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

Law, Morals and the Parthenon Marbles

Treachery, subterfuge and "a steady flow of bribes." Writer Bruce Clark unpicks the dubious legality of Lord Elgin's removal of the Parthenon sculptures.

When Melina Mercouri went to London in 1983, she put the point in her own inimitable way: “This is a moral issue more than a legal issue.” Kyriakos Mitsotakis took a similar line in November when he visited his counterpart Boris Johnson and declared that the sculptures were stolen – a view which Johnson himself, in his student days, had espoused.

The British Museum’s position is diametrically opposed. Its website argues that Elgin acted with the full knowledge and permission of the legal authorities of the day in both Athens and London. Lord Elgin’s activities were thoroughly investigated by a Parliamentary Select Committee in 1816 and found to be entirely legal.

Provocative as it sounds to most Greek ears, the case for the legality of the marbles’ transfer is worth studying. It rests mainly on a document that was apparently issued by an Ottoman official, the kaymakam, at the request of the British embassy to the High Porte, around the beginning of July 1801. It emerged at a high point in Anglo-Ottoman relations, when the two powers were acting in lockstep to expel Napoleon’s forces from Egypt. It was not, strictly speaking, a firman – a term which refers to a decree issued by the sultan himself. But the kaymakam was a high-ranking figure.

Its terms had virtually been dictated by Elgin’s assistant, a shrewd Anglican cleric, Philip Hunt. It allowed a team of mainly Italian artists employed by Elgin to visit the Acropolis, which was also the Ottoman garrison, make drawings and moulds of the antiquities, and specified that …“When they wish to take away some pieces of stone with old inscriptions, and figures, no opposition be made…”

Historians agree that when that text was issued it was understood to refer to picking up objects from or below the ground. (Ever since the explosion of 1687, when a Venetian mortar bomb ignited an Ottoman powder-keg and blew the roof off the Parthenon, plenty of valuable debris had been scattered around on the citadel).

In the course of July 1801, Anglo-Ottoman relations became closer still as fears grew that Napoleon might invade Greece. Hunt was sent back to Athens – on a mission to stiffen the backs of the Ottoman commanders. As he boasted afterwards, this provided an opportunity to “stretch” the meaning of the permit and remove sculptures that were still attached to the temples. In the careful words of historian William St Clair, “Lord Elgin’s agents, by a mixture of cajolery, bribes and threats, persuaded and bullied the Ottoman authorities in Athens to exceed the terms” of the kaymakam’s decree.

As Elgin would later explain, such a document was in any case not the last word – it was a basis for negotiation with local officials, and it did not preclude the need to keep up a steady flow of bribes to ensure that the stripping of the Acropolis continued unimpeded.

Conveniently for Elgin, the post of disdar, or head of the Acropolis garrison, changed hands in mid-1801, as an elderly incumbent, who’d made a steady income in bribes, passed away and the job was taken over by his son. The new disdar felt trapped in the middle of a high-stakes transaction, and he feared dire punishment if he miscalculated. Elgin and his associates made sure that he remained frightened. In May 1802, the disdar became anxious that he might get into trouble with his Ottoman masters because he had been slightly too zealous in accommodating Elgin’s project. But as Lady Elgin smugly reported, one of her husband’s agents “whistled in his lug (ear)” that he had nothing to fear. Or to put it another way, “You have nothing to fear but us…”

Even then, the Ottoman attitude to the legality of the project was never a settled matter. In autumn of 1802, both the disdar and the voivode (governor) of Athens became worried that they might get in trouble with the Porte, because the existing text did not justify the mass stripping which was in progress. Elgin duly procured a fresh document which retroactively legalized the actions of the two officials.

But then fast-forward to 1808, by which time the kaleidoscope had shifted: the Ottomans were at peace with France and spasmodically at war with the British. Many of the sculptures collected by Elgin were still in Greece.

A new British envoy to the Porte tried to get the sculptures released, and was bluntly told that Elgin’s entire operation had been illegal. Only after January of 1809, with the signature of a new Anglo-Ottoman treaty, did the atmosphere change, leading to a fresh document that enabled the export of the sculptures to resume.

During the parliamentary investigation which the British Museum mentions, Elgin was questioned hard as to whether he had abused his position as ambassador to pursue a personal transaction; he replied, absurdly, that, in his antiquarian activities, he was no different from any private archaeologist. But many legislators were unconvinced.

It seemed obvious that the objects for which Elgin was about to be paid £35,000 had been obtained by careful exploitation of diplomatic privilege and of the sweet state of Anglo-Ottoman relations. Elgin got his money, but that does not mean he was believed.

Is this really the kind of behaviour on which British officials should be basing their case? By stressing the very dubious argument for the legality of Elgin’s actions, they risk drawing further attention to the fundamental moral issues.

* Bruce Clark writes for The Economist on history, culture and ideas. He is author of his latest book “Athens: City of Wisdom.”

This article was previously published in Greek at kathimerini.gr, 18 February 2022

Bruce Clark also contributed his article 'Stealing Beauty' to BCRPM's articles section of this website. 

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.

Victoria Solomonides, Boris Johnson, Thaila Stathatou and Greek Minister of Culture, Melina Mercouri at Oxford University June 1986

23 December 2021, TA Nea

Four eminent figures in British public life, speak to Yannis Andritsopulos, UK Correspndent for Ta Nea and ask Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures

When he was young, he said that one day he would become "king of the world." Later, Boris Johnson lowered the bar: he decided to become Britain's prime minister. In 2019, he made it to that post.

The reputation that follows him, however, is not that of the great leader, but of the deceptive politician, who will not hesitate to say and do anything - and later take it back - if he thinks it will benefit him.

He did the same with the Parthenon Sculptures: in 1986 he was a prominent advocate for their return to Greece, confessing that Elgin stole them, as revealed by "TA NEA" last Saturday, 18 December 2021. Today, he claims the opposite. Could he change his mindonce again and allow the Greeks to rediscover their "pride and identity", as Melina Mercouri described Pheidias' masterpieces?

Eminent personalities of British public life are asking Prime Minister Johnson to do the right thing and facilitate the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles in the Acropolis Museum. Speaking to Ta Nea:

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

[RETURNING the Marbles to Greece] 'would require an Act of Parliament to hand them back. This, needless to say, seems to be a more or less insuperable brake on the process of return - yet it could be passed in an afternoon.'
I quote this observation from the younger Boris Johnson’s paper on the theft of the Parthenon Marbles because it isolates the nub of the present situaation. What he is saying is that where there’s a will there’s a way. Once a government had decided to do the right thing and return the Marbles to their mother country, the Act that formally adopted them could be quickly rescinded to un-adopt them. One senses a faint groundswell of feeling that is tending that way; if you took a poll today most people would say it is only fair and right that the Parthenon Marbles should be returned. Mr Mitsotakis should soon make a quiet return visit to Mr Johnson and gently persuade him to make amends. It would enhance a reputation much battered by indecisions and prevarications not to say certain economies with the truth. Come back Mr Mitsotakis - this is your baby!

Paul Cartledge, Professor Emeritus of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge, Vice Chair of the BCRPM and IARPS

At 22, Boris Johnson had a brighter vision than he had as mayor of London, then as foreign secretary and, now, as prime minister. Last week it was ten years since the untimely loss of Christopher Hitchens, a passionate man who was a fellow student of mine at the University of Oxford in the late 1960s. He was one of the most ardent supporters of the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures and I can well imagine how he would comment on the recriminations and inconsistencies of Johnson, once a student of Classical Studies at Oxford, and now our pitiful prime minister.

Edith Hall,  Professor of Classics and Ancient Greek Literature at Durham University, member of BCRPM

Boris Johnson's attitude to the sculptures of the Parthenon is that they are no more than a rhetorical football in his eternal game of self-promotion. As an undergraduate who liked to titillate audiences by presenting himself as a subversive controversialist, he accidentally produced an excellent moral and legal case for immediate reunification. But as a self-seeking politician he mouths what he thinks it is expedient for the most narrow-minded of his party loyalists to hear.

Sickening cynicism. He is a moral invertebrate.

But even he may be embarrassed by this astonishing discovery.

Sarah Baxter, former deputy editor of The Sunday Times

Johnson has in his office a bust of Pericles, which is a copy of the bust in the British Museum. Accordingly, the British Museum should commission copies of the Parthenon Sculptures and return the real ones to Greece. The reunification of the Marbles is morally imperative. In a last noble gesture as prime minister, Johnson should return them to where they belong. When arguing in favour of Greece, in the article he wrote as a student, Johnson noted that the Greek gods cannot and should not be deceived. Be sure that if he returns the Sculptures, the gods will smile at him again.

Boris Johnson and the triumph of Melina Mercouri

Boris Johnson with Melina Mercouri at Oxford University June 1986

In 1986, Johnson asked Melina Mercouri to speak at an Oxford Union debate on the subject of the reunification of Parthenon Sculptures. The Greek Minister of Culture won the debate by 167 votes in favour and 85 against. Dr Victoria Solomonides, a member of the Board of Directors of the Melina Mercouri Foundation, then an educational advisor at the Greek Embassy in London, reveals the background to this triumph.

"In October 1983, with the establishment of BCRPM, we began with the late Eleni Cubittthe effort to join British personalities. In the autumn of 1985, we came into contact with Oxford students. Among them, Boris Johnson, then secretary of the Oxford Union. When he was elected president, we proposed to hold a discussion on the subject with speakers Melina and the professor of logic, Michael Dammett. He immediately accepted and appointed as rapporteurs of the opposite side the architectural historian Gavin Stamp and the writer Jonathan Barnes. Although Johnson did not express a clear opinion on the return of the Sculptures, the impression we got was that it was positive. His article revealed by "TA NEA" is based on and, to a large part, copies the notes we had sent him to prepare for the event."

An exhibition dedicated to the life and works of late Melina Mercouri will open on 18 January 2022 at the Technopolis cultural complex in Athens.

This exhibition is to mark the 100th anniversary of Melina Mercouri and has been organized by the Athens Municipality in collaboration with the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sport, and the Melina Mercouri Foundation. The year 2020 had been designated by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sport as Melina Mercouri's year but the pandemic in March of that year, curtailed the planned celebration. 

The award-winning actress, activist and former culture minister, was the first woman in the post. , Melina served as Greece’s culture minister during the years 1981-1989 and 1993-1994.

 Her passion for culture and political activism made her one of the most legendary advocates  for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece. It was her presentation at the Mexico UNESCO meeting that also encouraged James and Eleni Cubitt to meet with her and go on to establish the BCRPM in October 1983.

The exhibition opening on Tuesday in Athens, is aptly entitled ‘Remember and love me’ and will showcase Melina’s life and work through three areas highlighting her career in film, theatre and politics. It will feature rich photo and audiovisual material as well as personal items – some exhibited for the first time.

Items will include 13 costumes from theatrical performances and films; 25 posters from her cinema career; 37 photos of Mercouri with international personalities such as Salvador Dali, Pope John Paul II, Queen Elizabeth, Indira Gandhi and Catherine Deneuve; original scripts with handwritten notes; six letters; her dressing room; and items she carried during her last trip to New York.

The exhibition will open its doors on Tuesday 18 January and run until Friday 11 March 2022.

Visiting days: Tuesday – Sunday and visiting hours: from 11am – 8pm. Admission is free.

BCRPM's first protest at the British Museum on 08 February 2020  honoured "". We thank BP or not BP? once again for their support over the years and including us in this protest also. To read more on that protest, please follow the link here.  

TA NEA 02 February 2019

"My family is from Kythera",  explains the first campaigner for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, Emanuel J.Comino. "But  I was born in Rockhampton Central Queensland Australia on the 13th May 1933 and continue to work and live in Sydney. My father John, was from Perlegianika and my mother Sophia from Drimona in Kythera. They met and were married in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1931.

I first visited Greece in 1938. War overtook us so I spent the war years on my parents’ island, Kythera. Growing up in a small Australian country town, and wartime Kythera, limited exposure to wider Greece. So, when I returned to Europe in 1976, it was without a substantial background in Greek culture or history.

After visiting many of the great museums I was intrigued and somewhat disturbed by the many Greek antiquities they held. Finally, on my arrival in Athens I saw the Parthenon for the first time and was struck by its magnificent. I’m sure everyone who visits the Parthenon for the first time has their own recollection of that magic moment. It was then, for the first time, that I also came to appreciate the damage Elgin had inflicted on the Parthenon. From that moment I became committed to seeking the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

I began reading everything I could find on the Parthenon and from 1976 onwards I started giving short talks on the Parthenon Marbles. As my reading and research expanded, and with the help of the Greek National Tourism Organisation and the National bank of Greece, I developed a set of slides to illustrate my talks.

In 1981, I formed the first committee to campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles under the auspices of the Australian Hellenic Educational and Progressive Association (AHEPA).

The following year, Melina Mercouri, the Minister of Culture and Sciences for Greece, addressed the World Conference on Cultural Policies, organised by UNESCO in Mexico. She told the conference that the Parthenon Marbles must be returned to Greece. I read an article about her address in the Sydney Morning Herald. Parts of her brilliant speech in Mexico were quoted. She said in part:

'I think that the time has come for these marbles to come back to the blue sky of Attica, to their natural space, to the place where they will be a structural and functional part of a unique whole.

We are not naive. The day may come when this world will create other visions, other concepts of what is proper, of what comprises a cultural patrimony and of human creativity. And we well understand that the museums cannot be emptied. But I insist on reminding you that in the case of the Acropolis marbles we are not asking for the return of a painting or a statue. We are asking for the return of a portion of a unique monument, the privileged symbol of a whole culture.'

I felt compelled to write to Melina Mercouri immediately and I was delighted to receive her reply. She enthusiastically supported my initiative and also introduced me to the chair of the newly formed British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles, Robert Browning, Emeritus Professor of Greek at the University of London.

Melina was adamant, as was I that we should never use the term the 'Elgin Marbles', but rather the term, the 'Parthenon Marbles' to describe the pedimental sculptures, frieze and metopes Elgin tore from the Parthenon.

In the meantime, I sent the original motion of support for the founding of our committee to Melina Mercouri and Robert Browning. Early in 1983 I began to hear rumours that Melina was coming to Australia. So, I wrote to her and asked if we could meet and discuss the Parthenon Marbles campaign while she was in Sydney.

When she arrived in Sydney, the Premier of New South Wales invited me, along with some 25 other members of the Greek Australian community, to a meet Melina. At the beginning there was the usual formal line of guests who shook hands with her. I too greeted her in the formal manner. When she had settled into the meeting, I approach the official accompanying her and gave him a copy of the letter she had sent me. He walked over and handed it to her, on the other side of the room. She glanced at the letter, her face lite up, she threw up her hands, and turned towards me. She came straight across the room to me and hugged me.

We chatted a little about the Parthenon Marbles, but she soon had to move on and circulate amongst the other guests.

As she was leaving, she came over to me and said in Greek, “My boy, don't ever stop the campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to our country.”

I looked at her and replied, in English: “I will fight on for the return of the Parthenon Marbles until the England promises to send them back or until the day I die.”

She embraced me. There was a tear in her eye as she kissed me on the cheek.

She didn't kiss anyone else.

Emanuel J. Comino AM JP

Ta Nea carried an article on Emanuel Comino written by UK Correspondent, Yannis Andritsopoulos on Saturday 13 February. You can read it in Greek on the Ta Nea's website or in English by following the link here. This article has been published on other outlets also.

Founder and Chair of the International Organising Committee Australia for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (IOCARPM)

Emanuel and his Committee IOCARPM have worked closely with BCRPM for decades, starting with Graham Binns, Robert Browning and Eleni Cubitt. When Eleni retired as Secretary of the BCRPM in June 2012, the then Chair of BCRPM, Eddie O’Hara struck a very special relationship with Emanuel. This was born out of respect and by way of gratitude for Emanuel’s decades of support for the BCRPM. Such loyalty was in Eddie’s eyes priceless. The International Colloquies launched in London in June 2012,  also took place in Sydney in November 2013 and Athens in July 2015, thanks to Emanuel's support.

In Room 18 of the British Museum with Graham Binns and Robert Browning

Robert Browning, Eleni Cubitt and Jules Dassin with Emanuel Comino

Emanuel Comino with Eddie O'Hara in London, June 2012

After the campaign lost Eddie, Emanuel and his Committee were in London for the Commemorative Event held at Senate House, where BCRPM were honouring Melina and 200 years from the date in 1816 when the British Parliament voted to purchase from Lord Elgin his collection of sculpted marbles collected from the Parthenon.

The Bicentenary Commemorative Eventwas jointly organised by BCRPM with IOCARPM and held at Senate House on 07 June 2016. Melina Mercouri had spoken at Senate House in the 80’s and BCRPM had hoped to hear Eddie speak in 2016 alongside key note speaker Tristram Besterman, Professor Paul Cartledge a Vice-Chair of BCRPM, Victoria Solomonides (who paid tribute to Melina Mercouri), Artemis Papathassiou, George Bizos, William St Clair and Russell Darnley. Eddie tragically passed away 10 days before the event and it was Emanuel’s tribute that touched all the hearts of the assembled, as it embraced his reflections of when he first met Melina Mercouri and what she had said to him at that time, which encouraged him to also forge the long stading relationship with BCRPM.

Bicentenary Commemorative Event, 07 June 2016, Senate House: William St Clair, Artemis Papathassiou, George Bizos, Emanuel Comino, Russel Darnley, Professor Paul Cartledge and Tristram Besterman

Emanuel is a man whose friendships means a great deal as he has welcomed campaigners from all over the globe. Melina meeting him for the first time in 1983 no doubt recognised in his twinkling blue eyes, the warmth of Emanuel as a human being and despite the difficult decades of the campaign, losing Melina in 1994 and others over the years, he has stood steadfast.

In April 2019, in Athens, Emanuel was elected as Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee of the International Association of the Parthenon Sculptures ( IARPS). 

Emanuel Comino with Christiane Tytgat, Chair of the IARPS, in Athens in April 2019 

Marlen Godwin adds:
"On a personal note…. I never met Melina Mercouri but having become acquainted with Emanuel for the last decade I see in those very blue eyes (which still twinkle), all the emotion of a very special person. Life may not always be fair (Emanuel lost his mother just aged 4 and despite his years of dedication to the campaign, he was not invited to the opening of the Acropolis Museum in June 2009). Nor is life as fair as we would always wish it to be, sadly the Parthenon Marbles remain divided. For some campaigners the fact that the marbles are still divided is a reflection of how ‘little’ BCRPM and IOC-A-RPM have done/achieved but the reality is that what has been achieved is the camaraderie across timeless, priceless moments, from the books published, to the photos, conferences, debates, exhibitions and myriad of peaceful protests. Emanuel's dedication to upholding principles continues to inspire many young people and will be forever treasured, not least the 400 school children of SAHETI School in South Africa which he addressed with George Bizos in 2012. There have been no gimmicks, no clever advertising or PR,  just stripped back sensibility and sensitivity. And what does Emanuel hope for? That the campaign remembers his heartfelt messages and his infectious enthusiasm, which continues to inspire so many more young people to the campaign, and to this day."

June 2012

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.

A celebration, and view towards a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that's diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together and collectively we celebrate all women today, on International Women's Day, and in 2023, #EmbraceEquity.

Today, we can all celebrate and raise awareness of all that  women have achieved and continue to do so.

Professor Judith Herrin, has this message: 

"On International Women's Day we remember and celebrate Melina Mercouri and Eleni Cubitt, who initiated and inspired the campaign to reunite the Parthenon Marbles. The British Committee continues their efforts led by the redoubtable Janet Suzman."

Duff Cooper Pol Roger Prize 2020 for 'Ravenna. Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe', Heineken Prize for History 2016, Constantine Leventis Senior Research Fellow, Department of Classics,King's College London and a BCRPM member for nearly 4 decades.

On 02 March, Times2 arts publish a double page article by Chloë Ashby about the 130 women that make up an outstanding collage for the National Portrait Gallery's re-opening.

"When the National Portrait Gallery reopens (22 June) after a three-year revamp, its walls will feature the creations of many more female artists, and even more female faces. Among them are 130 stencilled portraits that have been cut and painted by members of the public and brought together by the British-American pop artist Jann Haworth and her daughter, the abstract collagist Liberty Blake." 

Baroness Chakrabarti is featured on Panel 5.   

And a reminder of what Baroness Chakrabarti said last year, as valid today as it was then:

“There could not be a better moment for the Parthenon Marbles to be reunited in their Athenian home. Let us put international treasures on carefully chartered aeroplanes instead of desperate refugees,” Baroness Chakrabarti, member of BCRPM.

Boris Johnson was once such a fervent supporter of the Parthenon Marbles being returned to Athens that he wrote to the Greek culture minister to denounce the British government for not giving back the antiquities.

Greek daily newspaper Ta Nea brought to light today previously unseen and unpublished letters, written in 1986, when Johnson was an undergraduate at Oxford University and Oxford Union president.

In the notes, the future British Prime Minister argued passionately for the ancient sculptures’ “immediate” repatriation, accusing the British government of “sophistry and intransigence”.

Johnson, then 21, went as far as claiming that the British government’s policy on the Parthenon Marbles was “unacceptable to cultured people,” and lamented the “scandalous” way it was handling the issue.

He wrote two letters to the then Greek minister for culture, late actor Melina Mercouri, in which he sided unreservedly with the Greek government’s campaign for the relics to be reunited.

He also cited a letter which proves that Lord Elgin removed the sculptures from the Parthenon in the early 19th century without securing legal permission to do so, arguing that its revelation had made the British government’s position “even shakier.”

Despite his enthusiasm for the Marbles’ return as a student, Johnson has refused to countenance such a move during his time as Prime Minister, sticking to the same position as the British government he criticised so heavily in 1986. Last November, Johnson rebuffed a direct request by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for the Marbles to be repatriated.

In an exclusive interview with Ta Nea published in March 2021, the British premier claimed that the Parthenon Sculptures “were legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the appropriate laws of the time.”

This claim contradicts Johnson’s statement in 1986 that “the Turkish authorities denied ‘that the persons who had sold those marbles to [Elgin] had any right to dispose of them’.” Johnson accused Lord Elgin of “wholesale pillage” of the Parthenon, arguing that the Scottish peer exploited the “near anarchy” of the Ottoman Empire to remove the carvings.

The letters were found in an Oxford library. Their authenticity has been confirmed by an Oxford source and someone who served as a Greek state official at the time.

Their unearthing comes six months after Ta Nea found a forgotten article written by Johnson in April 1986, in which he urged the British government to return the artefacts to Greece, arguing that they had been unlawfully removed from the ancient temple in Athens.

British government sources tried to downplay the extent of Johnson’s U-turn, arguing that the 21-year-old classics student wrote the now-famous article in a momentary outburst of youthful enthusiasm, but he later changed his mind.

However, the revelation of two letters with similar content indicates that this was not a "momentary" event; the future head of the British government seemed to be devoted to the repatriation cause, knowing - and providing evidence to support it - that the sculptures were removed from the Parthenon without permission.

Athens has campaigned to have the 2,500-year-old artefacts returned from the British Museum since they were removed by Lord Elgin when he was Britain’s ambassador to the Sublime Porte. At the time, Greece was under Ottoman rule.

Johnson invited Mercouri, who became culture minister after an illustrious acting career, to speak in a debate at the Oxford Union on 12 June 1986, entitled: “[This house believes] that the Elgin Marbles Must be Returned to Athens.” He said it would be “a marvellous evening for the cause”. The chamber voted 167 to 85 in favour of the Marbles’ restitution.

In his first letter, dated March 10, 1986, the future Prime Minister and Conservative leader informed Mercouri that “it is my firm intention to hold a debate on an issue that is scandalously handled by the British government, and which I believe to be of great importance.”

He went on to say that “I think the majority of students agree with me when I say that there is absolutely no reason why the Elgin Marbles, superlatively the most important and beautiful treasures left to us by the ancient world, should not be returned immediately from the British Museum to their rightful home in Athens.”

He added that he believed Mercouri would win the vote, something that would send a clear message to Whitehall: “If the motion was successful, and I am sure that it would be, it would be a clear message to the British government that their policy is unacceptable to cultured people. I believe that it would be an important step in your campaign.”

On April 16, 1986, Johnson sent a second letter to the Greek culture minister, insisting that “the issue of the Elgin Marbles (…) has been handled with sophistry and intransigence by the British government”.

“Since the discovery of Elgin’s letter of 1811, the Government’s position has grown even shakier,” he stressed.

The said letter was written on July 31st, 1811, by Lord Elgin and addressed to the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval. “My successors in the Embassy could not obtain permission for the removal of what I had not myself taken away. And on Mr Adair's being officially instructed to apply in my favour, he understood, ‘The Porte denied that the persons who had sold those marbles to me had any right to dispose of them’,” Elgin wrote.

Lord Elgin had previously received a letter from the former British Ambassador to Constantinople, Robert Adair, which suggested that Elgin had not acquired the marbles legitimately. A 2002 BBC News report noted that Adair’s letter “could help to resolve the row between Britain and Greece over the Elgin Marbles.”

Johnson ended his letter by reassuring Mercouri that the result of the debate “will be a foregone conclusion”. He added: “This will be a great event and a marvellous evening for the cause.”

“On March 21, 1986, under the instructions of Greek ambassador Stefanos Stathatos, I, along with embassy press officer Peter Thompson, and three members of the BCRPM, met with Johnson in Oxford to discuss the debate’s details. He was very receptive and sympathetic to our cause. He later fully adopted the points we sent him on the reunification of the sculptures," Dr Victoria Solomonidis, who was Cultural Counsellor at the Greek Embassy in London for 30 years, told Ta Nea.

“Years later, when he was mayor of London, I met him in his office accompanying ambassador Konstantinos Bikas. I reminded him of the 1986 debate and gave him a framed picture of him next to Mercouri. He smiled, and changed the subject,” added Solomonidis, member of the Melina Mercouri Foundation’s Board of Directors.

In search of ‘cheap ouzo and retsina’

On April 15, 1986, Johnson wrote to Peter Thompson, a press officer at the Greek embassy in London, asking for his help to find “cheap ouzo and retsina”, two of the most famous Greek alcoholic drinks.

“On the day before the debate we will be having a large and splendid party. To make the thing go with a swing, we are in search of cheap ouzo and retsina. I was informed that it might be feasible to obtain it through the Embassy. Could you possibly advise?” Johnson wrote.

The event, titled “The glory that was Greece”, took place on Wednesday 11 June. According to the Oxford Union’s term card, it was a toga party held in the union’s garden.

The term card read: “Come trip it nymphs and dryad maids withal. We bring lashings of the gift of Dionysus, ouzo, lamb souvlaki, and a cornucopia of Greek delicacies to the lyrical strains of a Greek band.”

Article written by Yannis Andritsopoulos for Ta Nea, published on Saturday, 02 July 2022 

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

Melina, the last Greek goddess

Melina Mercouri was an icon of her era. She was a woman of action, a woman of passion, and an influential figure in the fields of arts and politics.

When I first visited with my 11-years-old son the exhibition on Melina Mercouri ‘Remember me and love me’ (named after the song composed by Stavros Xarchakos for the film ‘Melina Mercouri’s Greece’, 1965) at the Technopolis of the Municipality of Athens (18^th January – 11^th March 2022), I had the strong feeling that Melina was staring at us…  Her beautiful eyes on the 25 film posters and the 37 photos from her theatrical performances and with famous personalities filled the exhibition hall. But it was not just her eyes; her voice too, singing with Manos Chatzidakis and Mikis Theodorakis (a recent loss), performing in theatre and acting in cinema, or speaking passionately against the Junta and for freedom and democracy, overwhelmed the place through two big video screens.  All these photos and sounds recalled my own childhood – with a bit of nostalgia, alas- in the ‘80s, when Melina was an active Minister of Culture.

Melina was certainly present in this exhibition in more than one way. Beautifully designed by Nikos Kaltsas (the new Director of the Cycladic Museum, and former Director of the National Archaeological Museum), with the co-operation of Manuella Pavlidou (on behalf of the Melina Mercouri Foundation), this exhibition, organized by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, in the heart of the historical centre of Athens marked the centenary since Melina’s birth (1920) and a celebration for Melina’s (she is Melina par excellence for us) legacy to Greek culture. The exhibition is presented in two main parts: arts and politics, interwoven with each other since Melina expressed her passion in both arts and politics. Thirteen costumes of her films and plays recall her international success as an actress (Top Kapi; Phaedra; The Streetcar named Desire; Sweet Bird of Youth etc.). As the Minister of Greek Culture (1981-1989, 1993-1994) she related her name with the campaign for the return and reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (the so-called 'Elgin Marbles’ until then). She was also responsible for the foundation of many Municipal and Regional Theatres (DI.PE.THE), the institution of the Cultural Capital of Europe (Athens being the first in 1985), the restoration project of the Acropolis monuments, the unification of the archaeological sites of Athens, and the introduction of school education in theatre and culture ‘so that a different society, a different mentality, and different politics are created’.

Some of her personal objects are also exhibited, including parts of her dressing room, her passport, other official documents, and press excerpts reporting her death on 6^th March 1994. My son was particularly touched by two specific exhibits: the folded Greek flag which covered her coffin and a copy of the red dress that she used to wear during her fiery anti-dictatorship speeches abroad which she had asked to be buried with. ‘Well, she chose to be remembered – and be buried- as a true Greek fighter, not as an actress!’ my son uttered.  This reminded me of the Aeschylus’ funerary epigram[1].

Melina’s legacy to younger generations may be to fight for one’s principles, for the common good, for culture and humanism. Melina’s campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Athens is still an open issue, which should be taught at school, not just as a matter of political debate, but also as an example of cultural diplomacy and as training in the concepts of democracy, freedom, and cultural heritage. Melina’s dream is still alive worldwide and it deserves to come true at last, so that she is reborn too.

Antiopi Argyriou-Casmeridis

[1] The epigram of Aeschylus’ gravestone at Gela, cited by ancient sources, while unlikely to be by Aeschylus himself was probably written soon after his death by a member of his family: Αἰσχύλον Εὐφορίωνος, Ἀθηναῖον τόδε κεῦθει/ μνῆμα καταφθίμενον πυροφόροιο Γέλας// ἀλκήν δ ́εὐδόκιμον, Μαραθώνιον ἄλσος ἄνεἴποι/ καί βαθυχαιτήεις Μῆδος ἐπιστάμενος (="Beneath this stone lies Aeschylus, son of Euphorion, the Athenian, who died in the wheat-bearing land of Gela; of his noble prowess the grove of Marathon can speak, and the long-haired Persian knows it well"). Athenaeus 14.627c-d; Pausanias 1.14.5; Plutarch, Moralia604e-f). The inscription on his gravestone commemorates his military achievements against the Persians at Marathon, but makes no mention of his enormous theatrical renown. See Krikona, E., “The Memory of the Persian Wars through the Eyes of Aeschylus: Commemorating the Victory of the Power of Democracy”, Akropolis: Journal of Hellenic Studies 2 (2018): 85-104.

The Melina Mercouri ‘Remember me and love me’ exhibition closed on 11th of March. 

Antiopi Argyriou-Casmeridis has a Doctorate in Ancient History (PhD, Royal Holloway University of London) and is an alumna of the University of Cambridge (MPhil in Classics, Clare College), and a High School Teacher of Classics at Ralleio Girls' School of Piraeus.

28 July 2011

 John Melville-Jones writes for neokosmos.com

In recent years the nature of the document that was presented to the British Parliament in 1816, which authorised Lord Elgin to study and copy the ancient Greek sculptures on the Acropolis of Athens, has been investigated.

It is clear that it was not, as has so often been claimed, a 'firman' from the Ottoman sultan, because it lacks some of the formal elements that a true 'firman' would have had. Its exact nature is, however difficult to define. If an official 'firman' was ever issued (and no evidence now exists to prove that this happened), the Italian text that Lord Elgin laid before the parliament with an English translation may have been a précis of this. But it is more probable that it was a more or less accurate translation of an ad hoc document created by an Ottoman official in Athens. For this reason the translation of the document into English that was made by Lord Elgin's chaplain the Reverend Philip Hunt should have been faultless. But it contains a small but significant mistake.

The authorization to remove material from the Acropolis was repeated in the document, essentially in the same words (Hunt's translations follow): e quando volessero portar via qualche pezzi di pietra con vechie inscrizioni, e figure, non sia fatta lor' oposizione …'and should they wish to take away any pieces of stone with old inscriptions, and figures, that no opposition be made …' and: non si faccia opposizione al portar via qualche pezzi di pietra con inscrizioni, e figure … 'nor hinder them from taking away any pieces of stone with inscriptions, and figures …' Two other translations of this document have been made (as noted in the article by Williams cited above).
 
They all translate the Italian phrase 'qualche pezzi di pietra' in the same way, as 'any pieces of stone'. But this is wrong. Anyone who looks up qualche in an Italian-English dictionary will find that 'any' is one of its meanings. But dictionaries often lead the unwary astray, and 'any' is only a permissible translation in some circumstances. For example, hai qualche libro che posso leggere? might be translated as 'Do you have any book(s) that I can read?' But the proper translation of qualche pezzi di pietra is not 'any pieces of stone' but 'a few pieces of stone' (the Italian of the document is not the best in this case - it is normal to use the singular form of a noun with qualche, so we would expect to read qualche pezzo, but this is not important).

The only time, to my knowledge, that this phrase has been translated correctly into English was in a speech made by Melina Mercouri (the Greek Minister for Culture) to the Oxford Union in 1986.

This does not seem to have attracted any general attention. How many 'pieces of stone' would be implied by qualche pezzi? It is possible to suspect that the language is deliberately vague, but if you ask an Italian what number the phrase might imply, he will smile happily and make supportive gestures if you suggest three or five or seven, but when you reach ten or a larger number he will begin to look doubtful.

So if the conditions of the alleged 'firman' had been strictly observed, Lord Elgin would not have been allowed to take away as many pieces of stone from the Parthenon and other buildings as he did. And if the British Parliamentary Select Committee had had a more exact translation before it in 1816 when it was formed to discuss the possible acquisition of the Elgin Marbles, this might have led to some modification of their decision.

There is no record of any objection from the Ottoman authorities to Lord Elgin's removal of the large number of 'pieces of stone' that he did in fact take, so the mistranslation of this phrase in the 'firman' now has little force in the current argument concerning the repatriation of the Parthenon sculptures. But it is desirable to put the correct translation of the Italian text on the record.

John Melville-Jones is an associate Professor in Classics and Ancient History at University of Western Australia. This note has been prepared on behalf of the Australian Macedonian Advisory Council.

John Pienaar dedicated the last item of his Sunday 16 February Politics programme on BBC Radio 5 Live programme to the issue of the Parthenon sculptures. One of his guests, actress Dame Janet Suzman spoke about how she came to support the reunification of these sculptures.

"When Melina Mercouri was Culture Minister of Greece (that's how old I am) I was roped into the argument - it's an old argument.

I'll tell you why I'm pro the marbles going back to Greece, its because that building sitting on top of the Acropolis, the Parthenon - George is not wrong in calling it a Pantheon - it is a sort of Pantheon, a kind of model of what we value in the west.

I think that to have the ancient building still standing from the ancient world from which these beautiful sculptures were wrenched, makes it unique.

There isn't another one of them where you can actually see the wound.

I think the Greeks are right in wanting to complete the artefact that for them is the most important in the world and gives us all our values.

It was fairly hectic the way they were stolen and shipped and then put here.

They have been a star attraction in the British Museum - we have had them for a long time. I think Boris Johnson understandably wants to put London first in the star stakes, but the Greeks have now built a stunning museum. I've seen it. A space waiting for the marbles and it is 'their' marbles really."  

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.

Dame Janet Suzman talks to Georgia Economou of NEWS 24/7: "The Parthenon sculptures belong to the country that "gave birth" to them, not to a cold museum in England."

Dame Janet Suzman, Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM) and an internationally renowned actress talks to the Magazine about the Parthenon Sculptures and their long-suffering plight, plus the campaign to reunite them in the country that "gave birth" to them, their country of origin.

The Parthenon sculptures continue to make headlines in news outlets all over the world, not least in Greece. One could say that Lord Elgin's bribes and the men he paid to  detach these sculptures from the Sacred Rock of the Acropolis, and their subsequent exhibition at the British Museum constitutes to a great cultural wound. Their return, is a great dream that is constantly being dashed even today when the world shows that it is moving forward, and that museum policies are changing, but also that the basic issues of national cultural heritage have now been resolved.

On 16 December,  it was announced, with the "blessing" of Pope Francis, that three fragments, sculptural decorations from the Parthenon, housed in the Vatican museums would be repatriated, "as a testimony and a sign of the desire to continue the ecumenical course of truth."

About a month ago, once again we experienced hope for the sculptures return to Greece. Many expectations were raised in a large part to the announcement made by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis when he visited London, when he also met with King Charles (and not with the new British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak).

THE ELGIN MARBLES AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM (PHOTO: MARKOS CHOUZOURIS / EUROKINISSI)

We learned of secret meetings between the Prime Minister himself and the Director of the British Museum, George Osborne, while newspaper headlines claimed that we were closer than ever to a repatriation agreement. However, everyone's hopes were yet again dashed when Rishi Sunak's official spokesman made it clear that the British Museum is legally prohibited from dismantling its huge collection and that the British government is not considering amending or changing the museum's law.

It was certain that this would happen. That is why a few days ago we spoke with 4 leading researchers about how feasible a repatriation in the true meaning of the term was possible and not a "repatriation" using the model of the Stern collection.

After the publication of this article, we were contacted by the long established British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, as we had made a distinction  between the "British Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures" to which Matthew Taylor belongs. The latter on November 18, in an article published in "The Scotsman" wrote: "Solution for the "Elgins"? How the American multimillionaire Stern created a model for the reunification of the Parthenon sculptures in Athens". In this article he expressed the opinion that "previous negotiations are stuck for the time being on the issue of property. But what if the British Museum recognised ownership of the works in Greece, while retaining the rights to exhibit them for the time being? Surely this could be a big step forward?"

The BCRPM recently referred to a New York Times report and to the statements of Gary Vikan, former director of the Baltimore Museum, who said: "If someone tells me that by sending the "Elgin Marbles" back to Greece, somehow the British Museum will be emptied, it is nonsense."

Janet Suzman AP

We spoke to the Chair of the British Committee and great actress, Dame Janet Suzman, and asked her questions about the reunification of the Marbles. She claims that the reunification of the Marbles is far from clear: "The road remains long and very unclear. We all need to have patience as diplomacy slowly moves towards a solution we hope for," she tells the Magazine.

What made you want to support the case of the Parthenon Sculptures? What does this "struggle" mean to you?

I was born in South Africa and so early on I was "introduced" to the blatant injustice committed by the strongest elements against a weaker opponent. I am talking about apartheid, of course. We who have lived in a police state know these things very well. In the 18th century, Britain was an extremely powerful country, and it took what it could - because it could - from many parts of the world.

As for the "Parthenon Marbles" that Lord Elgin took from Greece as Ambassador to Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empite - the truth is that no written permission to do so ever came to light. Then, as now, people are open to bribery. And so it happened then. The injustice is clear. These sculptures were part of the Parthenon edifice itself. They were forcibly cut off from the monument and removed from the country, and now it is a matter of pure dignity to return them.

To be honest, I hadn't dealt with Greece at all until I left South Africa to study theatre in the UK. With a group of young graduates from the Department of Fine Arts of my University, we flew on a fine day in 1959 from Johannesburg to Europe. I will never forget the morning when, after a long overnight flight, our plane landed in Athens. Back then there was not the current airport, but a much smaller one. We descended the steps of the plane and walking on the asphalt to enter the arrivals building, the strong sunlight made us blink for a moment.

A beautiful blue sky was above our heads. This clarity "stayed" with us every hour and minute of the 5 days we were in Greece before leaving for London. It was magical. We watched "The Phoenicians", a performance at the Herodes Atticus Theatre starring the great Katina Paxinou and it was unforgettable - it was the best introduction to the ancient classical plays one could wish for. Many years later I played Clytemnestra and Helen of Troy in a renowned production called The Greeks, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1980 at The Aldwych Theatre in London. I was already fascinated by the Ancient World when Melina (Mercouri) stormed my life a few years later.

I quickly understood that these inimitable sculptures belong to the country in which they were created, and not to a cold museum in England.

What are the memories you have of Melina Mercouri?

Melina can only be likened to a force of nature. Her strong presence swirled around us on this trip to the UK in the 80s, when she began the movement for the "liberation" of the Parthenon Sculptures from the "grey" display room in the British Museum. She was asking for their return to Greece, where they belong. Vanessa Redgrave, also known for her commitment to various political causes, supported this issue as I did. I quickly understood that these inimitable sculptures belong to the country in which they were created, and not to a cold museum in England.

Janet Suzman, Melina Mercouri and Vanessa Redgrave at the Greek Ambassador's Residence in London in the 80's. Shutterstock 361013921

What is the purpose of the British Committee of Sculptures and how important is its contribution?

The Parthenon Sculptures are made of stone. They need an advocate to talk about them, particularly in English. Eleni Cubitt founded this committee to do just that. I knew Eleni and she knew I was in complete agreement with this just cause. Much later, when she was in a nursing home in Islington, in October 2016, I was asked to chair the British Committee for their Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

The cultural heritage of Greece has fully done its job in Britain: it has opened the gates of classical science to Europe. After so many years of struggle for the repatriation of these scuptures, they now belongs to where they came from and to the wonderful Acropolis Museum that was built to exhibit them as close as it is physically possible to the Parthenon, which still stands.

We are one of the many committees worldwide that want to see the Marbles reunited with their other halves. Being here in Britain, in the place where half of the surviving  Marbles are currently displayed, we can talk directly with the people holding the keys who will one day "unlock" their forced stay in the British Museum. And most importantly we can continue to feed this "flame" with information on our site, write letters and articles in British newspapers and try to make as much noise as possible, while following the policies of the Greek government itself.

What should be Greece's main argument in order to return the Sculptures to their place?

The cultural heritage of Greece has fully done its work in Britain: that is, it has opened the gates of classical scholarship to Europe. After so many years of struggle for their repatriation, she now belongs to where she came from and to the wonderful Acropolis Museum that was built for this purpose.

BCRPM image

Has the Greek government approached you?

Our Committee is in regular contact with the Greek Embassy in London, with the management of the New Acropolis Museum and of course with the Ministry of Culture in Athens.

Was the committee aware of the secret talks between Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the British Museum?

They wouldn't be secret if we knew about them.

Recently, solutions have been proposed, such as the exchange of antiquities or the recognition of ownership with an exhibition of the sculptures in London. Do you think it might be one of the avenues to negotiate with the British Museum?

These potential exchanges are long-standing as proposals for the emergence of a 'give and take' agreement. The concept of ownership is separate as a matter and of course the most sensitive, yet to be negotiated.

 BCRPM image

Pope Francis has decided that the Vatican Museums will return three fragments of the Parthenon to Greece, amid a global account in which Western institutions have begun to return objects to their countries of origin. At the same time, we read in many articles that the Marbles belong to the "world" and therefore should be left where "everyone" can enjoy them. What do you think?

The British Museum has a unique collection of global artefacts. It has over 100,000 Greek artefacts. It is the ideal place to study "visually" the cultures of the whole world. However, fashion and opinions are changing...

The return of the Benin Bronzes recently from the Horniman Museum and the University of Cambridge, the fragments of the Parthenon returning to Greece from the Vatican, but also the rethinking of repatriations from other major institutions in the UK and Europe, mark a change of attitude and respect for other cultures. This is something that is to be warmly welcomed.

People are moving forward in Italy and I hope that the British Museum will follow this path.

I would also add that with Mrs. Cubitt, the Honorary Secretary of the BCRPM, we were in contact with the Vatican Museum even before the Acropolis Museum opened. They, too, were surprised that in the UK there was a Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles! At that time their own laws prevented an unconditional return, and therefore they loaned to the Acropolis Museum a fragment of about 20 centimeters. It comes from the northern frieze of the Parthenon and depicts the head of a young man carrying offerings in the Panathenaic procession. In 2008 our committee had contacted the then director of the Vatican Museums, Francesco Buranelli, who at the time spoke of the generosity of the spirit in the reunification of the fragmented marbles.

In 2016 Pope Francis appointed the first female Director of the Vatican Museum (Barbara Jatta, an Italian art historian) and now, in 2022, he has made this great donation to His Beatitude Jerome II, not only with one fragment, but with three. In other words, he did the right thing. People are moving forward in Italy and I hope that the British Museum will follow this path also.

How optimistic are you about the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles?

I am and have always been optimistic. The pressure is rising, the tide is turning, exciting exchanges I am sure will take place and modern technologies will certainly play an important role. All museums have to deal with the changes brought about by history (e.g. the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands and the Louvre) and some need, as we see, more time to find a way to respond while maintaining their glamour at the same time. And laws may need to be revised.

To read the original ariticle in Greek online, follow the link here.

18 December 2021, TA NEA,  Yannis Andritsopoulos, London Correspondent for the Greek daily newspaper

Boris Johnson as student in 1986 wrote that the Parthenon Marbles were pillaged and should be returned to Greece. A position the British PM has recently rejected when Greece requests the reunification of these antiquities, and insisting they were 'legally acquired'.

Boris Johnson’s insistence as Prime Minister that the Parthenon Marbles were legally acquired by Lord Elgin and should remain in the British Museum is a complete reversal of the position he previously held, Greek daily newspaper Ta Nea can exclusively reveal.

In fact, as a university student, Johnson urged the British government to return the artefacts to Greece, arguing that they had been unlawfully removed from the ancient temple in Athens.

It is the first time evidence has emerged that the British Prime Minister advocated the reunification of the 2,500-year-old sculptures, a request he has repeatedly rejected publicly in recent years.

In an article written in April 1986 for the Oxford Union’s magazine, Johnson, then an undergraduate at Oxford University, accused Lord Elgin of ‘wholesale pillage’ of the Parthenon.

As British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Elgin removed the sculptures from the Parthenon in the early 19th century, when Greece was under Ottoman rule. He then sold them to the British government which passed them on to the British Museum in 1817.

Writing as president of the Oxford Union 35 years ago, Johnson claimed in his article that an Act of Parliament to hand the Marbles back “could be passed in an afternoon.”

The future Prime Minister went on to accuse the British government of ‘sophistry and intransigence’, saying that Whitehall’s claim that the ‘transaction had been conducted with the recognised legitimate authorities of the time’ is “invalid”.

“A letter from Elgin of 1811 reveals that the Turkish authorities denied ‘that the persons who had sold those marbles to him had any right to dispose of them’,” Johnson wrote.

He added that Elgin “secured from the Sultan a firman to remove 'qualche pezzi di pietra’ - a few pieces of stone - that happened to be lying about on the Acropolis. Elgin's interpretation of this phrase was liberal to say the least.”

This statement contradicts Johnson’s recent remarks regarding the legality of Elgin’s actions. In an exclusive interviewwith Ta Nea published in March, the British Prime Minister claimed that the Parthenon Marbles “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.” He stressed that this view is “the UK Government’s firm longstanding position on the sculptures”.

“It seems that Boris Johnson was aware of concrete evidence that Lord Elgin’s actions were unlawful from as early as 1986. This begs the question: did he mislead the public when he recently claimed that the sculptures were legally acquired by Elgin?”, a Greek official told Ta Nea.

It is the first time since its publication in 1986 that this article has been made public.

The Daily Telegraph reported last month that Johnson “wrote an article for a student magazine arguing that (the Marbles) should stay here”. In actual fact, though, it is now clear that he argued the exact opposite.

Titled “Elgin goes to Athens – The President marbles at the Grandeur that was (in) Greece …,” the 978-word article was published in Debate, the official magazine of the Oxford Union Society (Vol. 1, No. 3, Trinity Term 1986, p. 22).

Ta Nea found the an unknown article in an Oxford library last week. It is not available online, nor is there any reference to it in the press or on the Internet. Two Oxford sources confirmed its authenticity.

Greece has repeatedly called for the return of the Parthenon Marbles, arguing that Lord Elgin had not secured permission to remove them from the ancient temple. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Culture Minister Lina Mendoni have said that the sculptures were 'stolen'. In his 1986 article, Mr Johnson appears to accept that view.

However, when he met with his Greek counterpart in Downing Street last month, the British leader rebuffed Mitsotakis’s request for the Marbles to be returned. He claimed that the issue was "one for the trustees of the British Museum".

This is inconsistent with the view he expressed in his 1986 article, in which he said that it is for the British Parliament to decide the Marbles’ fate.

“In 1816 (Elgin) sold them to the British government for £35,000. Therefore, it would require an Act of Parliament to hand them back. This, needless to say, seems to be a more or less insuperable brake on the process of return - yet it could be passed in an afternoon,” Johnson, who graduated from Balliol College with a BA in Classics, wrote.

The sculptures held in the British Museum make up about half of the 160-metre frieze which adorned the Parthenon, a 5th century BC architectural masterpiece. Most of the other surviving sculptures (around 50 metres) are in Athens.

Britain has repeatedly rejected Greece's request to hold talks on returning the Marbles. Earlier this year, a UNESCO committee said that Greece’s request for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures is “legitimate and rightful,” stressing that “the case has an intergovernmental character and, therefore, the obligation to return the Parthenon Sculptures lies squarely on the UK Government”. It also called on Britain “to reconsider its stand and proceed to a bona fide dialogue with Greece on the matter”.

In his magazine article, Johnson, then 21, called on the UK to return Phidias’s masterpieces to Greece so that they can be “displayed where they belong”.
“The reasons for taking the marbles were good. The reasons for handing them back are better still,” the future Prime Minister and Tory leader stressed.

“They will be housed in a new museum a few hundred yards from the Acropolis. They will be meticulously cared for. They will not, as they were in the British Museum in 1938, be severely damaged by manic washerwomen scrubbing them with copper brushes,” he wrote.

It had been claimed that as a student Johnson was "sympathetic" to the Greek request, but no evidence to support this had been presented until now. All his past public comments express the view that the Marbles should stay in the UK.

In 2014, he criticised George Clooney for suggesting Britain should return the Parthenon marbles to Greece. Johnson said at the time the actor needed his “marbles” restored, claiming Clooney was “advocating nothing less than the Hitlerian agenda for London's cultural treasures”.

In a 2012 letter shared with the Guardiannewspaper, Johnson, then mayor of London, wrote that “in an ideal world, it is of course true that the Parthenon marbles would never have been removed from the Acropolis,” but concluded that if the sculptures were removed from London, it would amount to “grievous and irremediable loss”. Therefore, he added, “I feel that on balance I must defend the interests of London.”

In March, the Prime Minister posed for Ta Nea in his parliamentary office next to a plaster cast bust of his “personal hero”, Pericles. The Athenian statesman is credited with ordering the design and construction of the Parthenon from which Elgin took the marbles.

As president of the Oxford Union, Johnson invited the then Greek Culture Minister Melina Mercouri to participate in a June 1986 debate titled: “[This House believes] that the Elgin Marbles must be returned to Athens.” She won the vote.
The Greek government says that the sculptures were illegally removed during the Ottoman occupation of Greece in the early 1800s.

It seems Greece has found an unlikely ally in its quest to reunite the Marbles in the form of the 21-year-old Johnson, who thought that “the Elgin Marbles should leave this northern whisky-drinking guilt-culture” and be displayed “where they belong: in a country of bright sunlight and the landscape of Achilles, 'the shadowy mountains and the echoing sea'.”

Boris Johnson’s article in full:

Elgin goes to Athens

The President marbles at the Grandeur that was (in) Greece …

On Thursday 12 June Melina Mercouri, the Greek Minister of Culture, is coming to the Oxford Union. Her subject, thanks to dynamic lobbying has a ring of familiarity all around the world: the return of the Elgin Marbles. Powerful forces will cause her to fly to Britain. They are on the one hand the passionate national feeling of the Greek people, and on the other the sophistry and intransigence of the British Government. And caught between these forces is, not a sack of old balls, but the supreme artistic treasure of the ancient world. The debate on 12 June will mark the climax of a renewed campaign by the Greek government to restore to Greece the sculptural embodiment of the spirit of the nation. The vote in Oxford - the centre of British Classical scholarship - will without question affect the decision in Whitehall. To put it crudely, your choice will count.

The background
In 450 BC Pericles, the ruler who steered Athens to her greatness, launched an ambitious programme of monumental public works. The Acropolis, the ancient citadel of Athens, was to become the glory and envy of the world. Puritan spirits objected, claiming that he was wrongfully using tribute from Athenian dependencies to ‘tart up the city like a whore'. But posterity has faulted their judgement. The craftsmen Phidias, Ictinus and Callicrates, with the personal encouragement of Pericles, created buildings and sculpture which are wholly emblematic of the pride and intellectual vigour of Athens. It is on the Panathenaic frieze, which ran along the wall behind the Parthenon's columns, that we see classical art at its most sublime. The technical control is minute, the features calm and passionless. The detachment and self-control of the figures are in harmony with the Periclean vision: of the city and citizens of the virgin goddess independent, self-reliant, and superior to the common calls of the flesh. The Panathenaic Frieze consisted of 111 panels. 97 survive. 56 of them are in the British Museum.

The Parthenon, the temple of Athena the Virgin, has suffered two major catastrophes in its history. The first was in 1678, when a cunning Turkish general, under siege from the Venetians, decided to use it as a munitions dump - like hiding a tank in a Red Cross tent. But the Venetian general Morosini reached for his gun, like Goering, at the mention of culture, shelled it, and blew up most of the central portion. The second major catastrophe was the wholesale pillage of the ancient shrine by Lord Elgin from 1801 to 1811.

Greece was at this time a tumbledown outpost of the Ottoman Empire. The national identity which Pericles glimpsed, and which has returned so conspicuously in the 20th century, had shimmered and vanished. Lord Elgin was Ambassador to the Sublime Porte, and had left behind him in England a young and skittish wife, with a pampered girl's insatiable desire for presents. It was in the Acropolis that he realised he had found a few things that might amuse here. Manipulating Turkish dependence in Britain for military support, he secured from the Sultan a firman to remove 'qualche pezzi di pietra’ - a few pieces of stone - that happened to be lying about on the Acropolis. Elgin's interpretation of this phrase was liberal to say the least. For ten years a team of labourers, under the direction of a rapacious Italian called Lusieri, sawed and hacked at the sculptures of Phidias. Huge ox-wagons daily lumbered down to the Piraeus laden with their pathetic cargo: Hermes’ Knee is still in Athens. The rest of him is in the British Museum.

It was the near-anarchy of the Ottoman Empire that allowed Elgin to get away with it. ‘Do you mind if I borrow these bits of stone for a while?’ was how he might have put it to the local sergeant, and the man would have shrugged and returned to his harem in the Erechtheum. And yet it was on precisely this point that the Whiteheall mandarins rejected, in 1983, the formal request of the Greek government for the return of the marbles: that ‘transaction had been conducted with the recognised legitimate authorities of the time.’ As it turns out, even this paltry defence is invalid: a letter from Elgin of 1811 reveals that the Turkish authorities denied ‘that the persons who had sold those marbles to him had any right to dispose of them.’

To be fair, Elgin did humanity a service by bagging the sculptures before they could be quarried for the construction of Turkish hovels. He lost a fortune on the enterprise, and his wife, who probably found them too cold and immodest, was not happy with them either. In 1816 he sold them to the British government for £35,000. Therefore it would require an Act of Parliament to hand them back. This, needless to say, seems to be a more or less insuperable brake on the process of return - yet it could be passed in an afternoon. The reasons for taking the marbles were good. The reasons for handing them back are better still.

The Elgin Marbles should leave this northern whisky-drinking guilt-culture, and be displayed where they belong: in a country of bright sunlight and the landscape of Achilles, 'the shadowy mountains and the echoing sea'. They will be housed in a new museum a few hundred yards from the Acropolis. They will be meticulously cared for. They will not, as they were in the British Museum in 1938, be severely damaged by manic washerwomen scrubbing them with copper brushes. Legend tells that the statues of the gods shrieked as they were torn from the Parthenon. It is now almost two centuries since Lord Elgin's deed, and the gods are not mocked.

Boris Johnson
Balliol

1986

 Guardian 18 December 2021

Helena Smith writes: 'The extent of Boris Johnson’s U-turn on the Parthenon marbles has been laid bare in a 1986 article unearthed in an Oxford library in which the then classics student argued passionately for their return to Athens.

Deploying language that would make campaigners proud, Johnson not only believed the fifth century BC antiquities should be displayed “where they belong”, but deplored how they had been “sawed and hacked” from the magisterial edifice they once adorned.

“The Elgin marbles should leave this northern whisky-drinking guilt-culture, and be displayed where they belong: in a country of bright sunshine and the landscape of Achilles, ‘the shadowy mountains and the echoing sea,’” he wrote in the article, republished by the Greek daily, Ta Nea, on Saturday.'

To read the article in full, follow the link here

Telegraph 18 December 2021

Steve Bird also took up the story: 'Thirty-five years ago, Johnson wrote how the UK’s claim to the artefacts relied on the “invalid” suggestion that Elgin had received the approval to remove them from “the legitimate authorities of the time”.

Johnson wrote: “As it turns out, even this paltry defence is invalid: a letter from Elgin of 1811 reveals that the Turkish authorities denied ‘that the persons who had sold those marbles to him had any right to dispose of them.’”

Greece has repeatedly insisted that because the Ottomans were an occupying force in Greece they had no right to sanction the removal of the frieze to anyone.

To read the Telgraph article, follow the link here(there is a paywall). 

"I was deeply moved during a recent visit to the Acropolis Museum in Athens", writes Alfredo Cafasso Vitale. His article was first published in ekathimerini on Thursday 02 June 2022.

With the kind permission from Alfredo Cafasso Vitale, the remainder of the article can also be read below:

This fragment, which is part of the eastern frieze of the Parthenon, depicts a foot and a part of the peplos of Artemis, and was acquired in 1816 by the British consul in Sicily, Robert Fagan. After his death in 1820, it was sold to the Museum of the Royal University of Palermo and from there it was then passed to the Salinas Museum.

The top floor of the Acropolis Museum is a virtual reconstruction of the Parthenon, and the area has been designed, with its position and glass, to reflect, and to not only display this reconstruction, but to also visually link it to the original near 2,500-year-old structure on the Acropolis hill. The Fagan fragmentis now displayed in a glass case, within its place in the reconstruction and also looking out at the actual historical site.

I hope this trip paves the way for a much more important and long-awaited journey of the marbles from the British Museum, “stolen” in the early 1800s by Thomas Bruce, then made Lord Elgin, ambassador of Great Britain to Constantinople.

During the period of Ottoman occupation in Greece, Elgin apparently obtained the permission of the sultan to remove the marbles. These were then dispersed in different locations (the same Fagan fragment came directly from Elgin). Some marbles were lost at sea, during transport, but most eventually arrived at the British Museum.

This process, which is not, in some quarters, considered to be a valid and genuine method of acquisition, has triggered fierce international debates, and has initiated official requests for restitution of the marbles by various Greek governments.

The Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer, in the preface to the splendid book by Christopher Hitchens, “The Parthenon Marbles,The Case for Reunification” underlined how the presence of the marbles in London represented the stone manifesto of British colonial arrogance, and how much the marbles belonged, representing their DNA in art, to the Greek people.

These sculptures by Phidias have been requested in vain for almost 40 years by various Greek governments (the first was Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri in 1984), and most recently by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in an interview on British television.

It should be noted that, as a student, Boris Johnson wrote, in an article in Oxford, “…it is evident to me, how much [these marbles] are woven into the Greek identity. It would be a wonderful thing if they could be returned.” Latterly, Ed Vaizey, former minister of culture of the Cameron government, recently stated that they should be in Athens.

The National Archaeological Museum of Athens has transferred its 10 fragments of the Parthenon to the Acropolis Museum, strengthening the reunification process and sparking a fresh discussion about the never dormant request for the return of the marbles.

I hope that the exchange program with Sicily will lead the way to a solution for the return of the marbles, which would, in turn, strengthen Greece’s cultural identity, and perhaps help reinforce it politically and economically. The country has been trying with all its strength and succeeding in re-emerging from the profound crisis of the last decade.

In another indication that perhaps the tide is turning in favor of the return of the marbles, the Musee des Civilizations du Quai Branly in Paris and the Berlin Ethnologisches Museum have initiated the return of African artifacts to Nigeria, improperly taken away during the colonial period from Benin City.

As a footnote, upon exiting the museum, I entered the metro, heading home, at the Acropolis station. Going down to the platform, I was greeted by the giant picture of Melina Mercouri in front of the Parthenon, wrapped in an elegant trench coat, a bundle of wild flowers in her hands, and an immense and radiant smile, which today seems even more radiant. The return process, dreamed of and initiated by her, seems to have perhaps gained some momentum.

Martin Bailey wrote in The Art Newspaper on Wednesday, 10 May 2023, revealing declassified UK government documents showed the Foreign Office had been dismissive of the British Museum’s lobbying to retain the Parthenon Marbles in 1983. The year when a formal claim was first lodged, after Greece's then Greek culture minister, Melina Mercouri visited London and the British Museum. 

'The Foreign Office recorded that Mercouri argued that the Marbles “are an integral part of a monument that represents the national spirit of Greece”. Wilson responded that they are part of a museum which is a unique international institution that “should not be dismembered”. But the officials concluded that Mercouri “won the argument hands down”.'

Fast forward four decades, and the argument for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles is as compeling today as it has been since the 19th century, and the first request made by Greece after gaining independence. 

Janet Suzman, BCRPM's Chair often speaks of what Melina was like when she first met her in London. "Melina was electric, she swept through Britain in the 80's and captured the hearts and minds of all those that understood the injustice of the removal of these sculptures, their sale to the government by Lord Elgin in 1816, plus their continued display in the British Museum as art pieces, not as a collection of peerless sculptures that will always be intrinsically connected to the Parthenon. A building, which after two and half millennia of history, wars and occupations, still stands proud on the Sacred Hill.

"We could be informed how exactly these stone figures came to be here in this cold gallery in London" suggests Janet Suzman. "Since no proof from the Ottoman Sultanate has yet been found permitting them to be taken from Greece, we could, at the very least, be told that fact. Otherwise we must assume the British Museum has a very tenuous hold on reality when it claims they were legitimately acquired."

"The BCRPM wants to see visitors to the British Museum enlightened, either by a leaflet made available in the Greek galleries, or cogent signage on the plinths themselves, with full information about their acquisition."

"The modern Hellenic Republic, free of the yoke of the Ottomans, desperately wants its cultural heritage - these perticular Parthenon scuptures - returned. For over two hundred years it has wanted them returned. The public deserves to know why; Lord Elgin chopped them off the Parthenon and stole them, silently and clandestinely, and they ought to be back in their own place, where the sun shines." Concludes Janet Suzman.

'In the name of fairness and morality' said Melina in 1986 'please give them back. Such a gesture from Great Britain would ever honour your name'.

In 1983 the Greek government decided, for the first time, to formally demand the return of artefacts removed from their most famous national monument two centuries before.

The Greek actress turned Minister of Culture, Melina Mercouri, said the British ambassador, Lord Elgin, had no moral right to ship 170 crates of marble sculpture from Athens to London between 1801 and 1804.

The Parthenon marbles are now housed in the British Museum in London, and Melina Mercouri visited it and spoke to the Director of the Museum, David Wilson.

Victoria Solomonides was with Melina Mercouri and remembers the impact the former actress had on the British public.

Witness History: The stories of our times told by the people who were there.

2020: Year of Melina Mercouri
Dr Victoria Solomonidis FKC FRHistS

Member, Board of Directors of the Melina Mercouri Foundation

Why is it important that the Greek Ministry of Culture declared 2020 as the “Year of Melina Mercouri”?

The Greek Ministry of Culture declared 2020 as the Year of Melina Mercouri, a year-long series of events marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of the much-loved internationally acclaimed actress, activist, politician and former Minister of Culture. With her legacy still alive 26 years after her death, Melina’s work was to be highlighted and remembered through exhibitions, lectures, concerts and film screenings.

The inaugural celebration took place last January at the Acropolis Museum, Melina’s most cherished project, though this ambitious programme was hampered by the covid-19 pandemic which led to the postponement of most of the events for 2020.

The initiative to mark this centenary was taken by Dr Lina Mendoni, the Minister for Culture & Sport and, as circumstances were to prove, the plan assumed an additional symbolic significance: Melina Mercouri was known for her indomitable perseverance and spirited optimism under adverse circumstances, her self-awareness and self-discipline, attributes vital in our challenging times, especially in the face of the pandemic.

What is, in your opinion, the legacy of Melina Mercouri to our contemporary cultural dialogues?

Melina’s legacy is multifaceted. A number of institutions encapsulate this legacy in a tangible way:

1. The Melina Mercouri Prize established by the EU Commission and awarded to the annual winners of the European Capital of Culture competition (value: 1.5 million Euros). The scheme was conceived and implemented in 1985 by Melina Mercouri as Minister of Culture and, over the past 35 years, the European Capitals of Culture have developed into one of the most ambitious cultural projects in Europe, becoming one of the best known, publicly salient EU projects. The cities are chosen on the basis of a cultural programme with a strong European dimension, a programme to engage and involve the candidate city's inhabitants and contribute to its long-term progress.

Becoming a European Capital of Culture brings renewed life to the winning cities, boosting their cultural, social and economic development. Many of them, like Lille, Glasgow and Essen, have demonstrated that the title can be a great opportunity to regenerate urban centres, bringing creativity, visitors and international recognition.

Today, Melina’s vision of the project is more relevant than ever. European Capitals of Culture highlight the richness of Europe’s cultural diversity and take a fresh look at shared history and heritage. They promote mutual understanding and show how the universal language of creativity opens Europe to cultures from across the world. Through this institution, Europeans are provided with an opportunity to learn more about each other's cultures, to enter into an intercultural dialogue and to enjoy shared history and values. It is of particular importance that as of 2021 and every third year, the initiative will be open to cities in EU candidate countries or potential candidates for EU membership.

This development would have been be particularly welcome to Melina. Even before the fall of the Berlin Wall, a fruitful and constructive dialogue with the countries of Eastern Europe began on her initiative when in 1988, during the second Greek EU presidency and despite the strong reservations of her European counterparts, she promoted the idea of cultural cooperation between Eastern Europe and the European Union in a bid to open up the borders. The idea was implemented in 1989 with the celebration of an EU sponsored Month of Culture in Eastern countries. The initiative to open up the European City of Culture to countries outside the EU family, would be a source of great satisfaction for her.

2. The UNESCO-Greece Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes was established in 1995, to reward outstanding examples of action aimed at safeguarding and enhancing the world’s cultural landscapes, defined as the combined works of nature and man, a category of the World Heritage List.

Valued at US $30,000, the Prize is awarded every two years to an individual, an institution or a non-governmental organization for outstanding efforts to protect and manage sites that embody an enduring, intimate relationship between people and their environment, in the face of numerous threats, such as unplanned infrastructure development and urbanization, lack of agents to manage landscapes due to depopulation and changes in traditional ways of life, as well as increasing disaster risks and the effects of climate change.

The latest Prize was awarded in November 2019 during the 40th Session of the UNESCO General Conference. The recipient was the Instituto do Património Cultural in Cabo Verde for its outstanding contribution to the safeguarding, management and sustainable development of the Natural Park of Cova, Paul and Ribeira da Torre, an emblematic example of Cabo Verde’s mountain wetlands and one of its most important agricultural ecosystems. The prize money will be used to elaborate a Management Plan, create a centre for landscape interpretation, train young tourist guides and promote female entrepreneurship.

3. The Melina Mercouri Drama Award, presented annually by the Melina Mercouri Foundation to the best young actress of the previous theatre season in Greece. In addition to the prize money of 3.000 Euros, the recipient receives Melina’s favourite brooch as a precious, unique trophy to hold for one year and pass on to the next award winner.
Established in 2007, the Award is highly prized, and the annual award ceremony is one of the highlights of the theatrical season. The Jury consists of five eminent theatre personalities, chaired by the legendary actress Maya Lyberopoulou.

In October 2020, the 14th Melina Mercouri Drama Award was presented to Dimitra Vlagopoulou, for her performance in "The tragic story of Hamlet, a prince of Denmark", based on the eponymous Shakespeare tragedy. Under Covid-19 restrictions, the ceremony took place at the National Theatre, in the presence of the President of the Republic Mme Katerina Sakellaropoulou and the Minister of Culture and Sport Dr Lina Mendoni.

Alongside the Melina Mercouri – Jules Dassin Scholarships, offered annually by the Melina Mercouri Foundation to young Greeks wishing to pursue research at Ph.D. level in Classical Archaeology or Greek Literature, the Drama Award reflects Melina’s concern for the younger generation and her wish to see excellence rewarded across the board.

These institutions epitomize Melina’s concern for humanity at large, for the value of culture and cultural heritage in bringing people together, for the importance of the younger generation and its aspirations. Back in 1982, addressing the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies, she said: “It is time to declare that the concepts of “foreign” or “other” should revert to their first meaning; that is, different or perhaps unique, but never better or worse, bigger or smaller. Let us here together, and each one of us in his or her own country, find a way to give substance to this new vision, making it a concrete reality and making it possible for children in their schools to know, to love and to appreciate the cultures of the entire world.”

Melina’s legacy is as valid today as it was back in 1982.

What is it about Melina Mercouri that has made her a longstanding symbol for Greece? Is it her contribution to arts, culture, politics or something else beyond these? How do you believe, people remember her?

Melina was, and still is, synonymous with “passion”, “drama”, “philosophy”, “justice”, “moral values”, “self-sacrifice”, notions that stem from our ancient Greek heritage and are as classic as the stones of the Athenian Acropolis. From the days of her struggle against the junta of the colonels, and later on, as an MP and Minister of Culture, Melina was a Greek heroine who fought against the injustices inflicted upon the common people. Culture, politics and the arts were the three different roads she walked at the same time, all leading to the same destination: the creation of a better world through mutual understanding and respect.

The general public remembers Melina for her passionate quest for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures, for “putting Greece on the map” in terms of contemporary cultural cooperation and enterprise and, crucially, for her love of Greece and its people, a love reciprocated widely, as evidenced by the hundreds of thousands of Athenians who followed her funeral cortege back in 1994. Melina had voiced her fear that she might be forgotten after her death. How wrong she was!

How do her roles as an artist, as a campaigner against the junta, as a politician compare, in your opinion? Would you say that Mercouri was more apt to a specific role compared to another? Which of these capacities may still have an impact on our nowadays history and how?

For Melina, culture was political, and politics were a matter of culture. She was equally successful in everything she tackled and was a prime example of a woman who took the front stage, even at a time when the female role was relegated to “behind the scenes”. Referring again to her famous UNESCO address of 1982, we read:

“Let us therefore be realists: women still represent an oppressed continent and I am profoundly convinced that one of the first duties of people concerned with cultural affairs is to fight for the humanitarian and democratic qualities of modern societies by giving women their due place in those societies.

This fight has an institutional aspect but, when the political will exists, it is relatively easy to conduct. There is also another aspect: that which relates to mental attitudes and habits which have developed over the centuries and which cannot be ended without the militant and arduous intervention of culture.”

My belief is that at the heart of all her activities, political or cultural, Melina had one great passion and that was Justice, with a capital J. To this end, she explored all possible avenues, used all her attributes and talents to the full.

Could you please tell us about the aims and activities of the Melina Mercouri Foundation? How does the Foundation contribute to keeping Mercouri’s vision for the reunification of Parthenon Marbles alive?

In line with the fundamental ideas and policies that Melina Mercouri envisioned, planned and implemented when she was Minister of Culture, our Foundation aspires to contribute to the promotion and dissemination of Greek culture in Greece and abroad. In Melina’s words, “our cultural heritage remains a leading force, our inner strength and our pride”.

In 1981, during the first days of her term of office as Minister of Culture, one of the foremost priorities she set was the project of conservation of the Acropolis monuments, including the initiative for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures. This choice echoed her firm conviction that, as an integral entity of unique artistic value, the Acropolis monuments convey the classical Greek spirit, while as universal symbols, they embody values, principles and ideals which contemporary societies strive to attain.

Reflecting this conviction, the Foundation has focused its activities towards the same direction and, contributing to the overall efforts of the Greek state in this field, works in close collaboration with the pertinent Greek authorities.

Melina’s vision for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures is today pursued by many people around the world, with national committees working towards that goal, from the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Serbia and Russia, to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, Brazil and Chile. It is heartening to see the younger generation working alongside distinguished personalities, through social media, interviews, publications and conferences in a concerted effort to inform the international community regarding the plight of the Sculptures. The Foundation works closely with the umbrella International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures and its Chair Dr Christiane Tytgart. Mr Christoforos Argyropoulos, the Chairman of the Melina Mercouri Foundation, chairs the Hellenic Advisory Committee for the Parthenon Sculptures set up by the Ministry of Culture in 2015.

How does the Menina Mercouri Foundation cultivate awareness about the legacy, the personality, the artistic and political trajectory and the visions of Melina Mercouri among the young generation?

As I have said, the younger generation was always at the forefront of Melina’s projects, be it internationally, through, for example, the regeneration of urban centres and the creation of work places via the institution of the European City of Culture, or nationally, with the Melina Programme aiming to link culture with education at all educational levels so that pupils and students find pleasure in learning. It is part of the Foundation’s mission to promote her legacy among the young through various programmes, such as the Drama Award and the postgraduate scholarships scheme, but also through a sustained and constant presence in the social media so enamoured of the younger generation.

The Exhibition Hall of the Foundation is open for school visits and the Melina Mercouri Archive, consisting of audio-visual material [films, documentaries, recordings], press cuttings from 1951 to the present, speeches delivered from 1982 to 1994 and some 13,000 photographs constitutes, a rich resource for research.

As all celebrations planed by the Ministry of Culture and by the MM Foundation for the Year of Melina Mercouri have been suspended, due to the coronavirus pandemic, is the Foundation going to put in place online events or does it draw up plans for future celebrations?

It is our sincere hope that this year 2021, which has such a special meaning for our country, will see the implementation of the postponed 2020 events. As things stand at present, it is difficult to make specific plans so…watch this space!

This interview was also published in the Greek Emabassy Newsletter.BCRPM thanks Dr Solomonidis for her decades of dedication to the cause, her archives and source material. Dr Victoria Solomonides worked closely with the founder of BCRPM, Mrs Eleni Cubitt. 

After Melina 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.