“Any holders of Parthenon Sculptures outside Greece to return them forthwith to Athens, where they can be reunited with their brothers and sisters”, the distinguished historian of the University of Cambridge, Dr. Paul Cartledge, stated in Kathimerini. Vice-Chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles and a 50-year scholar of ancient Greek history, he congratulates the tireless struggle of the Greeks for the return of their stolen antiquities, while stressing the favourable climate in the UK for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

“YouGov polls regularly register above 60 percent support for reunification” argues Professor Cartledge, explaining that “The UK’s main journal of record, The Times, has recently flipped its longstanding editorial policy – from a retentionist to a reunificatory stance”.

Regarding the problems of the sculptures' storage at the British Museum, Cartledge, critical of the British Museum, also stresses their poor conservation, focusing among other things on the issue of dampness in Room 18, as well as the series of thefts by the former curator of the Greek and Roman wings. According to Dr. Cartledge, «The Museum’s repeated claim to have been an exemplary caretaker of ‘its’ Marbles since 1817 has also been exploded on two academic fronts: a) by the late William St Clair, exposing the hushed-up, irreparable damage (‘skinning’) inflicted on frieze sculptures on Lord Duveen’s orders in the late 1930s; and lately b) by international human rights lawyer Professor Catharine Titi exposing the fragility of the UK’s original claim to legality of purchase in 1816”.

The timeline of the sale of the sculptures is set four years after the removal of the sculptures from the Acropolis, but personal debts lead Lord Elgin to submit a proposal to the British Museum to sell the stolen sculptures, estimating their value at £35,000, with the British Parliament accepting Elgin's offer. From then on, the sculptures began to be exhibited at the British Museum with the newly-established Greek state making the first request for their return in 1835.

But did Lord Elgin have the right to sell the sculptures? According to Dr. Cartledge, who relies on the legal assumptions presented in the book, “The Parthenon Marbles and International Law”, “the UK does have legal title to ‘ownership’ of the British Museum holdings, but only with regards to domestic law. Contrariwise it is evidenced that Lord Elgin’s title to what he sold to the U.K. for £35,000 in 1816 was anything but Acropolis rock-solid. So far, despite rigorous searches in Ottoman archives, the best that ‘retentionist’ defenders of the UK and the BM can dredge up is an Italian translation of a permit issued by an Ottoman high-up, not formally carrying the imprimatur of the Sultan himself, allowing Elgin’s men to pick up marbles lying around on the ground and copy stones bearing figures – no mention of hacking worked marbles off the extant Temple itself and having them shipped at great risk of further damage to the UK”.

“Conclusively, one of the issues at the heart of that ancient-history debate is the existence or nonexistence of any sort of official Ottoman firman authorizing Elgin and his cohorts to damage the Acropolis. On the other hand,”, Professor Cartledge adds, “the reunification requires at least one, possibly two Acts of Parliament to be either amended or rescinded: a) of “1816” about the purchasing of and the claim to ownership of the Elgin Collection including the Parthenon Sculptures and, b) of “1963”, “Museums Act”. That requires parliamentary time and support. The present (Tory) UK government is dead against even talking about any legislative change, for example, witness the UK PM’s recent extreme discourtesy to the Greek PM. The Chair of the British Museum Trustees is, therefore, unable to help the Greek government directly, even if he wanted to; his talk about a ‘deal’ is just that – “hot air”.

After two centuries of claims by the Greek State, the provocative fashion show in the Duveen Hall, in front of the Greek antiquities, provoked the anger of the Greek Ministry of Culture, with the Minister of Culture Lina Mendonispeaking of "zero respect", while the British media reiterated the conflict between the two governments and the Greek demand for the return of the sculptures.

As vice-chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, Professor Cartledge argues for the reunification of the sculptures on Greek soil, stressing, “Outside Athens and Greece any Parthenon Marbles held abroad risk looking like imperial loot without much if any current cultural-political significance”. At the same time, he underlines, “The Parthenon was a temple of as well as on the Acropolis, so any sculptures therefrom that survive but cannot be re-placed on what remains of the temple itself should be reunited in the dedicated Acropolis Museum”.

Highlighting the historical and cultural value of the Parthenon, the distinguished academic elaborates on the argument of return by explaining that, “due to a series of historic conjunctions, like the liberation of the new state of Greece from the Ottoman empire, end of the Ottoman empire, growth of representative democracy, the increased importance of the Parthenon as a symbol of the world’s first democracy or ‘people-power’, division of Europe – and the world -  between democracies and autocracies, Parthenon stands as a symbol of both cultural excellence and political freedoms, and even more importantly so. Therefore”, he adds, “any holders of Parthenon Marbles/Sculptures outside Greece to return them forthwith to Athens, where they can be reunited with their brothers and sisters in a fully appropriate space”.

In summary, the Emeritus Professor of Cambridge argues that the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece will influence the global debate on the return of stolen antiquities to their place of origin, pointing out that, “The Parthenon Marbles is, in fact, a unique case, without implications for the fate of any other ‘restitution’ case, but, even so, reunifying the Parthenon Marbles back in Athens would have a mega impact on other legitimate claims for repatriation currently being lodged against the British Museum, above all perhaps that for the Benin Bronzes”.

This article was first published in ekathimeriniand writte by Athanasios Katsikidis.

To read the article in Greek, follow the link here.

The Right Honourable Robert Jenrick published his thoughts in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday 07 April. You can also read the entire article on MP Jenrick's website.

The article, 'Our Museums have fallen into the hands of a careless generation', caused concern amongst all generations represented in today's electorate of the UK. It would seem that Robert Jenrick did not appreciate the British Museum talking to another nation about artefacts from countries of origin in the museum's collection. 

"As was revealed last week the museum is in talks with four foreign governments to part with its collections.

The published minutes of the board tell us less about their plans than parish council minutes would of changes to verge cutting. We do know, however, that it is negotiating the long term loan of its most celebrated objects, the Elgin Marbles." Writes Robert Jenricks

“Long term loan” is a legal fiction constructed to circumvent the museum’s statutory duty to maintain its collection. There is surely no realistic prospect of the marbles returning from Greece should they ever be sent there. Parliament, like the nation, is being treated like a fool." He concludes going on to suggest that UK's curators are happy to denude museum, that the 'slippery slope' and 'floodgates' is 'corrosive post-colonial guilt wracking the progressive Left.'

Janet Suzman, BCRPM's Chair responded: 

Robert Jenrick's petulant essay on his website about the Parthenon Marbles - one might dub them the star steal - is typically high Tory; feigning ignorance of the full story of the steal. Their continuing presence in Bloomsbury is lumped with Jenrick's 'finders keepers' philosophy about all the other objects in the BM which were questionably obtained by a once powerful empire. His nationalism is depressing since these Marbles have a unique history, but with any luck a more generous solution might be achieved by more thoughtful actors.  

And many took to Twitter including BCRPM member Stuart O'Hara.

You can read all of Stuart's thread, here. 

Mark Stephens added his response too:

The UK General Election will take place on 4 July 2024 and whichever party you decide to vote for, we'd like to ask you to consider writing to your constituency MP.

BCRPM has been campaigning for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles since 1983 and if you wish to add your voice to the plight of the divided Parthenon Marbles/Sculptures we would be grateful.

We've drafted a letter which you can use as a template. Feel free to add anything that you also feel might make your MP understand that amending the Museum Act to allow these sculptures to be reunited with their other halves in the Acropolis Museum would make a great difference.

To download the letter, click the link here.

We thank you. 

This year's session of UNESCO's ICPRCP, the 24th session, took place over three days 29-31 May in Paris. To listen to the presentations and reactions, watch: https://www.youtube.com/live/hIF_Br8ZeT0?feature=shared

• Presentation for Greece was made by Professor Stampolidis, Director General of the Acropolis Museum and Artemis Papathanassiou, Head of the International Law Department for Foreign Affairs, Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs: 3:36 - 3:54
• Presentation for the UK was made by DCMS, Polly Payne and the British Museum’s Tom Harrison, Keeper of the Department of Greece and Rome: 3:54 - 4:00
• Comments by the ICPRCP members nations post the presentations were made by Chile, Guatemala, Panama, Egypt, India, Italy, Libya, Gabon, Zambia, Venezuela, Iraq, Czechia: 4:00 - 4:27 plus additional comments by observer nations including Palestine, Honduras, Nicaragua and Turkey: 4:27 - 4:34.  The Türkiye delegate Zeynep Boz,  heads up the anti trafficking department and said there was no evidence to prove the Lord Elgin had been given a permit to strip the fifth-century BC monument, the Parthenon, of its sculptures.
• Reactions made by Artemis Papathanassiou, Polly Payne and Professor Stampolidis also followed: 4:44

 Artemis Papathanassiou's response:

"Where the Trustees are vested with the title but they are not able to dispose of or transfer or sell or exchange their collections, what kind of ownership is this? Although the British Museum Trustees claim that they have legal title to the collection of sculptures removed from the Parthenon, they remain severely limited in terms of what they can do. So in the hypothetical case that the Trustees of the British Museum would feel a moral compulsion to return the Marbles back to Greece, the UK government is hindering its museum from doing so, hiding behind the law.

We have heard recent declarations from high ranking British government officials such as the Minister of Culture saying that the UK government has no intention of changing or amending this law.

The other issue concerns the loan that the British Museum is proposing to Greece. To our view the insistence of such a pre-condition would seem rather harsh and we examined the British Museum Act of 1963, which only requires that the Trustees have regard for students and other persons visiting the museum. According to the museum's own loan policy, the Trustees will lend in circumstances when the perceived risk to the object is considered reasonable and when borrowers guarantee that the object will be returned to the museum at the end of the loan period with no specific mention of acknowledging title.

And just to remind us that it is not usually (universally) that the borrower is required to acknowledge title but usually by the lender.

With regards to some specific remarks made by some other States, we would like to thank India for having highlighted that it is remarkable for the British side to advance the British Museum's deliberate argument if not abusive argument that they continue to hold the Parthenon Marbles for all humanity and we continue trying to justify an absolutely wrong historical doing to their commitment to humanity's culture.

We would also like to thank all the States for raising some particular aspects including Chile, Guatemala, Gabon, Libya - for having raised important issues that were highlighted in our presentation of cultural identity, as we have said repeatedly, the Parthenon Sculptures are not only our cultural heritage but they are strictly connected to cultural identity and the right of a person to have access and enjoy their own cultural heritage must not be restricted.

The integrity of works of art must be preserved so as not to impede the inherent right of participating in cultural life.

In concluding, we wish to thank Turkey for having raised a very important issue, which also responds to the British Museum. As the removal happened during the Ottoman era, there is no legal title or legal permission or any other document providing that there was a permission by the Ottoman side, which would give legality for this misuse of the diplomatic power of Lord Elgin at the time.

The statement made by Türkiye's delegate, Zeynep Boz were widely reported. Here's to the UK to reconsider amending the Museum's Act in order to allow these sculptures to be reunited with their surviving halves as close as we will ever be able to see them to the Parthenon. 

Now Greece continues to look to the UK for continued dialogue and dispute resolution, which would enable the Parthenon Marbles/Sculptures to be reunited in the Acropolis Museum.

Zeynep Boz and Artemis Papathanassiou

Among the coverage that this 24th session of the ICPRCP received, it was also uplifting to read in Sunday's Kathimerini (09 June 2024) that there were unsung heroines: Ms Vassiliki Papageorgiou, head of the documentation department of the Greek Ministry for Culture and Artemis Papathanassiou, Head of the International Law Department for Foreign Affairs, for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both credited for all of their preparatory work and in Artemis' case, we should also acknowledge her interventions during the sessions. We thank them both.

A timely reminder that at the 23rd session of UNESCO's ICPRCP in May 2022, we were all horrified to hear that Jonathan Williams, the then Deputy Director of the British Museum, making a strong statement, declaring: 'there can never be a magic moment for the reunification of the sculptures'. Half of what survived in the early 19th century had been shipped to England by the then Lord Elgin, and then in a fire sale, sold to the government who in turn entrusted these sculptures to the British Museum.

The long and rich history of the Parthenon, spanning over a period of more than 2,500 had left some sculptures lost forever and yet the surviving 60% are to this day, mainly divided between the Acropolis Museum in Athens and the British Museum in London.

Jonathan Williams did graciously, praised Greece on the restoration of the Parthenon, however he stressed that most of what is displayed in  the British Museum's Room 18 had not been forcibly removed from the Parthenon but taken from the rubble.

BCRPM's Hon President, Anthony Snodgrass, responded to Jonathan William's statement that the Parthenon Marbles had been removed mainly from rubble.