Tuesday, 16 November began with Prime Minister Mitsotakis on ITV's Good Morning Britain.

Greece's Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke about his nation's handling of the pandemic and on going measures; the challenges and risks facing migrants and refugees; explained that it is the long and respectful cooperation between Greece and the UK which he hopes will catapult the UK into enganing in bi-lateral talks to find a solution for the reuification of the Parthenon Marbles.

"Where there's a will", Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis added, the continued division of the sculptures from the Parthenon would be resolved.

BCRPM have campaigned for nearly 4 decades and continue to do so reinforcing that this is about reuniting a peerless collection of sculptures that belong to the Parthenon, which still stands. A magnanimous gesture from the UK to Greece in this special year, the 200th year of Greek independence would be hugely welcomed. Sentiments echoed by Prime Minister Mitsotakis.

The meeting at No 10, which followed on the same day was also covered by most of the media, you can read the summary from UK Government portal here. The concluding paragraph reads:

Prime Minister Mitsotakis raised the issue of the Parthenon Sculptures. The Prime Minister ( The Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP) said that he understood the strength of feeling of the Greek people on this issue, but reiterated the UK’s longstanding position that this matter is one for the trustees of the British Museum. 

Only two months ago it was UNESCO's ICPRCP that concluded at the 22nd session, which ended on the 29th of September evening, the Committee issued (due to the countless efforts of Greece and the invaluable support of Zambia, Egypt, and other countries-members of the ICPRCP) for the first time, a Decision concerning specially the issue of the return of the Parthenon Sculptures. The Committee urged, through the Decision, the United Kingdom to reconsider its position and to negotiate with Greece, in bona fide, acknowledging that the matter is intergovernmental - contrary to the British side's claim that the case concerns exclusively the Trustees of the British Museum - and that Greece is claiming rightly and legally the Return of the Sculptures. This new Decision, is an important development in the recognition of the legality and intergovernmental character of Greece’s just claim.

Prime Minister Mitsotakis went on to visit London's Science Museum for the opening of the exhibition, entitled ANCIENT GREEKS: SCIENCE AND WISDOM. Prime Minister Mitsotakis addressed the gathering and said: "The exhibition "Ancient Greeks: Science and Wisdom" highlights how modern scientific innovation helps to reveal more than ever about ancient Greece - allowing us to travel back in time, to an ancient civilization." He then added:"We want to work with the UK government and the British Museum to find a solution so that the Parthenon Sculptures can be seen in their entirety in Athens, where they belong. This way they can be better appreciated."

"Undoubtedly, they are best viewed in situ, and in context. That they are connected visually to the very monument which lends the sculptures their global significance, really matters. Which is why we want to work with the UK government and the British Museum on a solution that will allow for the Parthenon Sculptures to be viewed as one, in Athens.I raised the issue with Prime Minister Johnson today and I very much intend to continue working hard until the Parthenon sculptures have been returned permanently to the Acropolis Museum." To read Prime Minister Mitsotakis' full speech, please follow the link, here.

The exhibition 'Ancient Greeks: Science and Wisdom' at the Science Museum runs from 17 November 2021 to 05 June 2022.

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.

-ends-  

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.

The possible solution to Greece's long-standing request for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures from London may be held by... robots.

It is the first time in history that one of the Parthenon Sculptures in the British Museum has been replicated using digital 3D technology and a robot.

The famous chariot horse head of the goddess Selene: the ancient Greeks believed that a goddess Selene carried the moon across the sky each night. They imagined her driving a horse-drawn chariot with two white horses. Selene's crown lit up the moon as her white horses galloped across the night sky. And the horse's head in the British Museum is the exquisite sculpture carved by Pheidias in 5th century BC, and this year, 2022 digitally reproduced and carved by robotic 3D imaging machines.

The director and founder of the Institute of Digital Archaeology (IDA), Roger Michael described to ERT how they managed to scan the sculptures after the British Museum refused them permission.

"We asked the British Museum for permission to scan some of the items. We were surprised when they refused to give it to us, but we decided to take matters into our own hands and so we did the scans using portable equipment at the British Museum. We then converted these scans into a 3D model and from that 3D model, we then created this amazing marble sculpture carved from precious Pentelian marble," Roger Michael told ERT .

The Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA) chose the head of a horse of Selene, which adorned the right end of the Parthenon's East pediment, as their first work of perfect reproduction.

“It's one of the most well-known works of the Parthenon Sculptures in the British Museum, and we chose it for that very reason, because one of the things we're trying to show with this installation is how great the technology is, how close to the original we can be with this reconstruction. Because it shows an animal reaching the limits of its effort, it's really an incredible sculpture," said Mr. Michael.

"It's chilling, this accuracy! I think it's great that we can feed information into a machine that makes a perfect copy of a work made by a human hand. The magic of it is amazing," Dame Janet Suzman, the Chair of the  tells ERT.

Ms. Suzman, a multi-award winning actress was introduced to the plight of these sculptures, and the campaign by “ the tornado that was Melina Mercouri when she came here to the UK and swept us all along with her, she was a strong wind. And we were like autumn leaves falling and that's when I got excited," as she described her meeting with the culture Minister at the time.

Shuttershock image, user ID 361013921. Photo of Jane Suzman with Melina Mercouri and Vanessa Redgrave 

The Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA) is proposing to replace the Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum with exact replicas, something that covers the museum's argument as an educational institution and at the same time restores the Greeks' connection to their ancient heritage.

The debate has been intense in recent months about the Greek request, the people support it as shown by the opinion polls, and the Chair of the British Museum, George Osborne himself said that "an agreement is possible". But has the time for such an agreement arrived?

"Greeks love sculptures not only because they represent Greece in that part of history. Greece has many sculptures from the fifth century that do a much better job than these objects of representing this art. They love these works because of what they represent. They are part of their national pride, their heritage, for sentimental reasons, and that is why the originals must return to Greece. Britain needn't care about any of this. It's not their story. It is not their national heritage. It's not their national pride," Roger Michael told ERT.

Asked if she thought the British Museum would take up the idea, Dame Suzman replied: “ It's very imaginative at the moment. That seems to be the case. They haven't gotten there yet. But I think they will. Because they have to. They need to get their feet out of the mud. They are stuck in the mud. They are stuck."

"For 200 years, these things did their job, to awaken British academic, historical, social circles, and the awareness of the classical world was a huge resurgence of research and science , which these guys did," she says, pointing to sculpted replica of the horse's head.

"As my grandmother would say, enough already. They have to go home. They have to go." Dame Suzman stated categorically.

Roger Michael reveals to ERT that he spoke to the Chair of the British Museum, George Osborne in the summer and "there is no doubt that this will happen".

George Osborne has already told The Times "there is a deal that can be done".

The founder of the Digital Technology Institute said Greece's Ambassador, Ioannis Raptakis was speaking directly to Mr Osborne and he thought "negotiations are going very well."

Mr. Michael emphasized that, " in fact, I would not be surprised if when the Prime Minister of Greece comes to England next week he makes some very optimistic announcement. George Osborne is very clever. He is very successful. He's a politician, but he's also the publisher of a major newspaper, so he not only understands politics, but how to communicate politics. He is a man who cares about his heritage. He does not want to be the last who against the moral judgment of the whole world hangs from these things like grim death. He wants to be the man who finds a solution to a 200-year-old conflict and to be a hero, here in Britain but also in Greece, that's the person he wants to be. I guarantee you that's what I got from talking to him. And this is what I take from the knowledge of people who know him. But Ambassador Raptakis is exactly the same, a very pragmatic man but also a man who I think also cares about his legacy and would like nothing better than to be the man who negotiates an agreement ," Mr. Michael pointed out, noting that the problem may be the word to be used, however diplomacy is working in this direction and he thinks "we will hear some good news very soon."

Roger Michel of the Institute of Digital Archaeology (IDA), the 3D sculpted horse's head at the Freud Museum and Ambassador Ioannis Raptakis, Greece's Ambassador to the UK

ERT asked the British Museum about the new proposal and received the following answer:

”There are replicas of the British Museum Parthenon Sculptures in the Acropolis Museum, where they are displayed alongside the sculptures that remained in Athens. Our Greek colleagues from the Acropolis Museum have been to the British Museum in 2013 and 2017 to scan sculptures from the Parthenon."

The horse's head is on display at the Freud Museum in London. "The construction time of the copy was about two months, while it costed about 100 thousand euros"  explained Alexi Karenovska, Director of Technology of the Institute of Digital Archaeology and added that "the next copy will be the depiction of the Battle of the Titans from the Metopian fragment of Parthenon, also in the British Museum."

The first exact copy of the Parthenon Sculptures, the Selene's horse head in the British Museum with the help of 3D digital technology took its place in history, reviving hope for the repatriation of the originals to the Acropolis Museum.

Interview by: Evdoxia Lymberi, to read the article online and watch the news bulletin, follow the link to ertnews.gr here.

All News from Greece and the World @ ertnews.gr

Yannis Andritsopoulos, London Correspondent for Ta Nea, Greece's daily newspaper reporting on yesterday's peaceful protest at the British Museum.

The first-ever ‘protest concert’ held in the British Museum’s Duveen Gallery took place in London yesterday, Thursday 20 June 2019. This also marked the Acropolis Museum’s 10th anniversary with singer and songwriter Hellena performing her song for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

This peaceful protest took place in the British Museum’s Parthenon Gallery. Hellena sang '‘The Parthenon Marbles (bring them back)', which she has written in support of the campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles. The song was performed, a capella, 10 times – once for every anniversary year of the Acropolis Museum.

“I wanted the Museum’s visitors to learn the truth and those who run the Museum to understand that there is no way we can stop asking for the Parthenon Marbles to be returned,” Hellena told Ta Nea, Greece’s daily newspaper. “I am very proud of this song, which fully reflects my beliefs and feelings, but also the feelings of millions of people all over the world.”

Hellena’s song was released yesterday, 20 June 2019, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Acropolis Museum – where she believes the marbles should be housed once they are returned to Greece. The song will be used by organisations around the world to “raise awareness of an injustice dating back over 200 years.”

The protest was held in collaboration with the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM) and the International Organising Committee - Australia - for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles.

“Hellena is a beautiful and talented singer and songwriter, whose soul has connected to the plight of the surviving and fragmented Parthenon Marbles. A 200 years old request and yet for young people today, it is a new call, perhaps just 10 years old, the anniversary of the superlative Acropolis Museum,” Marlen Godwin, BCRPM’s spokesperson, told Ta Nea.

“For all generations the art of music brings hope and it is hope that will keep this cause alive forever. We thank Hellena for her song and look to the day when music may change the plight of these sculptures for millions to appreciate what the ancients hoped we’d understand and what one, very special museum can do to show respect for an equally special museum, a home to a Parthenon Gallery where this peerless collection is exhibited the right way around, in context and with views to the Parthenon, which still stands. As generation Z look to visit museums for physical spaces they can invest in, communities they can engage with and belong to, it is time for the British Museum to look for other exemplars for Room 18 and allow the sculptures from the Parthenon still in London to re-join their halves in Athens,” she added.

On 7 June 1816, British Parliament voted to purchase from Lord Elgin his collection of sculpted marbles from the Parthenon and elsewhere on the Acropolis of Athens.Despite repeated requests from Greece and elsewhere to find a way to reunite them, these have remained in the British Museum.

On 20 June 2009, the Acropolis Museum in Athens was opened to the public. Since it opened it has welcomed over 14 million visitors from all over the world. The missing sculptures, those still in the UK, are exhibited as casts.

This news report was published in Ta Nea, Greece’s daily newspaper (www.tanea.gr) on 21 June 2019 and to read the Greek version of this article, please click here.

To hear Hellena's song, click here.

An interview with Professor Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow, Clare College. Emeritus A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, Cambridge.

Paul Cartledge is the longest serving member of British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM), and is a Vice Chair of both BCRPM and the International Association for Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures (IARPS).

In this interview by Russell Darnley of the International Organising Committee – Australia for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles (IOC-A-RPM) Paul critiques the arguments advanced by the British Museum (BM) in its attempt to justify retention of the Parthenon Marbles. To watch Episode 2 (with two parts) on the Parthenon Channel, follow the link for Part 1and Part 2.

The present display in Room 18, where the Parthenon Marbles are kept is so poor that it undercuts any benefit that might accrue to the Museum by their holding, and displaying them.

There is such a ton of other terrifically good 5th-century BCE artefacts in the BM to illustrate more than adequately our (Western) heritage/legacy from 5th century BCE Athens/Greece that the BM doesn't need the Parthenon Sculptures to do that job as well (not to mention that, were the BM to release their prisoners, the Greek Government would compensate it mightily in the form of superb, hitherto unexported artefacts for temporary loan and display in Room 18).

Russell Darnley of the International Organising Committee – Australia for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles (IOC-A-RPM) in conversation with Professor Paul Cartledge, Vice-Chair of BCRPM.

Saturday 22 July, 2023, the Aspects of History pocast with Oliver Webb-Carter discussed the long running culural conundrum that keeps the Parthenon Marbles mainly divided between two great museums of the world: the Acropolis Museum, Athens and the British Museum, London.

Aspects of History's editor, Oliver welcomed Paul Cartledge, ancient historian and the author of countless books on ancient Greece with Dr Tessa Dunlop, author, biographer and presenter.

This morning, I had the privilege of speaking on Greek TV and radio about the latest progress in the discussions on the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

As a member of the British Committee for the Reunification of Parthenon Marbles, I highlighted the pivotal role of UNESCO’s ICPRCP, whose work over the past decade has garnered global support and influenced key decisions. It is on this international platform that both the British Museum and the UK government faced strong criticism for the time it has taken to begin bilateral discussions with Greece.

This year at UNESCO ICPRCP's 24th session in Paris, it was Zeynep Boz, the delegate from Türkiye, head of the Turkish Culture Ministry’s department for combating trafficking in antiquities that declared there was no firman, no permission granted to Lord Elgin to allow the removal of the sculptures from the Parthenon.   

The return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece feels closer than ever! According to a recent article in The Economist, 2025 could mark significant progress in the ongoing talks between Greece and the UK.

On 15 June, BCRPM's Chair Janet Suzman with members Victoria Hislop and George Gabriel plus supporters gathered in the BM's Room 18 to mark the Acropolis Museum's 15th anniversary. They also delivered a letter to Director of the British Museum, Nicholas Cullinan and shortly afterwards Nicholas Cullinan responded to Janet Suzman, BCRPM's Chair saying that “creating a new relationship with Greece regarding the Marbles will be a clear priority.”

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, last November also said that if a mutually acceptable agreement is reached between the UK and Greece, the British government “will not stand in the way.”

Avgoustinos Galiassos on Greek TV and radio 

BCRPM marking the 13th, 14th and 15th anniversary of the Acropolis Museum in the British Museum

Dr Tessa Dunlop is best known for her appearances across numerous TV talk shows and history documentaries in a broadcast career that began with BBC2’s Coast. She has written three successful oral history books centred on WWII and women and one royal biography.

Tessa studied Modern History at Oxford University and has an MA/PHD from Sheffield Hallam University that focused on the British-Romanian relationship at the beginning of the twentieth century. With a passion for Romania including extensive broadcast work for BBC Radio 4/World Service and several Romanian media networks, her interest extends to the so-called ‘Balkan rubric’ and Britain’s othering of these south-east European countries and their history. That includes modern Greece and the disconnect between Britain’s professed adoration of Ancient Greece and our failure to return their most important artefacts – the Parthenon Marbles.

A relative newbie to the cause, she first became vocal on this subject in December 2023.

Oliver Webb-Carter studied Ancient History and Classical Archaeology at the University of Warwick. He worked as an archaeologist in Central America and for the Museum of London before changing career and heading to the City for nearly two decades.

He returned to his first love of history and co-founded Aspects of History in 2020, a magazine, website and podcast dedicated to history and historical fiction.

A passionate Philhellene, Oliver has travelled extensively in Greece and first wrote to the UK government in 1999 to request the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

Janet Suzman, Chair of BCRPM and Paul Cartledge, Vice-Chair plus all of BCRPM's thirty members, welcome Tessa and Oliver to the committee.

On behalf of all of us at The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, I extend our fervent good wishes to His Majesty for a successful recovery.

We hold his support for the Greek cause very dear, and we wish him robust good health for many years to come.

Janet Suzman, Chair

Helen Glynn, from BP or not BP? said:

‘The Troy exhibition has inspired us to create this magnificent beast, because the Trojan Horse is the perfect metaphor for BP sponsorship. On its surface the sponsorship looks like a generous gift, but inside lurks death and destruction. This is our 40th performance intervention at the British Museum: for eight years our peaceful creative protests have been dismissed and the museum has continued to back BP. Now the planet is literally burning. So we invite everyone to come along to our mass action tomorrow and make sure the museum can no longer ignore the fact that, in order to have a liveable planet, BP Must Fall.’

Those that gathered on Saturday 08 February 2020 to support the activists and the performers, were all targeting BP’s sponsorship of the museum’s current Troy: Myth and Reality exhibition.

Multiple groups from around the world came together in the museum to make the links between climate change, fossil fuel extraction, colonialism, human rights abuses and workers’ rights, using the museum as a backdrop for calls for justice and decolonisation and reimagining what a truly enlightened, responsible and engaged British Museum could look like.

Room 18, The Parthenon Galleries was no exception. Groups gathered to hear Danny Chivers of BP or not BP? helped by Marlen Godwin of the BCRPM, to explain the connection of Saturday's protest againt BP sponsorship of exhibitions at the British Museum, with the unfair 200 year plus division of the Parthenon Marbles. The peerless collection of the sculptures from the Parthenon are mainly exhibited between the British Museum in London and the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

BCRPM has been campaigning for the return of the sculptures from London to Athens, since 1983. The 'new' Acropolis Museum was officially opened in June 2009, picking up an award in London in November 2010. In June 2019, it celebrated it's 10th anniversary and BCRPM helped Hellena Micy sing her song for the Parthenon Marbles in Room 18. Hellena sang  her song 10 times, once for every year that the museum in Athens has welcomed visitors from all over the world. To listen to Hellena's song, please follow the link here.

2020 is also Melina Mercouri year. With that in mind, BCRPM had t-shirts printed for the day and included in the presentations in Room 18 the background to Melina's pleas for the return of the sculptures. We would like to thank the Melina Mercouri Foundation for their kind permission to use the image of Melina on the t-shirt. If you would like to order one, kindly email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Celebrating the activist Melina Mercouri, who had championed for all freedoms, from the freedom of speech and to more, BCRPM also remembered their Chair, Dame Janet Suzman when she had campaigned and protested against  aparththeid in South Africa. These two activist women share a great deal, from acting to their passionate protests, to their love for the Parthenon and its sculptures. To this day Janet continues to be enthusiastic about protests in the BM, so much so that in 2018, she wrote words that Danny Chivers read out in Room 18.

In 2019 at another BP or not BP? protest, Cambridge University stdent Petros Papadopoulos also quoted Janet during his passionate plea for the 'RETURN' of the marbles to Athens.

 And so to the protest on 08 February 2020, Janet's words were heard in Room 18 once again: 

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 this year in June, the New Acropolis Museum will celebrate its eleventh 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 do the right thing. SIMPLE JUSTICE DEMANDS IT! GO BM! Do it! 

The protest was also covered in Ta Nea with an article by Yannis Andritsopoulos, UK Correspondent for Ta Nea, based in London. 

05 January 2022, The Telegraph

Nick Squires in the Telegraph: 'Britain should put best foot forward like Italy and give Elgin Marbles back, says Greece.'Athens museum chief hopes return of stone foot fragment from Sicily will put pressure on British Museum to return large friezes.'

“Good for Sicily,” said Janet Suzman, the chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. “We expect the British Museum to make a more magnanimous gesture.

I cannot think of a single argument in favour of keeping the legacy of Greece locked in Bloomsbury. Certain things must be returned and the Parthenon Marbles deserve to be reunited in the Acropolis Museum.”

To read the article in full, follow the link to the Telegraph.

The Guardian, Angela Giuffrida

Italy returns Parthenon fragment to Greece amid UK row over marbles.

Loan deal could renew pressure on Britain to repatriate ancient Parthenon marbles to Athens.

The Antonino Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum in Palermo, Sicily, returns to the Acropolis Museum, the foot of a goddess for a loan period of four years to be extended by a further four years. However, the move back to Greece could eventually become permanent.

The fragment was loaned to Greece in 2002 and in 2008. Sicily’s councillor for culture, Alberto Samonà said the latest transfer could become permanent, but that it would be up to the Italian culture ministry to take the measures needed to make that happen.

To read the article in full, follow the link to the Guardian.

Acropolis Museum, 03 January 2022

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaking (in Greek) on Monday 03 January at the Acropolis Museum when 10 Parthenon Marble fragments were transferred from the National Archaeological Museum to the Acropolis Museum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gozU5WyrOoM

"Precious fragments of the Parthenon Sculptures were reunited today in the Acropolis Museum. It was a small but significant step, and I hope others now play their part in completing this important journey to reunify a truly unique monument of human civilisation."

British Museum 'huge breakthrough', a propaganda stunt according to the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles

The announcement of a "huge breakthrough" by the British Museum, with the discovery of blue paint on some figures from the Parthenon Marbles, looks uncommonly like a propaganda stunt, timed to divert attention from the opening of the New Acropolis Museum in Athens.

The original presence of colour on the Parthenon Marbles has been a matter of common knowledge for years. What is more, ordinary viewers can still see, with their own eyes, traces of it (in this case, dark green) surviving on the drapery in at least one of the original slabs, from the West Frieze of the Parthenon, which is in the new museum in Athens.

Professor Anthony Snodgrass, Chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles commented "it hardly needs 'a new imaging technique' to tell us what we can see for ourselves."

No doubt the British Museum's sculptures also once preserved some of their colour - that is, until Lord Duveen's drastic "cleaning" operation of 1937- 1938, which was designed deliberately to erase any trace of patina or colour.

"By all means let the debates over the proper care of the Parthenon Marbles continue - but on a grown-up level, please" concludes Professor Anthony Snodgrass.

Professor Anthony Snodgrass is a Fellow of the British Academy and Professor Emeritus of Classical Archaeology, University of Cambridge. The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures (www.parthenonuk.com) has been established since 1983.

Ends: Issued on behalf of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles on 26 June 2009, press contact Marlen Taffarello 07789533791/01780 46145 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Ahdaf Soueif, a Trustee of the British Museum since 2012, resigned a few days ago.This is the first time that a Trustee from the British Museum has resigned for moral and ethical reasons.

"Public cultural institutions have a responsibility: not only a professional one towards their work, but a moral one in the way they position themselves in relation to ethical and political questions. The world is caught up in battles over climate change, vicious and widening inequality, the residual heritage of colonialism, questions of democracy, citizenship and human rights. On all these issues the museum needs to take a clear ethical position." wrote Ahdaf SoueifAhdaf Soueif.

On twitter, we've been retweeting articles about this resignation with the hashtag #WednesdayWisdom, not because we wish to have another go at the British Museum but because we sincerely hope that Dame Jane Suzman's Cambridge debate address delivered with passion on 25 April,  will be heard again, especially when she said: 'the Parthenon Marbles can no longer be kept hostages of time in Room 18.' This was fueled by her visit to Athens ten days prior to attend a conference organised by the President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopios Pavlopoulos, where he said how "miserable and completely unworthy of Britain's tradition is the attitude of the British Museum's officials today, who thus end up appearing inferior to the circumstances and the necessities pertaining to the defence of World Cultural Heritage and our common Civilisation and, furthermore are unrepentant accomplices of Elgin's cultural crime.” 

Ahdaf Soueif announced her resignation in an open letter published by the London Review of Books blog: ‘My resignation was not in protest at a single issue; it was a cumulative response to the museum’s immovability on issues of critical concern to the people who should be its core constituency: the young and the less privileged.’

Asked whether she thinks that the British Museum should be engaged in talks with Greece about returning the Parthenon Sculptures, Soueif told Yannis Andritsopoulos, London Correspondent of Ta Nea, Greece’s daily newspaper: “I believe it would be in everyone's interests for the Museum to engage in open, honest and transparent discussions with everyone who feels they have a claim on objects held by the Museum.”

Asked if she thinks that the Parthenon Sculptures should be returned to Greece, Soueif said she “cannot really comment more specifically,” but added that “these claims can only be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.”

BCRPM took part in the BP or not BP? protests with campaigner Danny Chivers, reading a statement from Dame Janet Suzman on Saturday 8 December 2018 in the Parthenon Gallery.

This was followed by 22 year old campaigner Petros Papadopuolos, a second year Cambridge student speaking in Room 18 during the BP or not BP?  'Stolen Goods Tour' of 04 May 2019.

Ahdaf Soueif raised her concerns with BP’s high-profile sponsorship of exhibitions at the museum: ‘It was an education for me how little it seems to trouble anyone – even now, with environmental activists bringing ever bigger and more creative protests into the museum.The public relations value that the museum gives to BP is unique, but the sum of money BP gives the museum is not unattainable elsewhere.’ she is quoted as saying in Frieze.

Just last week the Director of the British Museum Hartwig Fischer announced that the Museum will continue its relationship with BP.  From 21 November this year to 08 March 2020, BP will sponsor the museum’s upcoming exhibition “Troy, Myth and Reality”.

Soueif also raised her concern over the museum’s failure to respond to a report published in 2018, which recommended the full restitution of looted African artefacts. The report noted in that some 90% of African cultural heritage currently exists outside of the continent and is displayed in major Western museums. Economist Felwine Sarr and art historian Bénédicte Savoy were charged by Macron to develop a clear framework of what this restitution means, philosophically and politically, and what needs to be done.

In the resignation letter, Soueif goes on to cite the museum’s employment policies, which she says pushed workers into ‘economic precarity’ with its unwillingness to rehire workers following the bankruptcy of service provider Carillion in 2018. 

Dame Janet Suzman, Chair of the BCRPM salutes Ahdaf Soueif and hopes that her resignation will ensure a change of heart with the British Museum's Board of Trustees. "What Ahdaf Soueif has said and done, must not fall on deaf ears or be swept aside and ignored. The time for change is here."   

"As governments are never tired of reminding us, the responsibility for all decisions on the British Museum’s holdings lies with the Board of Trustees, as an independent body. We can only hope that a new Trustee can be found who is as principled and well-informed as Ahdaf Soueif." Professor Anthony Snodgrass, Hon President of BCRPM

03 September 2019 Yannis Andritsopoulos, London Correspondent for Ta Nea, Greece's daily newspaper wrote his report following Prime Minister Mitsotaki's offer of a loan to the British Museum made in an article published in the Guardian.

The Greek government must acknowledge the British Museum’s ownership of the Parthenon sculptures before its Trustees consider whether or not to lend the marbles to Greece, a museum representative told Ta Nea, Greece’s daily newspaper.

“A precondition for any loan would be an acceptance of ownership of those objects by the Trustees / the Museum”, a British Museum spokesperson told Ta Nea, commenting on Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s recent statement that he will ask Prime Minister Boris Johnson to approve a loan of the Parthenon Marbles to Athens in a temporary swap with other ancient artefacts.

“The Trustees will consider any loan request for any part of the collection. As yet there has been no direct contact from the Greek authorities regarding the proposal made over the weekend”, a British Museum’s spokeswoman said, stressing that “as an arms-length body, this would be a matter for the Trustees not the UK Government.”

“The British Museum is committed to sharing its collection as widely as possible, as one of the leading lenders of objects in the world we lent over 5,000 objects to venues in the UK and internationally last year,” she added.

“The Parthenon Sculptures are legal property of the British Museum. They are free to view, have been on display for over two hundred years, and millions from across the world have seen them”, a Downing Street spokesperson told Ta Nea.

“Decisions relating to their care are taken by the Trustees of the British Museum - free from political interference,” the UK government’s spokesperson said.

Mitsotakis told the Observer on Sunday that he would ask the new British prime minister to lend the marbles to Greece as part of its bicentennial celebrations in 2021.

“Given the significance of 2021, I will propose to Boris: ‘As a first move, loan me the sculptures for a certain period of timeand I will send you very important artifacts that have never left Greece to be exhibited in the British Museum’,” said the Greek premier.

On 7 June 1816, British Parliament voted to purchase from Lord Elgin his collection of sculpted marbles from the Parthenon and elsewhere on the Acropolis of Athens. They were then passed to the British Museum, where they are now on display. The British Museum is an arms-length body not under the control of the UK government.

“The International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures (IARPS) and the twenty National Committees worldwide congratulate and firmly support Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his efforts to reunite the Parthenon Sculptures in the Acropolis Museum in Athens for the festive bicentennial commemoration of the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence in 2021”, Dr Christiane Tytgat, President of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures (IARPS) told Ta Nea.

“The loan proposition Prime Minister Mitsotakis successfully agreed with French President Macron last week - the South metope X of the Parthenon on display in the Louvre in return for a collection of bronze artefacts from Greece - was a first step on the way to making a breakthrough in the long ongoing claim by the Hellenic Government for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures in Athens,” she added.

“We warmly welcome the announcement Prime Minister Mitsotakis made in an interview with The Observer stating that he is going to propose to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, [quote] “as a first move, to loan me the sculptures for a certain period of time and I will send you very important artefacts that have never left Greece to be exhibited in the British Museum.”

“We sincerely hope that Prime Minister Johnson, as a philhellene and Classically educated person, will give this proposition consideration, and we wish Prime Minister Mitsotakis every possible success in his campaign to reunite the Parthenon Sculptures in the Acropolis Museum in 2021,” Dr Tytgat said.

“The difference between Macron’s thoughtful, sensible and sensitive attitude to ill-gotten colonial gains stands as an admonishment to the BM’s present snooty inflexibility, which won’t deign to enter a discussion on the matter but maintains radio silence through diplomatic channels and tells outdated stories through public ones, but we fervently hope for better things from the dear British Museum very soon, as times they are a-Changing,” Dame Janet Suzman, Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, told Ta Nea.

“A twinge of discomfort might be starting to manifest itself since the BM has, we are told, printed up in the Duveen Galleries for the general public to digest, a pamphlet telling its ageing trope about universality. We would like them to show a further inclination to fair debate by publishing alongside their screed the now current view that it is high time the Parthenon marbles were graciously returned to be exhibited next to their other halves in the Parthenon Gallery of the superlative Acropolis Museum,” Dame Janet said. 

She added that “it would be nice if the Museum manifested a more Macronesque largesse of spirit in regard to what belongs to the Sacred Rock and the people of Greece.”

“A mutually agreed exchange of loans is certainly far preferable to the BM's shameless soft diplomacy 'loan' of 'Ilissos' to President Putin some five years back. That I thought was a calculated insult to the Greek government. President Macron's statements on the unconditional return/reunification of 26 African art objects from France paved the way for the recent talks between Greece and France,” Professor Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture emeritus, University of Cambridge, Vice-Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, told Ta Nea.

“But of course we of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM) and the International Association for the Return of the Parthenon Sculptures (IARPS) hope for and expect much more in due course - namely, the total reunification in the Acropolis Museum of ALL pieces originally from the Parthenon that are currently held in museums outside Greece (not only in the BM)! But of course we campaign especially on behalf of the Marbles currently held (prisoner) in the BM,” Professor Cartledge said.

“For that eventual reunification the Greek Govt of the day will certainly reciprocate most handsomely with spectacular loans - such as those that are scheduled or will be scheduled to go to the Louvre no doubt will be,” he added.

Published in Ta Nea, Greece’s daily newspaper (www.tanea.gr) on 03 September 2019

 English version: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/greek-pm-told-he-must-recognise-british-museum-secure-andritsopoulos/

Original version (in Greek): https://www.tanea.gr/print/2019/09/03/lifearts/tha-eksetasoume-crto-aitima-sas-monon-ean/

26 February 2013

Cameron's views on returnism not supported by BCRPM

Prime Minister Cameron's views on 'retunism' not supported by BCRPM and others too.

Sharon Heal for Museums Journal :

http://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/26022013-cameron-condemned-for-lack-of-understanding-over-returnism-restitution-elgin-parthenon

PM's concept is simplistic and inadequate, say critics Prime minister David Cameron has been condemned for a lack of understanding following his statement last week about restitution of cultural objects.

Cameron was answering questions on a state visit to the site of the Amritsar Massacre, where British troops killed 379 Indians, when he was asked if he thought that the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which is part of the Crown Jewels, should be returned as goodwill gesture. The prime minister said he didn’t believe in “returnism” and that wasn’t the right approach.

He added: “It’s the same question with the Elgin Marbles and all these other things. I think the right answer is for the British Museum and other cultural institutions in Britain is to do exactly what they do, which is link up with museums all over the world to make our collections, all the things that we have and look after so well - are properly shared with people around the world.”

But the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles has censured the prime minster for conflating the two cases.

Eddie O’Hara, Chairman of the BCRPM, said that each case must be judged by its merits.

 “In the case of the Parthenon marbles it is the probably unique demand for the reunification of the integral sculptured components of a Unesco world heritage monument, acquired in circumstances that were at best dubious, in an act of cultural vandalism.”

 He added: “The fact that he conjoined two such widely differing cases as the Koh-i-Noor diamond and the Parthenon Marbles, and the fact that he called the latter the "Elgin" Marbles suggests that he does not appreciate what a simplistic and inadequate concept ‘returnism’ is.”

 Additional notes:

1. "By the way, did Mr Cameron not notice the simultaneous outburst of "returnism" in the popular press at the removal in dubious circumstances for sale abroad  of a Banksy mural from a London building whose only cultural pretension was this spray on addition?" Questions Eddie O'Hara Chairman for the British Committee for the Reunification of the Partrhenon Marbles
2. Decolonising Culture by Christopher Price, Vice Chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (updated by Marlen Godwin)

Time was when European imperial powers assumed that theft and despoliation of cultural treasures from more fragile countries could be carried out with immunity.This is why in the 21^st century, the issue of looted art from the colonial era, refuses to go away.

Thankfully in the last decade we have had ‘movement’ starting with Tony Blair and the initiative to return the human remains of the Aborigines back to Australia. Italy has used the extent of their legal powers to promote arrangements with US museums to return disputed objects. At the same time initiatives and amendments to the Museum Law  also produced positive results for Holocaust looted objects being returned to ‘first peoples’ to whom they are meaningful and precious. UNESCO and ICOM continue with their efforts for a  global code of conduct over restitution of disputed cultural objects. More recently the European Commission is also planning to help Member States recover national treasures, which have been unlawfully removed from their territory by amending its current legislation.

Yet UK and the British Museum are sadly ‘stuck’ and this was reinforced by Mr Cameron’s comment that he doesn’t support ‘returnism’.

The majority of the surviving pieces of the Parthenon sculptures are mainly divided between Athens and London, between two superb museums: the recently opened Acropolis Museum and the long established British Museum.

In order to safeguard the ‘new’ reasons for keeping this peerless work of art divided between two major European cities, Neil MacGregor, the charismatic Director of the British Museum launched his History of the World and he has emphasised in interviews that the Marbles ‘tell a different story’ in the British Museum. A story that only suits the British Museum's narrative? Surely and as a sign of respect for what the ancients left behind, the best story that these sculptures ought to narrate is that which can be understood when they are viewed as closely as possible to the Parthenon, which still stands!

Research on museum visitors has concluded that the average visitor does not make meaningful connections between the randomly acquired objects held by ‘encyclopaedic’ museums. Indeed, given the choice between viewing the Parthenon Marbles within the artificial contexts applied to them by British Museum curators and experiencing them in the city of Athens from which they originate, the overwhelming evidence is that the majority of the public would prefer to see them returned to Athens.

Sharon Waxman in my opinion was the person that got closest to the core of the problem. She insisted in her book “Loot” that current “political possession” should and could  be replaced by “cultural cooperation”.

Although the British Museum trustees are not convinced, the British public (to whom the trustees are responsible) disagree. Polling results including the Museum Journal’s poll prior to the BCRPM’s International Colloquy in London last June, clearly show that there is a strong belief that the fragmented Parthenon marbles deserve to be reunited and seen as a whole in context  and with views to the building they were created for.

The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles now in its 30^th year of campaigning  believes that a solution can be found. A solution which would earn the respect  for both museums and would not be seen as a victory or defeat for either. This solution needs imagination from the museums and support from their respective governments.

The worldwide support for reunification would recognise that progress can be achieved and abandoning the relics of cultural colonialism will improve cultural cooperation, which in turn may have a far reaching effect on other sectors . Mr Cameron’s goal of increasing trade relations and improving  the economy and indeed earning him and his party more votes, starts here. It isn’t about ‘returnism’ Mr Cameron but about cooperation - a word that would instantly enhance David Cameron standing, not just in this country but globally.

23 May 2020, Athens, Greece

Greece's  Minister of Culture and Sport,  Lina Mendoni restated the long-standing request for the British Museum to return the Parthenon Marbles, ahead of the 11th anniversary of the Acropolis Museum.

The British Museum in London continues to refuse to return the Parthenon Marbles. The 2,500-year-old sculptures were forcibly removed from the Parthenon, by British diplomat Lord Elgin in the early 19th century when Greece was under Ottoman Turkish rule.

Prior to the opening of the Acropolis Museum on 20 June 2009,  the British Museum had argued that Greece had 'no where to display' the Parthenn Marbles. Now nearly 11 years since the purpose-built Acropolis Museum was opened  to house the antiquities from the Acropolis, the British Museum continues to argue that the sculptures in London are best viewed in London as they can be seen in the context of world cultures.

On 24 January 2019, Ioannis Andritsopoulos, Ta Nea's UK correspondent , interviewed British Mumseum Director, Hartwig Fischer who said: "since the beginning of the 19th century, the monument’s history is enriched by the fact that some (parts of it) are in Athens and some are in London where six million people see them every year. In each of these two locations they highlight different aspects of an incredibly rich, layered and complex history."

"People go to some places to encounter cultural heritage that was created for that site. They go to other places to see cultural heritage which has been moved and offers a different way to engage with that heritage. The British Museum is such a place, it offers opportunities to engage with the objects differently and ask different questions because they are placed in a new context.We should cherish that opportunity." Concluded Dr Fischer.

On Sunday 23 February 2020,  the then Deputy Editor of the Sunday Times, Sarah Baxter wrote her modest proposal for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, aptly entitled: "The sane move is to give Greece back its Elgin marbles".

The first 'modet proposal' was written by Christopher Hitchens (pages 104 to 106) in the third edition of 'The Parthenon, The Case for Reunification'published by Verso in May 2008 and launched at Chatham House, London by the BCRPM. The second was written by Stephen Fry in 2011, you can read that heretoo.

Dr Fischer responded to Sarah Baxter's article with a letter to the Sunday Times, which was publish Sunday 01 March 2020:

Greeks should be glad we have the marbles

Sarah Baxter’s column on the Parthenon sculptures asks us to imagine how we would feel if Big Ben had been transplanted to Athens (“The sane move is to give Greece back its marbles”, Comment, last week). This is to ignore the many buildings and artworks that have been reused, reshaped and often moved across borders, such as Duccio’s altarpiece the Maesta, elements of which have been removed from Siena cathedral and are held in museums across Europe and America.

The Parthenon sculptures are fragments of a lost whole that cannot be put back together. Only about 50% of the original sculptures survive from antiquity. The Parthenon has become a European monument precisely because its sculptures can be seen not only in Athens but in London and other European cities. The public benefit of this distribution and what it means for our shared cultural inheritance is self-evident, and something to celebrate.

Minister of Culture for Greece, Dr Lina Mendoni  responded by saying that Dr Fischer's letter was as “unfortunate, if not outright unacceptable.” To read one of the article's quoting Dr Mendoni, follow the link here.

As expected, this was not well received by most, not just in the UK but elsewhere too. Yannis Andritsopoulos, London Correspondent for Ta Nea, Greece's daily newspaper, wrote an article following on from Dr Fischer's letter to the Sunday Times, quoting a number of BCRPM members including Janet Suzman, Alex Benakis, Dr Peter Thonemann and Professor John Tasioulas.

Dr Mendoni insists that “it is time for the British Museum to reconsider its stance ahead of the Acropolis Museum’s next birthday, which is on 20 June 2020. Does it want to be a museum that meets and will continue to meet modern requirements and speak to the soul of the people, or will it remain a colonial museum which intends to hold treasures of world cultural heritage that do not belong to it?” Smilar words were used by Dame Janet Suzman during her participation in the Cambridge Union debate on 25 April 2019. You can read Janet's speech here.

Minister Mendoni urged the International Committees (IARPS) to continue to support this long standing request as they also continue to support the Greek government in their quest for the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

13 April 2020

Yannis Andritsopoulos, London Correspondent for Ta Nea, Greece's daily newspaper commemorates the extraordinary life of Mrs Eleni Cubitt.

Photos courtesy of Nana Varvelopulou, Eleni Cubitt at the British Museum July 2009 

Life and Style Magazine 2009

Eleni Cubitt was the heart and soul of the international movement for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures; the unsung hero of the campaign launched by Melina Mercouri 38 years ago; and the person who persuaded dozens of British politicians - including two Labour leaders - academics, artists and journalists of the need to right a ‘very old wrong’, as she called it, in the face of the intransigence of the British Museum and successive British governments.

Eleni Cubitt, a London campaigner, activist, filmmaker and protagonist against the Greek military junta, passed away last Wednesday at the age of 95.

She was born in Thessaloniki in 1925. Her family later moved to Athens where Eleni attended the American College for Girls.

At the age of 23, she married English diplomat Douglas Collard, then British consul in Patras, with whom he had five children. In 1964, having already lived in seven countries with her husband, she got divorced and settled in London, where she founded a film production company.

According to her son Paul, it was the Scottish Laird Sir Amer Maxwell who suggested to Eleni the idea of being a film producer, an activity in which he was actively involved at that time.

She later met French New Wave pioneer Jean-Luc Godard in Paris and persuaded him to make a film in Britain. 'Sympathy for the Devil', starring the Rolling Stones and produced by Cubitt, was released in 1968.

She also produced several documentaries on Ancient Greece. Her most recent film was 'The War That Never Ends' in 1991 for which she was the executive producer.

In 1968 Eleni married the distinguished British architect James Cubitt. Between 1975 and 1982, she was in charge of cultural affairs at the Greek Embassy's press office in London.

In 1982, during a meeting with Jules Dassin and Melina Mercouri, whom she had known since the 1960s, Eleni and James decided to set up a lobby group for the return of the Marbles.

The British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles was founded in 1983, later renamed British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. Eleni became the Committee’s secretary, a post she held for 29 years.

Her husband died shortly afterwards but Eleni continued their work and dedicated her life to the Marbles’ reunification, working tirelessly to raise awareness of the cause.

She used her connections with the arts and business worlds, set up campaigns to inform the British public, organised protests, and mobilised journalists and MPs, among them Labour Party leaders Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock. Unfortunately for the cause, neither became prime minister.

“Family was very important to Eleni and, despite the many calls on her time professionally, it was always her first priority. The sound of the phone ringing, as it did constantly, was always followed by her call: ‘Tell them I am out, unless it is one of the children.’ She was also always happy to share her professional life with any of her children and grandchildren who were interested”, her children said in a statement.

“As children, we were expected to participate actively and to varying degrees, in the many causes she took on, not least the return of the Parthenon marbles. Because of her huge energy, she would prioritise finding the time for her children as they negotiated the many crises of growing up. Eleni loved to tell us stories, whether about the past, Greek myths or her daily experiences. In her later years, when her professional life was less demanding, she embraced her role as grandmother and great grandmother with the same enthusiasm, interest and energy and was much adored by all her 11 grandchildren and 2 great-granddaughters,” her children added.

Eleni was a member of the Honorary Committee of the Melina Mercouri Foundation and received awards from the Prefecture of Athens in 2009 (Ambassador of Hellenism) and the American College of Greece in 2011 (Maria West Lifetime Achievement Award).

Ambassadors of Hellenism: Eleni Cubitt, Christopher Price and Professor Anthony Snodgrass

From 2012, she took a less active role and four years ago she moved from her Islington home to a care home.

“Eleni Cubitt - mischievous and classy and ever so Greek despite her very British associations. I remember she simply charmed me into joining the great Melina’s crusade, which of course I instantly wanted to do. It seemed such an attractive and important thing to try to put before ignorant eyes,” Dame Janet Suzman, Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM), told Ta Nea.

“I suppose Eleni felt drawn to another, half this and half that as she was, and we became friends. Besides being an actress and bit politically voluble and full of all the usual ingredients to help push this thing along, I happily fell in on the Greek side of things - long before my son took up with one so that I now have two half-Greek grandchildren. Isn’t life wonderful? Vanessa Redgrave, much more charismatic and activist and blonder was also hauled in to push. At the centre of it all, the hurricane of Melina, both beautiful and eloquent, drew us all along in her furious wake.

“But hey, much good did it do - here we are years and years after Melina’s tour of office as Minister of Culture, and even with a fabulous new Acropolis Museum duly built (thanks to Eleni and numerous others) we all sit here waiting...and waiting. Yet it won’t go away; around the whole world, many fervent Hellenophiles are busy making waves, exercising great patience with an intransigent British Museum pretending to be unaware of how old hat and unpleasant is its stance.

“But, dear electric, charming, voluble Eleni, your dream of the Marbles returning home to the land of your birth will one day be a reality. So for now we all salute you and your amazing life. You will be missed by all of us and most of all by those who loved you, of which I am one,” Dame Janet added.

Her friendship with Melina

Photo from the archives of  Victoria Solomonidis. From left to right: Melina Mercouri, Eleni Cubitt, Graham Binns in the British Museum's Duveen Gallery June 1986

Eleni Cubitt constantly supported Melina Mercouri, Greece’s then Culture minister, in her fight over the marbles. They became friends and worked closely together for several years.

"Melina's vision, enthusiasm and glow pushed me to get involved in the cause," she told Ta Nea in 2000.

In May 22, 1983, Mercouri delivered the Herbert Read Memorial Lecture at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. She later came face to face with the then director of the British Museum David Wilson.

Mercouri’s and Wilson’s showdown was widely seen as a PR disaster for the British Museum. It is a little-known fact that Mercouri had travelled to London thanks to Eleni who had managed to persuade the ICA to invite her.

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

According to Nikandros Bouras’ book Greeks of London (London, 2013), Cubitt played a key role in the birth of the reunification campaign.

After Mercouri’s death, Eleni collaborated with successive Greek Culture Ministers on this issue.

"During my 25 years as Cultural Counsellor at the Embassy of Greece in London, I have had the pleasure and luck to work closely with Eleni. Tireless, inspired and always on the front line, she was a great friend and generous adviser. She was my great teacher. The thought that she is now joining Melina and Jules is a source of comfort,"concludes Victoria Solomonidis, a member of the Board of the Melina Mercouri Foundation.

 Victoria and Eleni at the New Acropolis Museum for the official opening in June 2009 from BCRPM's archives

To read the article in Ta Nea, please follow the link here.

The pdf is also here.

The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles wishes to thank Ta Nea for covering this Committee's work from the very start and as early as 1983 (the year BCRPM was founded) and thanks also to the paper's UK correspondent, Yannis Andritsopoulos for allowing family and friends a few days to come to terms with the loss of Mrs Cubitt. Ta Nea respected this time and during these extraordinarily challenging times with news reported instantly, it has meant a great deal. Thank you Ta Nea.

The BCRPM was a lifetime's work and dedication for Eleni. Honorary President Anthony Snodgrass, Chair Janet Suzman and Vice Chair Paul Cartledge plus the thirteen members will continue to support all the initiatives that Eleni had put in place, not least this web site and we thank many more individuals, organisations and campaigners here in the UK, in Greece and elsewhere all over the globe. 

Over the course of the next days and weeks, we will add messages we receive and wish to sincerely thank each and everyone for making time to write, remembering the exceptional and much loved Eleni.

Over two hundred years ago Lord Elgin wrenched a number of exquisitely carved figures and friezes from the Parthenon, wreaking severe destruction to the already damaged monument. He shipped this portion of the Parthenon Marbles to the UK aiming to use them to decorate his ancestral house in Scotland. However, he soon became bankrupt and was obliged to sell the Marbles to the British Parliament, who at the time paid £35,000 to save them, and place them in the care of the British Museum.

Since Greece’s declaration of independence in 1821 the Greek state has called for the return of the Parthenon Marbles, so they can be reunified with their other halves and experienced as one connected work of art. The case has been further strengthened since the opening of the modern Acropolis museum, built specially in viewing distance of the  building from which the Marbles were taken.

The Marbles have done their job here in the UK and now, for the very first time, the British Museum are engaged in talks with the Greek government about an agreement regarding their future. The Museum's Chair George Osborne, is open to finding an agreement, but for this to happen we need the support of the present Secretary of State for Culture, Lucy Frazer MP KC.

Just as the Greek authorities have committed for the past 23 years to fill the British Museum with yet more marvellous Greek antiquities should the Marbles finally be reunified, so this initiative aims to show Ms Frazer that we value the role played by the British Parliament in preserving these peerless works of art.

That's why the Greek community and the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles is seeking to raise this £35,000. We want the British government to support the British Museum to do the right thing. Symbolically repaying an old debt to the British Parliament is an important step to securing this support.

Once we've hit our target we will offer the sum, and publicly, to the Secretary of State for Culture. Should the Secretary of State to refuse this generosity, all donors will have the option of a full refund or to donate their pledge to the continuing campaign.

Details of the fundraising campaign here, and for the press release, follow the link here.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Janet Suzman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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