professor Louis Godart, Chair of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures (IARPS), Dame Janet Suzman as Chair of the BCRPM and Professor Paul Cartledge as Vice Chair of the BCRPM.  

Both Professor Louis Godart as the Former Chair for the International Assciation and the current Chair Christiiane Tytgat, spoke at the event held on the 29th of January this year and their respective speeches can be read below. 

Chair of the International Association, Christiane Tytgat's address:

President of the International Association, Dr Christiane Tytgat's address at the launch of the Proceedings of the International Conference on the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, held at the Acropolis Museum on April 15, 2019:
Your Excellency, Mr President, Your Excellency, Madam Minister, Dear Friends and Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, first of all I would like to thank His Excellency, the President of the Hellenic Republic, Mr Pavlopoulos, the Minister of Culture and Sports, Dr Mendoni and the President of the Acropolis Museum, Professor Pantermalis for the honour of inviting me to be here with you today.

It is a great pleasure to be here again, in this wonderful Museum which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year with a series of events. Among these events, the key event was the opening of the archaeological excavation beneath the museum on the 20th of June 2019. Hence the Museum adds again an element to its precious wealth and shows, once again, that it is a museum always in motion, a museum that offers continually something new to its visitors. I wonder, how many other museums can say this without organising a temporary exhibition and bringing artefacts from elsewhere? Increasingly the Acropolis Museum evokes the image of the sacred rock: the Parthenon Room, at the top of the Acropolis Museum, which is waiting for more than 10 years to be completed, now dominates an ancient neighbourhood of Athens, as in ancient times the Acropolis was dominating the ancient city.

The conference "Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures" was part of these anniversary festivities. I would add that after 10 years of the Museum's operation, it is a pity that we still have to hold another conference on this subject, however we can look at this in a positive way too. Many speakers from Greece, but also from all over the world made the journey to participate in the conference and show their interest in the issue of reunification. Each intervention embraced the issue from a different perspective, from the results of recent research and proposals for a solution to actions to keep the case in the news until we achieve our goal. The conference was resounding in its message, delivered so eloquently by so many speakers.

But "words are transient, yet the written texts remain forever". That is why it is very important that the Proceedings of the conference were published. There is also no better time to present them, since today begins the Year of Melina Mercouri, the great protagonist for the return of the Sculptures. We cannot honour her in a better way: her campaign for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures from the British Museum continues and her vision is more alive than ever.

Melina's campaign is no longer the struggle of any one person or the Hellenic Government who made the first request to the British Museum for the return in 1842. The struggle was transferred - and rightly so - globally, since the Parthenon and its Sculptures are a world cultural heritage.

In 1981, the first Committee was established in Australia, headed up by its President Emanuel Comino. It remains very active to this day. Following Melina's passionate appeal to UNESCO in 1982, the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles was founded in 1983. This was followed by the formation of many more committees worldwide.

At a conference organized in November 2005 by the Hellenic Government, 12 national committees established the International Association for the Reunification of Parthenon Sculptures (IARPS) with the aim of supporting the Hellenic Government in its repatriation efforts and the reunification of all the surviving parts of the Sculptures in the new Acropolis Museum. Since then, other new national committees have joined the International Association, most recently France (2016), Austria (2017), and - as strange as it may seem - the oldest committee from Australia (2018). In January 2020 we were delighted to also welcome the new Luxembourg committee.

Today, the IARPS has a total of 21 national committees spanning 19 countries. Every now and then a committee, like Russia in recent years, had fallen by the wayside but Moscow has given the committee a new impetus for the last six months and with great enthusiasm is organising its first lecture in February this year under the auspices of the Greek Ambassador in Moscow.

The IARPS works closely with the Greek authorities and supports the policy of cultural diplomacy, which Greece has been pursuing for years. The return of the Sculptures is a moral problem rather than a legal one. The International Association, which coordinates the activities of the national committees, observes that the public interest continues to grow, clearly illustrated by the continuously growing number of participants in our activities. The general climate helps us probably: the call for the repatriation of cultural heritage artefacts is global. There isn’t a day when a new article is not published and new activities are taking place. And in England, key voices grow louder too. Big museums are under pressure every day. So we are all optimistic that the time will come when theses museums will be able to do nothing less than return the stolen parts of the Parthenon to the place they rightfully belong: the Acropolis Museum in Athens, where one can see the sculptures by Pheidias on display in the best possible conditions, in direct visual contact with the Parthenon, where they are an integral part of. It would be a very happy coincidence if this would happen in 2021, the 200nd anniversary of the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence.

In conclusion, as Chair of the International Association and its 21 national Committees, I extend a very warm thank you to H.E. the President of the Hellenic Republic, Mr Pavlopoulos for his support over the years for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.

 To read more about the conference held on 15 April 2019, click here.

Professor Louis Godart, Former Chair of the International Association (2016-2019)

The stars in the skies of Attica and Greece saw the birth of Western Civilization, just as they saw the watchman above the palace of Mycenae catch the first evidence of the fall of Troy, and as they witnessed the enthusiasm of Pericles and of all the Athenians, when after 480 BC the city reinvented democracy, and rebuilt the monuments of Acropolis, the only place in the world where spirit and courage dwell together.

These are the very stars that also witnessed Elgin's assault when without any respect from 1801 to 1804 he violated the sanctity of the Parthenon, the temple, a global symbol of Democracy.

Inside the Acropolis Museum there is the stele of Mourning Athena. She is standing in front of another small stele. She is not wearing her aegis breastplate, her helmet doesn't cover her face. Her spear has its point on the base of the stele. What did the sculptor want to tell us when in about 460 BCE he carved this masterpiece?

Athena is the goddess of the intellect. She is also the goddess who is ready at all times for battle.

I believe that the stele bore the names of those Athenians who died at Marathon, Salamis and Plataea. Mourning Athena is showing the Athenians respect for those who saved Greece and Western Civilization. In our midst, the notion that Democracy must always be fought for is being honoured. We must always be ready, like the goddess, with our spear close to hand if we want to defend something of value and distinction.

So anyone who loves Greece and democracy - the Parthenon being as I said a symbol of Greece - must fight for the repatriation of Pheidias' sculptures.

I do not forget that in 1940 England - glory to the pilots of the RAF - saved European democracy. That Churchill said at the time: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." England cannot today fail to heed the cry of everyone in the world who wants the sculptures to be near to the temple of the goddess. Today a lot of people in England are fighting alongside us. We will help them.

I hope that soon the stars of the heavens of Greece will again see the goddess' marbles beside the sacred rock.

Wednesday 06 March 2024 and our thoughts are with the Hellenic spirit that was Melina Mercouri.

Three decades since Melina passed away, at every protest, every campaign, every thought that is directed at the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, also embraces Melina's soulful and heartfelt pleas.

As Greece's Minister of Culture and Science, Melina Mercouri's commitment for the return of the sculptures removed from the Acropolis in the 19th century continue to inspire all that also feel strongly and view this long-standing request as a just cause.

“I hope to see the marbles return to Athens before I die. But if they return later, I will be reborn to see them.” Melina Mercouri said, a phrase repeated by other women whose lifetime dedication to this cause continues. 

The reunification of the Parthenon Marbles campaign began at the UNESCO General Policy Conference in Mexico (1982) when Mercouri, then Minister of Culture and Science for Greece, put forward Greece's request for the return of the sculptures. And it is at UNESCO's ICPRCP meetings that this request continues to dominate.

On 29 September 2021, UNESCO ICPRCP Intergovernmental Committee, for the first time in its history, adopted by consensus Decision 22 COM 6, which is specifically dedicated to the Parthenon Marbles issue. The added value of that Decision is that for the first time the committee: "Recognized expressly the legitimate and rightful demand of Greece. Recognized that the case has an intergovernmental character and, therefore, the obligation to return the Parthenon Sculptures lies squarely on the UK Government and expressed its disappointment that its respective previous Recommendations have not been observed by the UK."

There is global support for the reunification, especially post the opening of the superlative Acropolis Museum, and yet there is no British political will to amend the museum's law that could see these sculptures returning to Athens. Of the 50% of the original sculptures that survive, about half are in the British Museum and half in the Acropolis Museum. There are a few fragments in a few museums: the Louvre in Paris, the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and the Martin von Wagner Museum in the University of Würzburg.

The good and great news is that some fragments have been returned and that the campaign continues. Despite the lack of political will in the UK, there is plenty of public support and in fairness, that has been there for many decades.

Greece has also made repeated offers to provide the British Museum with Greek artefacts not seen outside of Greece, should the surviving Parthenon Marbles be reunited in the Acropolis Museum.

There are ongoing talks between PM Mitsotakis and the British Museum.

We continue to hope.

Boris Johnson says ‘2021 is a significant year for Greece and a very exciting year for Britain to be invigorating our relationship with the Greek people’. If only. If only that good brain of his endowed with an impeccable classical education would dare to think outside the boring old box. Go on, Boris, reinvigorate the relationship with the one thing that would do it instantly: give back those Parthenon marbles. The old refrain that they were legally acquired is an invention, a factoid; say something often enough and people begin to believe it. Boris is a master of that sort of sell. There never was any proof of permission to export those figures, and the laws of the time have become inappropriate and dated. These sculptures represent the very heart and soul of Periclean Greece and so of the modern Greek state. The Ottomans are long gone. After 200 years the Marbles have done their job of enlightening and civilising the peoples of the West. The British Trustees do not own them they hold them in Trust, and to decide that the Greek people should in their celebratory year of 2021 have a chance to bathe in the aura of the originals would be a magnificent, and wholly decent gesture on their part. Those figures so brutally detached from the building still soaring above Athens, should be back where they belong, in sight of the Parthenon itself. A beautiful museum awaits them.

Janet Suzman, Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles 

 Now is the time, now is the hour, Prime Minister Johnson, to show that you are a true philhellene. That you truly respect not only what the brave Greeks of 1821 and following accomplished, against huge odds, in the name of liberty, but also what the Hellenes of the 5th century BCE achieved in creating a culture and a civilisation that has been an example and model to the world in the 25 centuries since. Consider what Pheidias, master-craftsman and master-designer, and architects Ictinus and Callicrates, would think if they knew that their masterpiece, the Parthenon, had been torn apart and kept apart - not only by a gunpowder explosion in the heat of battle with Venetians long, long ago but by British hands and minds, from the 7th Lord Elgin to the current Trustees of the British Museum even today. Do your duty by the Greeks, would-be philhellene PM Johnson! Reunify.

Professor Paul Cartledge, Vice-Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM) and the International Association (IARPS)

 ‘Our Prime Minister’s comments are very disappointing. He talks of friendship and cooperation with our European friends and claims that the Parthenon marbles were obtained legally. But the permit for their removal from Athens was granted by the occupying Ottoman forces and the Greeks themselves had no say in the matter.

I believe that works of art should not be returned to their country of origin save in the most exceptional of circumstances. In the case of the marbles their ownership is doubtful to say the least, the British Museum only has some of them and there is a rightful place for them at the Acropolis Museum where the surviving sculptures could be displayed in their entirety. If we are not prepared to return them permanently could we at least lend then to the Parthenon for the 2021 celebrations.’

Lord Alf Dubs, Labour Life peer

22 September 2018

When the Parthenon in Athens fell into ruins in early the 1800s, a British ambassador with permission from the Ottoman Empire preserved about half the sculptures, which are now at the British Museum. But Greeks for centuries have wanted them back; the deal was made before their country fought for independence from the monarchy. NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Christopher Livesay reports.

Watch the PBS Newshour podcast here or listen to the audio here.

Read the Full Transcript

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

A highlight of London's British Museum is one of its earliest acquisitions, the Parthenon Marbles. These sculptures once decorated the great 5th century BCE temple on the Acropolis in Greece. Considered among the great achievements of the classical world, they depict mythical creatures, stories of the gods along with average people.

• HANNAH BOULTON:

They are very significant and important masterpieces, really, of the ancient Greek world.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

Hannah Boulton is the spokesperson for the British Museum. She admits that how these classical works came to be in England is a sensitive subject, one the museum takes some pains to explain.

• HANNAH BOULTON:

I think it, obviously, has always been a topic of debate ever since the objects came to London and into the British Museum. It's not a new debate.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

The story starts in the early 1800s. The Parthenon had fallen to ruin. Half the marbles were destroyed by neglect and war. Then, a British ambassador, Lord Elgin, made an agreement with Ottoman authorities who were in control of Athens at the time to remove some of statues and friezes. He took about half of the remaining sculptures.

• HANNAH BOULTON:

And then he shipped that back to the UK. For a long time it remained part of his personal collection so he put it on display and then he made the decision to sell the collection to the nation. And the Parliament chose to acquire it and then pass it on the British Museum. So we would certainly say that Lord Elgin had performed a great service in terms of rescuing some of these examples.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

But Greeks don't see it that way. For decades now, they have argued that the Ottomans were occupiers, so the deal with Elgin wasn't valid, and the marbles belong in Greece. Why does Greece want to have the Parthenon Marbles back in Athens?

• LYDIA KONIORDOU:

It's not just bringing them back to Athens or to Greece. That's where they were created. But this is not our claim. Our claim is to put back a unique piece of art. To put it back together. Bring it back together.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

Lydia Koniordou was Greece's Minister of Culture from 2016 to 2018. We met her at the Acropolis where the Parthenon temple stands overlooking Athens.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

So first it was Lord Elgin who removed 50 percent.

• LYDIA KONIORDOU:

Almost 50 percent.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

All of the marbles, she says, have now been removed from the monument for protection from the elements. Then it was Greece that consciously decided to remove the remaining.

• LYDIA KONIORDOU:

Yes, the scientists that were responsible decided to remove and take them to the Acropolis Museum. It was nine years ago when the Acropolis Museum was completed.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

In fact, the Acropolis Museum was built in part as a response to the British Museum's claim that Greece did not have a proper place to display the sculptures. The glass and steel structure has a dramatic view of the Acropolis, so while you're observing the art you can see the actual Parthenon. The third floor is set up just like the Parthenon, with the same proportions. These friezes, from the west side of the temple, are nearly all original. On the other three sides, there are some originals but also a lot of gaps, as well as white plaster copies of the friezes and statues now in Britain.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

We believe that one day we could replace the copies with the orginals to show all this unique art in its grandeur. Every block has two or three figures and here is only one.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

Dimitrios Pandermalis is the Director of the Acropolis Museum where the story of the missing marbles differs widely from that of the British Museum. Presentations for visitors portray Lord Elgin critically. One film shows the marbles flying off the Parthenon and calls it the uncontrollable plundering of the Acropolis. You have these videos that actually show how the pieces were removed. Another film depicts how one of the marbles was crudely split by Elgin's workmen.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

He damaged the art pieces, yes.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

He did damage some of these pieces.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

Of course, it was to be expected.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

The British Museum disputes the claim Elgin damaged the sculptures. It also sees it as a plus that half the collection is in Britain and half in Greece.

• HANNAH BOULTON:

I think the situation we find ourselves in now we feel is quite beneficial. It ensures that examples of the wonderful sculptures from the Parthenon can be seen by a world audience here at the British Museum and in a world context in terms of being able to compare with Egypt and Rome and so on and so forth. But we feel the two narratives we are able to tell with the objects being in two different places is beneficial to everybody.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

But Pandermalis says rather than being in two places the sculptures should be reunified, literally. He showed us examples around the museum, including one that is almost complete save for one thing.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

So this sculpture is original except the right foot.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

And this. The chest of the god Poseidon. So the marble portion in the center where we can see clearly defined the abdomen, that's original but the surrounding portion in plaster, the shoulders, that's in London. So the piece has been completely split in half.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

Yes.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

And perhaps most dramatic, this frieze. So the darker stone is the original and the white plaster that represents what's in the British Museum.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

Yes. Exactly.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

And here it is in the British Museum. The missing marble head and chest floating in a display space.

• LYDIA KONIORDOU:

It just doesn't make sense. It's like cutting, for instance, the Last Supper of Da Vinci and taking one apostle to one museum and another apostle to another museum. We feel also it's a symbolic act today to bring back this emblem of our world. To put it back together.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

If you bring back this emblem, aren't there untold other emblems that need to be brought back. Is this a slippery slope?

• LYDIA KONIORDOU:

We do not claim, as Greek state, we do not claim other treasures. We feel that this is unique. This claim will never be abandoned by this country because we feel this is our duty.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

As for visitors to the Acropolis museum. How do you feel about the fact that half the collection is in the British Museum?

• MAN:

Not good.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

The Roscoe family is from Ohio. What do you guys think?

• JIM ROSCOE:

I think it would be nice to have them in one spot where they originated.

• EMMA ROSCOE:

You're coming here to see the history of it so it would be nice to see the complete history rather than replicas.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

You've seen them in the British Museum. So what do you think about the fact that the collection is kind of split.

• TIM:

It's sad. When you see this. I think this museum is a phenomenal place to display them. It's beautiful and they way it's been built almost waiting to have them back. It's interesting.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

As recently as May the Greek President, Prokopios Pavlopoulos, told Prince Charles that he hoped the Marbles would be returned. And the British opposition Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn has said he too is in favor of returning the Marbles to Greece. But the British Museum's position is the marbles in its collection are legally theirs. They would, however, consider a loan. After all, the British Museum regularly loans pieces from its collection to other museums around the world.

• HANNAH BOULTON:

I think we would certainly see there being a great benefit in extending that lending and trying to find ways to collaborate with colleagues, not just in Greece but elsewhere in the world to share the Parthenon sculptures that we have in our collection.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

But sharing the sculptures is not what the ancient Greeks who created them would have wanted claims Pandermalis.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

They would be very angry.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

The ancient Greeks would be very angry?

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

Yes

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

Why?

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

Because they were crazy for perfection. It was a perfection but today it is not.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

As for whether he will ever see all the remaining Parthenon Marbles together under this roof.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

I'm sure.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

You' re sure that you will see them.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

But I don't know when.

Statement written by Dame Janet Suzman, Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles read out by Danny Chivers during Saturday's BP or not BP? protest at the British Museum.

These unmatched sculptures that you see before you have a home waiting for them. These figures, part of an ancient belief system, have been stranded in the grandest refugee centre you’ve ever seen - the great British Museum itself. But home is where they were created two and a half thousand years ago. 

In Athens stands a fine building especially built to house them, and next year this New Acropolis Museum will celebrate its tenth anniversary. On its top floor there are yearning gaps where these very sculptures should be sitting, joined with the other half of the pedimental carvings and in direct sight of the ancient building from which they were chopped, and which, astonishingly, still stands proud on its ancient rock. That fact alone makes these sculptures unique; we can still see exactly where they first displayed themselves, for they were never intended as separate 'works of art', but as part of the mighty whole of Athena’s glorious temple. Who, one wonders, was a mere occupying Sultan to sign away the genius of Periclean Athens? 

Now is the time to make a grand and generous gesture to the Greek people who in distant times laid the foundations of our modern democracies and who informed our artistic heritage. No sculptures have ever matched these languishing here. They are unarguably part of a history the Greeks feel profoundly. Modern Greeks may be as distant from their forebears as we to Anglo-Saxons but that never stopped a nation feeling viscerally connected to its antecedents. 

Let’s do so by celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Acropolis Museum in 2019 with the return of their prodigals. What a fabulous birthday present that would be! How civilised and decent of the British Museumto divest itself of dated strictures belonging to an era - now so over - of colonialist finders keepers. The time has come to do the right thing. Go BM! Do it! 

For more information on BP or not BP, visit here.

Stephen Fry first wrote a wonderful 'Modest Proposal' in support of the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. This came after the campaign lost Christopher Hitchens to cancer.

The ties between Christopher Hitchens and our Committee stretch over considerable time and culminated in the third edition of his book ‘The Parthenon Marbles: A Case for Reunification’. This is available from Verso as a paperback or an ebook, the latter was launched on the 07 June 2016 at the Parthenon Marbles Bicentenary Commemorative Eventheld at Senate House. This edition was dedicated to James Cubitt and has a preface that Nadine Gordimer wrote.

Stephen Fry begins his proposal with these words:"I have a modest proposal that might simultaneously celebrate the life of Christopher Hitchens, strengthen Britain’s low stock in Europe and allow us to help a dear friend in terrible trouble."

Perhaps the most beautiful and famous monument in the world is the Doric masterpiece atop the citadel, or Acropolis, of Athens. It is called the Parthenon, the Virgin Temple dedicated to Pallas Athene, the goddess of wisdom who gave the Greek capital its name."

To read Stephen Fry's 'Modest Proposal' in full, follow the link here. 

Post writing this  proposal, Stephen took part in the Intelligence Squared debate: 'Send them back: The Parthenon Marbles should be returned to Athens',which was won 384 for to 125 against. Then in April 2013 at the invitation by the then Minister of Tourism, Olga Kefalogianni, Stephen visited Athens, the Acropolis and Benaki Museums. He went on to Delphi, Ancient Olympia and Messini. To read more on this trip, kindly visit the Greek Tourism Organisations web site here. 

On 04 November the Metro carried the story of Stephen asking the UK once again to ‘stand on right side of history’ and return the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum to the Acropolis Museum in Greece. More on this Metro article by Mel Evans here.

There are a few points to raise on the article in the Metro including the fact that the Greek government's request first started after Greece gained independence and susequent requests culminated in the 1980's when iconic Melina Mercouri visited London and made her appeal to then British Museum Director, Sir David Wilson. The aricle refers to the 'Elgin Metopes' but this ought to read 'Marbles' or sculptures as the metpes are but one set of sculptures removed from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin.

At the time that Melina came to visit the British Museum as Minister of Culture for Greece, two Committees were campaigning, the first is that of Emanuel Comino in Australia, which was founded in 1979 and BCRPM in the UK, which was founded in 1983.

Stephen Fry tweeted to his followers to support  the petition set up by John Lefas of Lefas Humanitas and the campaign 'Lost My Marbles'. Mr Lefas funded Geoffrey Robertson's book 'Who Own History' and has launched a web site to complement this new campaign, alongside a petition asking the UK Government  to respond to global calls for artefacts to be returned to their place of origin. Mr Lefas is looking to use the petition to change the British Museum Act of 1963. 

BCRPM members John Tasioulis and Edith Hall were on the panel discussion at King's College with Geoffrey Robertson earlier this year to analyse 'Who owns history?' and you can read about that event here. Professor John Tasioulas' paper covered key points in international law as he also made his own strong arguments to reunite the Parthenon Marbles on moral grounds.

In concluding, Professor Tasioulas said that "the key to the return of the Parthenon marbles is the recognition that the UK stands to gain a tremendous amount by relinquishing them. But to achieve those gains – the gains of acting and being seen to act in accordance with one’s deepest values – it must give them up freely, generously, and in the spirit of friendship, not one darkened by the shadow of legal obligation."

The 11th birthday of the Acropolis Museum, 20 June 2020

On Saturday 20 June 2020 the Acropolis Museum celebrates 11 years and welcomes back its visitors. The Museum  re-open on Monday 15 June and has undertaken all the necessary measures for the protection of  its visitors.

On Saturday, the Museum will be open from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. with a reduced entry (5 euro) to all exhibition areas. Additionally, visitors will have the opportunity to see the temporary exhibition ‘Chisel and Memory'. The contribution of marble craftsmanship to the restoration of the Acropolis monuments’, which will continue until 30 September 2020. The Museum's second floor restaurant will operate until 12 midnight .

Gallery talks held by the Museum’s Archaeologist-Hosts will commence this week. Visitors wishing to participate are required to wear a protective mask (not provided by the Museum) and to use the whisper guide system headsets (provided by the Museum to participants).

‘The lost statue of Athena Parthenos’

The Acropolis Museum brings to life, digitally, the statue of Athena Parthenos. Made of gold and ivory, this masterpiece was designed by Phidias for the Parthenon. The Museum invites  visitors on a walk of knowledge to find out more about its construction materials and techniques, its myths and allegories, its radiance and its adventures.
Greek: Every Friday at 1 p.m.
English: Every Friday at 11 a.m.
Duration: 50 minutes
Participation: Limited to 10 visitors per session. For registration, please refer to the Information Desk at the Museum entrance on the same day. First-in first-served.
Price: The general admission fee (€10) to the Museum  will cover this experience.

‘A walk through the Museum with an archaeologist’
Visitors have the opportunity to participate in evening walks through the Museum exhibition galleries, making unanticipated stops and various discussions, together with an Archaeologist-Host.
Greek: every Friday, at 8 p.m.
English: every Friday, at 6 p.m.
Duration: 60 minutes
Participation: Limited to 10 visitors per session. For registration, please refer to the Information Desk at the Museum entrance on the same day. First-in first-served.
Price: The general admission fee (€10) to the Museum will cover this walk and talk.

‘Walking in the ancient neighborhood of the Acropolis Museum’

Visitors are given the opportunity to wander through the archaeological excavation which stretches underneath the Museum, like a giant exhibit. They will be able to walk on the ancient neighborhood’s streets, take a closer look at the houses with their courtyards and wells, enter the heart of the impressive mansions with the private baths, examine the workshops with the water reservoirs, take a magical stroll through time and the daily life of the people who lived in the shadow of the Acropolis’ rock for over 4,500 years.
Greek: every Saturday & Sunday, at 1 p.m.
English: every Saturday & Sunday, at 11 a.m.
Duration: 45 minutes
Participation: Limited to 10 visitors per session. For registration, please refer to the Information Desk at the Museum entrance on the same day. First-in first-served.
Price: The general admission fee (€10) to the Museum is required (on Saturday 20/6 the general admission fee will be reduced to €5).

ACROPOLIS MUSEUM celebrates its 10th anniversary on Thursday, 20 June 2019

The Acropolis Museum celebrates 10 years of operation and throughout this period over 14.5 million local and international visitors have passed through its doors to enjoy the exhibits. The Museum publicly expresses its thanks to all of them. On the occasion of its ten years anniversary, the Museum invites visitors to the following key events:

Temporary exhibition ‘CHISEL AND MEMORY. The contribution of marble craftsmanship to the restoration of the Acropolis monuments’

11.06.2019 – 31.10.2019
Since opening its doors ten years ago, the Acropolis Museum has highlighted the close relationship between the sculptures it displays and the monuments from which they originate. It is with great pleasure that the Museum is hosting an exceptional exhibition of photographs of the marble craftsmen of the Acropolis at work. Imbued with a new curatorial spirit, the exhibition was initially organised by the Committee for the Conservation of the Acropolis Monuments and the Acropolis Restoration Service. The exhibition takes place in the ground floor Temporary Exhibition Gallery. Entrance will be free.

Lecture “The true colours of the Parthenon sculptures: evidence for traces of original polychromy and its interpretation”

Thursday, 13 June 2019, 7 p.m.

The Acropolis Museum will host a lecture of the Italian professor Giovanni Verri on the polychromy of the Parthenon sculptures, which has long been the subject of scholarly research and this debate has continued now for almost two centuries. Giovanni Verri is a Reader at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. He holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Ferrara in Italy, and an MA in Conservation of Wall Paintings from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Throughout his career, he has endeavored to develop scientific techniques for the analysis of colour, in particular on Greek and Roman antiquities. The lecture will take place in the ground floor Auditorium and entrance will be free.

Music concert ‘Stavros Xarchakos – Instrumental’

Wednesday, 19 June 2019, 9 p.m.

The Acropolis Museum invites its visitors to a unique instrumental concert by the great Greek composer Stavros Xarchakos and an orchestra of eight renowned Greek soloists. Stavros Xarchakos and the orchestra will take visitors on a musical journey comprising familiar compositions of Stavros Xarchakos, Mikis Theodorakis, Vasilis Tsitsanis, Markos Vamvakaris and Manos Hadjidakis. On this day the Museum will extend its opening hours until midnight. Entrance will be free from 8 p.m. onwards.

10 Years Acropolis Museum Celebration

Thursday, 20 June 2019

On Thursday 20 June 2019, the Acropolis Museum’s birthday, entrance to the exhibition areas will be free from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Friday, 21 June 2019

From Friday 21 June 2019 onwards, the archaeological excavation will be open to the public with the general admission fee ticket. The excavated area of 4,000 sq. meters comprises houses, workshops, baths and streets of an ancient Athenian neighborhood that existed from the classical to the byzantine years, in successive phases. This impressive archaeological site will soon be enriched with the most representative findings of the excavation. Architectural ruins will be organized in a unique exhibition set that sheds light on the everyday life of an ancient neighborhood that existed in the shadow of the Acropolis. On this day the Museum exhibition areas will be open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

To read more on the Acropolis Museum's new exhibition space, check the article by Helna Smith in the Guardian.

Tonight dignitaries gathered at the Acropolis Museum to celebrate its 13th anniversary and  to welcome two exquisite Panathenaic amphorae from  the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Canada.

Των Αθήνηθεν άθλων

These Panathenaic amphorae, crafted over 2,500 years ago, were vessels filled with oil that would have been given as a prize to the victors of contests held during the festival of the Great Panathenaia. One side is decorated with the figure of Athena Promachos and the other with scenes related to the games for which they were given as prizes. The two vessels from the Royal Ontario Museum will be exhibited in the top floor, glass-walled, Parthenon Gallery, relating with the great temple’s frieze, where Pheidias and his collaborators artfully carved the Panathenaic procession.

To read more on this exhibition which celebrate the 13th anniversary of the Acropolis Museum, follow the link here.

Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis (1940-2022)

On 14 September 2022, the Acropolis Museum lost a loved one: Dimitrios Pandermalis, Emeritus Professor of Classical Archeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His greatest contribution was the creation of the Acropolis Museum, serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the New Acropolis Museum Construction Organization from 2000 to 2019 and as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Acropolis Museum from 2009 to 2022.

The Acropolis Museum contains not only the beauty of the ancient Greek world but also the soul of its creator and we will always remember him with love and gratitude. The Museum held a 40-day memorial service at the Holy Church of Agios Georgios and Agioi Anargyros Makrygianni and on the same day an olive tree was planted in memory of its late President, which welcomes visitors at the entrance of the Museum on Mitsaion Street.

The Museum's Board of Directors named the Amphitheater after its late President and instituted the "Dimitrios Pandermalis" Classical Archaeology Scholarship Programme. For the anniversary of the Acropolis Museum, on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, the Youth Orchestra of Dion will offer visitors a free musical tribute to Greek poetry set to music, respectively dedicated to the memory of Prof. Dimitrios Pandermalis.

Artistic events and collaborations

Over the last two years, the Museum has offered its visitors a multitude of artistic events and experiences:

• Dance performances in the exhibition spaces in collaboration with the National Opera (MicroDances Athens, 9-10 October 2021).

• A musical evening for International Women's Day in the Parthenon Hall with the theme "The strange goddesses of the Parthenon" and a presentation of the work of poets of antiquity, with music by Lena Platonos and interpretation by Maria Faradouri, a collaboration with the Marianna V. Vardinogianni Foundation (08 March 2022).

• Musical events in the forecourt of the Museum with the participation of well-known performers, such as Natasa Bofiliou, in the context of the 1st Worship Music Festival, a collaboration with the Ministry of Culture & Sports and the National Opera (18-20 April 2022).

• Rachmaninoff Tribute in the Parthenon Hall, as part of the "Chamber Music in Museums" programme, in collaboration with the Athens State Orchestra (31 March 2023).

The Museum started a new collaboration with the Development and Tourism Promotion Company of the Municipality of Athens with its participation in the Athens City Festival, where it organized two tasting evenings in the restaurant combined with a guided tour of the exhibits related to ancient nutrition (12 May 2022 and 4 May 2023) and two jazz concerts on the restaurant terrace (16 May 2022 and 22 May 2023).

On the August Full Moon, the Museum offered its visitors an evening of Greek songs about the moon and film music by the Air Force Band (12 August 2022). During the festive season of Christmas, the Museum presented carols by the Children's Choir of the National Opera (22 December 2022) and the Women's Vocal Ensemble CHORES (28 December 2022), two events were held in collaboration with the National Opera. It also hosted the famous Wind Orchestra of the Music School of Ilium (19 December 2021) and, for traditional dances, the Rethymno Coat Dressers' Club of Crete (23 December 2021) and the Episcopal Club of Naoussa, Imathia Prefecture (30 December 2022).

Original thematic presentations

The Museum continues to offer free weekly themed presentations by its archaeologists, giving visitors the opportunity to discover interesting, often unknown, aspects of the ancient world. On the occasion of the action "Periodic or unexpected visitors" with works from Canada and the USA, the presentations "A celebration for Athena. The procession and games of the Great Panathenaians" (24 June 2022 - 21 April 2023) and "The world of work in ancient Athens" (05 February 2023 - 30 July 2023). In the presentation "Hidden Histories of Dispersion" (22 May 2022 - 29 January 2023), visitors discovered the adventures of smaller fragments of the Parthenon's sculptural decoration, beyond the sculptures found in the British Museum, but also of other Acropolis antiquities that are now scattered in other European museums.

At the same time, the themed "Saturday at the Museum with 20+1 masterpieces" continues until today, a special walk through the exhibition spaces that introduces visitors to ancient Greek art through myths and legends, beliefs and traditions, historical landmarks and human stories. During the summer months, the presentation "Walking in the ancient neighborhood of the Acropolis Museum", a fascinating journey through time, history and the daily life of the people who lived in the shadow of the Acropolis rock for more than 4,500 years, is offered. Visitors had the opportunity to attend this theme on 27-28 May 2023, in two extraordinary presentations as part of the pan-Hellenic anniversary event "Green Cultural Routes" organized by the Ministry of Culture and Sports.

Programmes for special audience groups

Responding to its role as a cultural organization at the service of society as a whole, the Museum implements actions and programs aimed at special groups of visitors, contributing to their social inclusion and reintegration. The Museum included in its activities regular programmes aimed at refugees and immigrants, encouraging their acquaintance and familiarization with the history and culture of the country that hosts them. At the same time, expanded cooperation with the Detention Centers of the country, offering online tours to groups of students of the second chance schools of the prisons, while carrying out programmes for special schools, structures for the treatment of the mentally ill and rehabilitation centers for people with addiction. In addition, collaboration with the Special Secretariat for the Protection of Unaccompanied Minors and the trainers of the Hospitality Structures for the planning and implementation of the inclusive action for unaccompanied minor refugees on the theme "Arts, craftsmen and professions in ancient Athens", which began in May 2023.

Schools

During the period June 2021 - June 2023, the Museum was visited by 139,740 schoolchildren from Greece and 92,802 schoolchildren from abroad. Many of them attended one of the 6 educational programmes offered by the Department of Educational Programmes. These programs are aimed at all levels of education, include attractive itineraries and are designed with modern museum-pedagogical concepts and an experiential approach. In addition, the Department offered another activity entitled "The 6th Grader at the Acropolis Museum" in collaboration with AMKE Aegea. For better communication between the Museum and schools, 2 seminars were organized for teachers of all levels of education entitled "Planning the visit to the Acropolis Museum" (25 November2022 and 09 December2022). For schools that are unable to visit the Museum, the Department of Educational Programmes recently created the "Museum in the School" programme, where schools can choose from 5 online programmes presented live by the Museum's archaeologists.

Particularly successful was the educational activity "Ironing at the Acropolis Museum", a collaboration with the neighboring 70th Primary School of Athens. On 25 November  2022, the students of the 4th grade gathered in the gardens of the Museum where the archaeologists spoke to them about the importance of the olive and its oil in ancient Athens. the agronomist gave the students important information about harvesting, and the children enthusiastically picked the olives from the olive trees of the Museum. Then, with the help of the educational materials provided by the Department of Educational Programmes, they prepared in the classroom, and took on the role of tour guides to presented to their parents those exhibits of the Museum that tell stories about the olive and the oil in ancient Athens (12 March and 02 April 2023).

Families

The Museum offered families with children a series of imaginative programmes. On the occasion of the theme "The Power of Museums" during International Museum Day 2022 (18 May 2022), digital applications for children and adults were presented in the Museum premises. On the occasion of the theme "Sustainable Heritage" during the European Days of Cultural Heritage, visitors watched the programme "In the houses of the ancients... without television and internet" (24-25 September 2022) at the Museum's archaeological excavation. During the festive season of Christmas, families participated in the programmes "Audio-narratives of strange divine births" (29 December 2021 - 30 December 2021) and "Goblin... confusions" (28 December 2022 - 05 January 2023), which continues with success until today with the "Strange Creatures at the Museum" programme. The above celebratory activities are carried out in collaboration with the Information and Education Department of the YSMA, which in addition carries out 3 school programmes at the Museum,  including 2 seminars for teachers, and participated in the activity "The 6th Grade at the Acropolis Museum" in collaboration with AMKE Aegean.

Periodic reports

From 20 December 2022 until 02 April 2023, the Museum presented in the Hall of Periodical Exhibitions the exhibition entitled "Clothes of the Soul", with 70 emblematic works of the photographer Vangelis Kyris and the exponent of the art of embroidery Anatoly Georgiev. The exhibition, held under the auspices of A.E. of the President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou, was held with the kind support of the Marianna V. Vardinogianni Foundation and the cooperation of the National History Museum.

From 24 May 2023 through 04 June 2023, the Museum hosted the exhibition "A More Perfect Union: American Artists and the Currents of Our Time" organized by the US Embassy. in Athens in collaboration with the Art in Embassies programme of the U.S. State Department, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Sports. The exhibition focused on issues of equality and freedom, with artworks by the most well-known contemporary American artists, including Bruce Nauman, Yoko Ono, Christine Sun Kim, Edward Ruscha and Carrie Mae Weems.

Unexpected visitors to the Museum

As part of the series of exhibition activities "Periodic or unexpected visitors", the Museum presented to the public works from other museums together with or independently of its exhibits. From 20 June 2022 to 23 April 2023, it hosted two fine art vases from the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada. These are two Panathenaic amphorae, the vessels that were filled with oil, and used to award prizes to the winners of the games of the Great Panathenaic festival. Their exhibition in the Parthenon hall gave them the opportunity to "converse" with the masterful frieze of the great temple, in which Phidias and his collaborators masterfully carved the Panathenaic procession of this Athenian celebration. As part of this exhibition, the Museum presented on 29 June 2022 a lecture by the Director of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Mr. Josh Basseches, on the theme of transforming the museum experience at the ROM in the 21st century.

On 05 February, 2023, it welcomed three Attic pottery vessels from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA, with performances by artisans and professionals, which were placed in the new exhibition section "Officials and Professionals", in the Hall of the Ancient Acropolis, offering visitors a more complete picture of the of working people in ancient Athens. For "International Women's Day", he presented a work - a hymn to female beauty, "Venus in the Golden Bikini", a small statue depicting the goddess in stunning jewelry and a golden garment reminiscent of a "bikini". The work traveled from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples and was presented on the ground floor of the Museum from 08 March to 28 May 2023.

Documentation of archaeological collections

The Department of Archaeological Collections continues the documentation of the collections with research, new entries, explanations of terms (glossary), bibliographic references, photographs, and drawings of the 1,112 objects that are to be presented in the on-site exhibition of the Archaeological Excavation as well as for works of the Acropolis that are kept in archaeological warehouses. The documentation and posting on the website of the 63 copies of the sculptural decorations of the Parthenon that are in the British Museum, as well as other Museums, is complete, and currently preparation is underway to post the excavation objects as well. The purpose of posting on the website, in which 2,245 projects are currently registered, is to provide the general public with free access to the information on these artefacts. At the same time, the Museum published on its website the upgraded version of the online application www.parthenonfrieze.gr, with photos and descriptions of all the surviving stones of the frieze located in the Acropolis Museum and abroad. The upgrade of the application was carried out thanks to the excellent cooperation of the Museum with the Acropolis Monuments Maintenance Service, alongside the National Center for Documentation and Electronic Content-EKT.

Maintenance of exhibits

The Conservation and Casting Department completed the conservation or re-conservation work of 322 objects (sculptures, ceramics, metal and bone), with the main one being the conservation and change of the display method of the Kouros Akr statue. 596. Also, the cleaning programme with laser technology was completed, 3D scanning of exhibits was carried out and cleaning and maintenance work carried out in the excavation (floors, mosaics, frescoes and mortars). At the same time, the Department proceeded with the production of approximately 4,204 faithful replicas of Museum exhibits and scale replicas, and the application of high-precision patina with painted details to some of them. This production is made with the aim of making the copies available exclusively at the Museum's sales offices.

Renewal of the permanent exhibition

The continuous enrichment, and renewal of the permanent exhibition is for the Acropolis Museum is an important part of the museum's practice. For this reason, a series of corrective actions, mainly in the Hall of the Archaic Acropolis, are carried out in order to divide the exhibits into their thematic sections in a rational fashion. At the entrance of the renovated hall, the visitor is greeted by the two sphinxes of the Acropolis and immediately after the Musketeer. The concentration of the archaic architectural sculptures, the Maidens and the male statues in distinct sections - allows a better intake of the museum narrative and enhances the visitor's experience.

The new exhibition section "Officials and Professionals" was also created, enabling the visitor to see with a different eye, not only the aesthetic beauty of the statues, but also the works of art, the people and the societies that produced them. At the same time, the exhibition was enriched with new works. In the Hall of the Archaic Acropolis, Kouros Akr was repositioned. 596, after the re-conservation and alignment of the trunk with the base, and the base of the laundromat of Plyntria Smikynthes (Akr. 607), the column of Simon the Gnapheus (Akr. 429) and the column with the statue of the Maiden ( Acc. 6503). The head of Homer (EAM 626), the head attributed to the orator Dexippus (EAM 581) and the architectural member with the relief symbols of Athena (Akr. 2444) were added to the north wing of the first floor. In addition, the Museum proceeded to change the lighting in the exhibition spaces of the first and third floors, creating better viewing conditions and highlighting charming details of the exhibits.

the base of the laundromat of Plyntria Smikynthes (Akr. 607),

the column with the statue of the Maiden ( Acc. 6503)

the orator Dexippus (EAM 581)

The head of Homer (EAM 626)

Reunification of the Parthenon's architectural sculptures

On 29 September 2021, a UNESCO Decision was made for the first time after 38 years of recommendations, recognizing the intergovernmental nature of the Greek request for the reunification of the Parthenon architectural sculptures. On 03 January 2022, the National Archaeological Museum returned to the Acropolis Museum ten fragments of the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon. On 10 January 2022, the "Fagan fragment" was returned from the A. Salinas Museum in Palermo. On 02 May 2022, UNESCO unanimously ratified the September 2021 Decision. On 29 May 2022, a nulla osta was issued by the Italian Ministry of Culture for the "Fagan Fragment" to leave Italy forever, as it had already been accepted by the Sicilian Authorities. On 04 June 2022, the definitive reunification of the "Fagan fragment" took place on the east frieze of the Parthenon at the Acropolis Museum.

This action paved the way for the final return of three fragments of the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon from the Vatican Museums, thanks to the decision of Pope Francis on 16 December 2022 to donate them to the Archbishop of Athens. On 07 March 2023, in the halls of the Musei Vaticani, the text of the agreement was signed between the representative of the Pope, Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, the representative of the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Father Emmanuel Papamikroulis and the Minister of Culture and Sports Dr Lina Mendoni. On the same day, the Protocol of Delivery and Receipt of the three fragments was signed by Archbishop Hieronymos II and the General Director of the Acropolis Museum, Prof. Nikolaos Chr. Stampolidis. The fragments arrived in Athens on 10 March 2023 and were reunited with the Museum's exhibit on 24 March 24 2023.

Finally, on the occasion of the General Assembly of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures held at the Acropolis Museum on 15 September 2022, the Museum in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, organised the international conference on "Parthenon and Democracy". Distinguished representatives of the international Committees for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures participated.

Professor Paul Cartledge as Vice-Chair of IARPS and BCRPM, delivered at this Conference on 16 September 2022, in the Pandremalis Auditorium of the Acropolis Museum, his presentatioon, which was aptly entitled: ‘Just how democratic (in what ways, to what extent) was the (original) Parthenon?’

Museum attendance

This two-year period was extremely important, as the operation of the Museum proceeded without interruption, taking into account the limitations created by the relevant health protocols. The total number of visitors to the Museum were as follows: 2nd Semester of 2021 there were 483,445 visitors, 1st Semester 2022 there were 567,951 visitors, 2nd Semester 2022  there were 884,583 visitors, 1st Semester 2023 there were 831,987 visitors.

On Tuesday, 20 June, an evening of poetry set to music is to be dedicated to the Acropolis Museum's late president, Professor Dimitris Pandermalis.

On that day, the Acropolis Museum will have successfully completes 14 years of operation. Sadly Professor Pandermalis will not be there but we are reminded that he served as president of the board of the Organisation for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum from 2000 until 2019, and also president of the Acropolis Museum board from 2009 until 2022.

Professor Pandermalis had been instrumental in highlighting the archaeological site at Dion, becoming attached to the area and its people. The music, performed by the Youth Orchestra of Dion, has been chosen as a tribute to Dimitris Pandermalis, and his love for the region, which was so important to him as an archaeologist.

The performance will take place outside the museum at 9 p.m. (21:00) with Nikos Patris as conductor, Alexis Kostalas presenting, and with the participation of Vasilis Lekkas, Gerasimos Andreatos, Zoi Papadopoulou and Babis Velissarios. Admission is free of charge.

BCRPM continues to remember Professor Pandermalis, and the memorable occassions he came to London. From announcing and launching the scheme for the then 'new' Acropolis Museum, to when he spoke at the RIBA with architect Bernad Tschumi. He was a friend of Eleni Cubitt's, and his passing was felt by us all.To read the tributes by a number of BCRPM members made at the time of his passing, follow the link here.