Bill Nighy, Simon Callow, Baroness, Joan Bakewell, Stockard Channing, Anna Savva,

and Dame Janet Suzman add their voices for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles

Sunday, 18 June in the British Museum’s Room 18, at 16:00 a 212-year-old poem that furiously denounces Lord Elgin for stripping the Parthenon of fabulously beautiful sculptures and friezes, and eventually selling them to the British government when they were not his to sell, will be read.  

The British Museum has housed almost half of the surviving, and fragmented Parthenon Marbles for 200 years, and refuses to give them back, arguing that they were legally acquired. No express permission from the Ottoman Sultanate who occupied Greece has ever been found to corroborate this assertion.     

 “The Curse of Minerva”, a brilliant piece of satire written in 1811 by the philhellene Romantic poet Lord Byron, will be read by acclaimed actors Bill Nighy and Simon Callow CBE; TV presenter and journalist Baroness Joan Bakewell; Stockard Channing, whose screen credits range from Grease to The West Wing; Anna Savva, the Anglo-Greek actress memorable in The Durrells, and Janet Suzman DBE, Chair of the BCRPM. Alexi Kaye Campbell, playwright and member of the Committee, will MC the event. Three Oscar Nominees in this list, plus a Golden Globe winner. 

The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM) was founded in 1983 as a result of the visit to the UK of the Greek movie star Melina Mercouri, who, as Minister of Culture demanded that Elgin’s act of depredation be reversed. The Hellenic Republic had been asking for the Marbles since 1832. Recent polls show that a large majority of Britons support this demand.  

The reading marks the latest action by the British Committee to affirm its belief that the sculptures by Lord Elgin should be reunified with their other halves in Athens at the ultra-modern Acropolis Museum, to complete the celebration of Greece’s Golden Age when the sublime Parthenon was completed in 440BC.  

The Committee’s 30 members include many of Britain’s leading classical scholars as well as writers, media personalities, legal experts and human rights campaigners. 

The recital takes place two days before this year’s 14^th anniversary of the opening of the New Acropolis Museum, where a 50-metre stretch of the Parthenon frieze is already on superb display, awaiting the eventual addition of the 80-metre section which is now held in London.

Working closely with supporters in Greece and all over the world, the Committee has argued that the Athens museum’s success creates an overwhelming case for restitution. If London’s 80-metre section were restored to its place of origin, one of the greatest aesthetic masterworks of all time, a sculpted procession of chariots, war-horses, livestock and Athenian citizens, would be restored to near-wholeness and displayed anew under the brilliant Greek light, which inspired Lord Byron’s verses. 

Minerva’s Curse was written in March 1811, shortly after the poet had seen the destruction left on the Parthenon after the violent removal of most of its surviving sculptures. It imagines the goddess Athena (also known as Minerva) arriving at the temple, which was built to honour her, and denouncing Lord Elgin for his act of desecration. Byron celebrates the beauty of Athens and the surrounding region of Attica, reflecting his belief that the genius of ancient Greece can best be understood in the landscape where it emerged.

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For more information contact Marlen Godwin on 01780 460145 or 07789533791, and email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Notes:

Notes to editors:

1. BCRPM has been campaigning for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles for 39 years and after the Acropolis Museum was opened on 20 June 2009. Current crowdfunding campaign to return the £35,000 paid to Lord Elgin in 1816 https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/reunify-the-parthenon-sculptures/backers?fbclid=IwAR2k1XmXExQvU2Dkkv7WusHjNOrs4a_gpUwzdGzROZ8hRBpHeyFtv2Rc1s8#start
2. In June 2009 Chair of the BCRPM, Professor Snodgrass, Vice-Chair Christopher Price and Secretary Eleni Cubitt attended the official inauguration of the New Acropolis Museum with members Christopher Stockdale and Marlen Godwin.
3. Protest at the BM have spanned 14 years and there have been many memorable moments, the last was 18 June 2022, when Victoria Hislop flanked by English and Greek supporters sang happy birthday to the Acropolis Museum in English and in Greek. As was the year before that, 20 June 2021, when the current Chair Janet Suzman joined a small group of protestors outside the BM to hand out a leaflet entitled ‘Tell The Story’, refuting the reasons that the BM continue to make for keeping the Parthenon Marbles divided.
4. On 20 June 2020, silent protestors gathered outside the BM officially closed with banners
5. On 20 June 20 June 2019, Hellena sang her song 10 times in Room 18, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-EkNkxl3-A
6. Several protests were made in conjunction with BP or not BP?, starting from 2018 to 202. The first in 2018, BP or not BP?’s Danny Chivers spoke in Room 18 for the first time about the plight of the Marbles. This was followed by Cypriot student Petros Papadopoulos of REUNITE, and Marlen Godwin of BCRPM in 2020 also celebrating ‘the year’ of Melina Mercouri.
7. On 15 January 2015, jazz singer Sarah Fenwick and guitarist Marinos Neofytou perform their song 'Never Again' from the duet's latest CD 'Jazz Origins', this is dedicated to the campaign for the reunification the Parthenon Marbles. The song can be heard on YouTube
8. On 22 November 2009, American student, Mary Phillips, made her one-woman silent protest and Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, stopped by briefly to have a look at Mary and declared it 'an elegant gesture'. At the end of the day, English student and Plinthian, Sofka Smales joined Mary for a photograph.
9. Student Sofka Smales stood on the 4^th Plinth in Trafalgar Square on 12 September 2009 and two days later delivered a roll of wallpaper with BCRPM founder Eleni Cubitt, to the then Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor. The wall paper carrying her written wish to see the Parthenon Marbles reunited in the newly opened Acropolis Museum.
10. Forty five students from Argostoli, Kefalonia flew into London to dance, sing and recite poetry in the courtyard of the British Museum on the afternoon of 03 May 2009.

Sunday, 18 June 2023 at 16:00 in the Parthenon Galleries of the British Museum acclaimed actors Bill Nighy and Simon Callow CBE; TV presenter and journalist Baroness Joan Bakewell; Stockard Channing, whose screen credits range from Grease to The West Wing; Anna Savva, the Anglo-Greek actress memorable in The Durrells, and Janet Suzman DBE, Chair of the BCRPM, read Byron's 'The Curse of Minerva'. This was the first time that this 212-year-old poemwas read in the British Museum's Room 18. Alexi Kaye Campbell, playwright and member of the Committee, was MC and introduced the readers, paid tribute to the Acropolis Museum and reminded us that Byron's poem contnues to have relevance today.

The Ham and High and London's Local News published the event.

On Sunday, the UK correspondents for Skai Greece, Thanasis Gavos and ERT's Nastasia Kantzavelou also attended, with special thanks to both Philippos and Andriana Kantzavelou for holding up the banner! Coverage also in Ta Nea by Yannis Andritsopoulos. 

Photos from the event below, courtesy of David Wilkinson,Gillian Boll, Stuart O'Hara and Marlen Godwin: