Victoria Hislop, novelist and activist, was granted honorary Greek citizenship in July 2020 for promoting modern Greek history and culture.
This was a richly deserved reward for above all a trilogy of novels with Greek themes that bring out the trials, tribulations and sometimes triumphs of modern Greek communities ranging from Crete to Thessaloniki to (Greek) Cyprus. The Island (2005) was her breakout account of the use of the islet of Spinalonga (Venetian name) off north-eastern Crete as a receptacle for leprosy victims. The Thread (2011) traced the Asia Minor catastrophe of the 1920s through to its further consequential disaster - the destruction of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki by the Nazis. Finally, The Sunrise (name of a hotel in Famagusta/Turkish Varosha) explored the disaster of the 1974 Turkish occupation of 'northern' Cyprus via the fictionalised but fact-based stories of some conflicted and displaced Greek families. Overtones of ancient Greek tragedy were clearly discernible. Others of her works have Greek, especially Cretan, settings or associations. For many years she had been made uncomfortable by the British Museum's intransigent attitude to 'their' Marbles: the recent interview of the Prime Minister by Yannis Andritsopoulos (Ta Nea) pushed her finally over the edge and, happily, into the embracing arms of the Reunification camp.

20 March 2021, in Ta Nea, an exclusive interview by Yannis Andritsopoulosn exclusive interview by Yannis Andritsopoulos: 

When Victoria Hislop read Boris Johnson’s interview with Greek newspaper Ta Nea a few days ago, she was furious.

The award-winning British author says it prompted her to grab her phone, send an email and join the campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.

It was a move she had been contemplating for years but her mind was made up in an instant by the British Prime Minister’s words.

“I've been thinking really deeply about the whole issue. It seems like decades somehow, because it always comes into conversation with Greeks,” the acclaimed writer told Ta Nea.

“But the actual tipping point was reading this interview with Boris Johnson in Ta Nea last Friday,” she added.

Lord Elgin, ambassador of Great Britain to the Sublime Porte, removed the 2,500-year-old sculptures from the Parthenon temple in Athens in the early 19th century, when Greece was under Ottoman rule.

In his first interview with a European newspaper since becoming the UK’s prime minister, Mr Johnson dashed Greece’s hopes of getting the Marbles back, saying that they were “legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the appropriate laws of the time and have been legally owned by the British Museum’s Trustees since their acquisition.”

“It was the same, tired statement, now made by Boris. I suppose I have extremely deep and personal anger towards Boris on many issues. Somehow, him coming out against the return of the Marbles was like 'this is it',” says Hislop, whose 2005 bestseller The Island has sold more than 6 million copies around the world and it has been published in 40 languages altogether.

I ask her what her first thought was when she read Johnson’s comments.

“I was like: ‘Oh God, that is absolutely wrong’. I think the history books will show that Boris was on the wrong side of history,” she says.

“This is the 200th anniversary of such a significant moment in Greek history,” she adds, referring to the bicentennial of the Greek War of Independence that Greece is celebrating next week. “I felt like that answer to you is a slap in the face. It felt like that.”

When she finished reading the interview, Hislop, 61, decided it’s high time she joined the campaign for the return of the sculptures.

“It's been very much on my mind now for a long time to join up, but somehow Boris just tipped me right over on Friday. What he said made me angry. This interview with Ta Nea was the last straw,” Hislop recalls.

She subsequently contacted the renowned academic Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture Emeritus at the University of Cambridge, who is also vice-chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM) and the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures (IARPS).

“When I read it, I emailed Paul immediately. I was in my kitchen and my laptop was in my study, which is two floors up from the kitchen. I only had my phone in the kitchen. It's really irritating to send emails on your phone; but I didn't even bother to come back up to my laptop. I just wanted to do it literally there and then.”

Hislop sent Cartledge the link to the interview on Ta Nea’s website and wrote: “Typical of Johnson to cite the usual cliché about the Marbles. (…) I think this is my final push to join up.”

Her request to join the committee was approved almost instantly.

Hislop is now a member of the BCRPM, a historic lobby group founded in 1983 by the distinguished British architect James Cubitt and his wife Eleni, a filmmaker, following a discussion the couple had with the then Greek Culture minister Melina Mercouri (one of the most emblematic figures of contemporary Greece) and her husband Jules Dassin, a renowned film director and producer.

“I should have done it before, I know,” she says. “But, you know… It’s that sense - and I don’t want this to sound defeatist - of what can one really do in the face of this very old-fashioned stubbornness. That's what I regard the British Museum slightly being. It’s a great institution, but this stubbornness that they have…”.

Hislop says that Johnson’s claim that the Parthenon Marbles were legally acquired by Lord Elgin is not accurate. “Where is that firman? (the Ottoman document used by Elgin as the basis of proving the supposed legality of the Marbles’ removal) Does it exist?” she asks.

“But… it's to do with recognising that what you did in the past isn't always the right thing for the present. You can't justify something now with what took place 200 years ago,” she adds.

“There was a fashion at the time for putting bits of Greek statues; it was fashionable to have things from the grand tour in your garden. There was an idea that Britain was this civilised place and you could just essentially steal, just take home a souvenir and put it in your luggage more or less. Greece wasn't the country then to have measures to prevent that happening. But it doesn't mean that it was right.”

I ask her what she would say to Boris Johnson if she met him. “I'd say ‘don't just cite the clichés. You're preventing the completion of one of the finest works of art on the planet. You're keeping something in a dark and dreary gallery of the British Museum as opposed to allowing it to see the light’,” says Hislop.

“The Acropolis Museum in Athens is so full of light,” she adds.

“It's like we've got this huge section of a jigsaw and we're just holding it because it's ours. This is something I find naive about still holding that view in 2021.”

Tide turning

Does she think that the Parthenon Sculptures will, eventually, return to their birthplace? Very much so, Hislop assures me.

“I think that the Marbles will return to Greece. It's a question of time. There's a zeitgeist that will sweep these precious things back to Athens.”

“I genuinely do think that the tide will turn with another generation. It might be another 10 or 20 years. This British colonialist attitude is going to seem very, very out of date and very politically incorrect,” she says.

She adds: “Forty years ago there was this sense of those wonderful sculptures that they're somehow better off here in London, that we're looking after them. That excuse is very dated now. The museum which is waiting for them is a way better place in so many ways. There is absolutely no remaining excuse for them not to go back.”

“It's almost like keeping a child from its mother. We're keeping the child. We adopted it, we brought it up but we're not giving it back.”

Hislop went on to explain why, in her view, the Parthenon Marbles could be part of the growing debate over contested heritage and Britain’s colonial past.

“I think that many people in this country, many younger people, people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, are really questioning our colonial past. They don't accept it at all; they are ashamed of it. That's what the British Museum was set up to do; to display things from our empire. When I was a child, we didn't question that. But fifty or sixty years on, we are deeply questioning what such a museum represents and the so-called ownership of many of the things inside.”

Hislop is keen to refute the so-called “floodgates” argument, according to which the return of the Parthenon Marbles could lead to a barrage of other nations' repatriation demands risking emptying the British Museum.

“We all know that the basement of the British Museum is packed. They have got so much stuff that would fill the galleries,” she says, adding that “it is also possible to create absolutely authentic, accurate copies. If the British Museum really wants to keep that as an educational gallery, make absolutely faithful copies but give the original back.”

Boris ban

Hislop reveals that for the last 1.5 years, her own family has banned her “from mentioning Boris in the house because he makes me really angry. I mean, really angry.”

Why is that? I ask her. “He led us over the cliff with Brexit which for me is a catastrophe for Britain. It turns us into this sort of parochial inward-looking country that I feel much less connected with than I did five or ten years ago when we were all European.”

“I wept when that Brexit vote happened,” she says. “I really think it was such a black day when the vote came.”

Hislop says that she “personally blames Boris” for Brexit. “If he had backed Remain, then the UK would still be part of Europe. I genuinely believe that the only reason he took the side that he did in the campaign was that he saw it as a route to becoming prime minister. The depth of his ambition... have no doubt about it. He sees himself as a kind of another Churchill.”

“For me, Boris is wrong on absolutely everything. Whatever he says, I can't agree with in any way whatsoever. Since he became prime minister, I don't think he's made really one good decision. I feel dismayed by him. He always gets away with things,” she adds.

Hislop also thinks that the British prime minister has handled the Covid-19 crisis appallingly. “Boris is very well-known for saying one thing and doing another. He tells lies. He's handled the last year of the pandemic pretty catastrophically. We've lost tens of thousands of people in lockdown. I have a lot of animosity.”

She’s speaking from personal experience, she tells me. “I was once asked to partner him in a tennis match and he turned up without a racket. It's a humorous anecdote, but it says everything about Boris Johnson; that he's all bluster, he's all talk. He is never prepared; I think he is very superficial.”

“He obviously goes to Greece to his father's house every year for holiday and he'll say he's a classicist, he knows Ancient Greek and all of this, but he doesn't actually seem to me to add up to anything.”

Last week, Johnson posed exclusively for Ta Nea next to a bust of Pericles in his parliamentary office in Westminster. “I saw the photograph next to his hero, Pericles; all of that is incredibly skin-deep,” Hislop says.

“We have 60 million people in this country who I feel have all been individually very badly led astray by him. I’m sorry I'm sort of ranting about Boris but it's partly to demonstrate how frustrated and heart-broken I am.”

Being Greek

Hislop was awarded honorary Greek citizenship in September. What does it feel like to be a six-month old Greek, I ask her.

“This is like my firman,” she says, showing me her citizenship certificate (over Zoom). “I keep it in my study.”

During the first lockdown, Hislop wrote her new book One August Night, the sequel to her 2005 bestseller The Island. Over the past few months, including during the UK’s third national lockdown, she has been working from her Chelsea home on the television adaptation of her novels Cartes Postales from Greece and The Last Dance to be released in October by the Greek state broadcaster ERT.

“Most of the time I’m kind of working in Greece although I'm sitting on my desk in London. It’s a strange thing. My body is here but my brain is somewhere else,” she says.

“The filming starts next Monday (in Crete) and I'm hoping to go out at the end of the month. That would be the first time I'm using my Greek passport. And I should be using it with huge pride.”

“We're not really allowed to travel, unless it's for work. I'm slightly hoping that they’ll challenge me at Heathrow and say ‘where are you going, madam?’ And I'll just say ‘I'm Greek, I'm on my way’!”

To  read the article in Ta Nea, kindly follow the link here or to read the original article in Greek, access this pdf.

Author, Victoria Hislop, launched her latest book 'The Figurine' last year in the UK, and on the 25th of January this year, the book, translated into Greek, and entitled 'To Eidolio', was launched at the Acropolis Museum. The Museum’s Director, Nikos Stampoulidis, introduced the book before Victoria was interviewed by Alexis Papahelas, Editor-in-Chief of Kathimerini.

Victoria Hislop joined BCRPM in March 2021 but it feels as though she has been a supporter forever.

Press coverage reflected Greece's love for this author as much as the love this author has for Greece. Kathimerini's article post Victoria's book launch in Athens explains that 'The Figurine' (published in Greek by Psichogios), addresses the issue of antiquity theft.

"I think the extent of the looting of antiquities and the long and complex chain of intermediaries who profit from it really surprised me. And, of course, the lack of scruples of those who have benefited, even the famous auction houses who in the past have deliberately overlooked the “history” of how certain objects were acquired,” explains Victoria.

"There are some very notable examples of illegality that are better known than figurine thefts" continues Victoria. "The Parthenon Marbles for example, which is a huge issue for Greece – and should be for the British as well. I firmly believe that the sculptures should be returned to Athens and reunited with the others in the beautiful Acropolis Museum. And on this there are developments. There is dialogue between Greece and the chairman of the British Museum. But for now, the British Museum is not going to change its fundamental belief that the sculptures “belong” to it. They are currently looking for a new director and we hope it is someone with understanding as far as the division of these sculptures is concerned. What is really required is for the museum to acknowledge that they acquired stolen property when they bought the sculptures from Lord Elgin. And for two centuries they have been endlessly repeating to themselves, and to their visitors, the same lie: that the sultan gave official permission for Elgin to take the sculptures. I believe that one day they will be returned, but not until we have a change of government, a more enlightened one. We still have the government that brought about Brexit and who believe in some kind of superiority of Britain over the world – and that we have a right to own these works of art. This is not an open-minded position."

To read the full article, follow the link here. To watch the promo video for the book's Greek version, follow the link to YouTube.

George Dalaras, Victoria Hslop, Nikos Stampolidis and Anna Dalaras

On 30 January another interview was published, following on from Victoria's presentation at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall as part of the second cycle of events "Writers of the world travel to the Concert Hall". Victoria is quoted: "If something is stolen from another country, it must return to its home . Already countless things from other major museums in the world have been returned to the right place. Although the British Museum is conservative, I think it should open its eyes, and UK politicians should listen to society", referring to the UK opinion polls showing that a majority continue to support for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

Thessaloniki Concert Hall, the second cycle of events: "Writers of the world travel to the Concert Hall"

Victoria agreed with Dr. Papakostas, who described antiquities as "rape of cultural heritage" and explained how much historical information is lost when artefacts are removed from their place of origin. Victoria Hislop admitted that it was only five years ago that she realized how important archaeology is, and she estimated that many people still do not understand it.

Dr. Papakostas in conversation with VIictoria Hislop

Tina Mandilara also interviwed Victoria on 02 February for Proto Thema. "In addition to the Greek language, which she learned by taking intensive lessons, Hislop speaks with passion and love for Greece that, as one review wrote, "overflows through her every word." Especially her new voluminous - almost 600 pages - book "The Idol"  literally runs through the entire spectrum of Greek History, since it starts from the days of the military coup of '67 and then moves on to present day Greece."

Tina addresses with Victoria the plight of the Parthenon Marbles: 'Regarding the argument that PM Sunak refused to meet PM Mitsotakis after the Greek prime minister's interview with the BBC, Hislop counters that "it is nonsense. How was it possible for the Greek prime minister not to discuss such an issue and, even more, how is it possible to omit it from the agenda? It doesn't make any sense." Of course, she says that this negative outcome  was ultimately for good since "we who fight for the return of the Parthenon Marbles were also heard. We sincerely thank Sunak for what he did in that respect." Concludes Victoria Hislop.

www.vanityfair.com

July 2009

In the British Museum’s statement on the Parthenon Marbles, we come across the familiar claim of the legality of Elgin’s acquisition. ‘Lord Elgin’s activities,’ we read, ‘were thoroughly investigated by a Parliamentary Select Committee in 1816 and found to be entirely legal.’ Simple, succinct, almost convincing, this is the only legal argument in the Museum’s arsenal against repatriation. But is it true?

In early 1816, shortly after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo and the return of his European loot, a parliamentary select committee was formed in London to evaluate Elgin’s request for the British government to buy his collection of marbles and other antiquities. The committee was assigned two tasks: to determine whether the government should acquire the collection, and to assess its monetary value.

Not being a court of justice, the select committee did not have the authority to decide questions of legality – not in the sense that those of us in the legal profession understand ‘legality’. Its official mandate did not explicitly include investigating the lawfulness of Elgin’s actions, although, ultimately, the committee did raise the question as an incidental concern. Did Elgin have permission to remove the Marbles?

The ‘firman’ that was not

Elgin claimed that he had obtained authorisation to carry out the removals. No original proof has ever been produced of that authorisation, the famous ‘firman’ that, if it existed, was not a firman at all (both Dr Philip Hunt, Elgin’s right-hand man, and its presumed Italian translation described the document as a ‘letter’).

At first, the select committee appeared to try to corroborate Elgin’s claim. Did Elgin have a document in his possession attesting permission? He didn’t. If someone had such a document, Elgin said, it would be his agent, Giovanni Battista Lusieri, who was still in Athens, or it would be the local Ottoman authorities in Athens. William Richard Hamilton, Elgin’s private secretary, had a more interesting story: when asked whether he knew anything about the permission, he admitted that he had no personal knowledge of the matter! But let us leave Hamilton aside. Elgin contended that surely the (written) permission must be in Athens. Now one expects that, to conduct a thorough investigation, the committee would need to send to Athens for Lusieri and the local authorities to look there for some proof of the ‘firman’ that was not. How else could the select committee, acting in good faith, decide the matter?

Yet, the committee showed no willingness to make the effort. In its report, it stated:

'The Turkish ministers of that day are, in fact, the only persons in the world capable (if they are still alive) of deciding the doubt; and it is probable that even they, if it were possible to consult them, might be unable to form any very distinct discrimination as to the character in consideration of which they acceded to Lord Elgin’s request.'

If they were still alive? If it were possible to consult them? The Sultan (the one with the authority to sign firmans) was still alive, and it would have been easy to consult him. The British government had an ambassador in Constantinople (Sir Robert Liston) – why not ask him? And why not call in as witness a former British ambassador to the Sublime Porte who openly affirmed that the Ottomans categorically denied Elgin’s ownership of the marbles? On 31 July 1811, Sir Robert Adair informed Elgin that ‘the Porte absolutely denied’ that he, Elgin, had ‘any property in those marbles’.

‘… the Porte absolutely denied your having any property in those marbles.’

Robert Adair’s draft letter to Elgin (31 July 1811). Collection of Theodore Theodorou. Used with permission. For a full transcript, see http://www.adairtoelgin.com.

It was not the first time that Adair shared this knowledge. In April 1811, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Charles Abbot, 1st Lord Colchester, recorded in his diary that Adair ‘was expressly informed by the Turkish Government that they entirely disavowed ever having given any authority to Lord Elgin for removing any part of his collection’. Even Elgin repeated, in an 1811 letter to the then prime minister, Spencer Perceval, that he did not lawfully own ‘his’ collection. People in government were fully aware of the fact that Elgin did not have permission to act as he did.

When the task was to persuade the Ottomans to permit the shipment of the part of Elgin’s collection that had remained in Athens, the government exerted pressure on both its ambassador (Adair at the time) and the Turkish officials. But when it came to determining whether Elgin had permission to act as he did, the select committee forgot it had a British ambassador (Liston) and appeared to hope that the Turkish officials were dead. Better let sleeping dogs lie. The committee took Elgin’s word and entirely ignored the fact that everything other than milord’s own impression pointed to the absence of permission.

The corruption

Then there was the issue of corruption. The select committee had Elgin’s admission of bribes. A list of his expenses incurred to procure the Marbles was published as an annexe to the select committee report. In it, we learn that Elgin paid 21,902 piastres (about £157,500 today) for ‘presents, found necessary for the local authorities, in Athens alone’. To grasp the significance of this sum, let us recall that, when parliament ultimately purchased the marbles, it paid Elgin a mere £35,000 (equivalent to about £4 million today). Corruption we assume just ‘happened’ in the Ottoman empire. But did it also ‘happen’ in Great Britain? Elgin was not an ordinary traveller in the Ottoman empire; he was the British ambassador, a representative of the Crown. Corruption was an offence in England and had been illegal since the time of the Magna Carta. Throughout the 18th century corruption was a crime punishable by English law. In the realm of electoral law, to bribe a voter had been an offence since the 1690s.

That bribes were a relevant legal consideration is also evident from the heated parliamentary debate on the corruption involved in obtaining the Marbles at the time. The acquisition was so inexplicable that some MPs even regarded it as a bribe to Elgin, and MP Preston remarked that, if ambassadors were allowed to get away with what Elgin had done, many would come back home as ‘merchants’. Yet the select committee did not act on the knowledge of the corruption.

The unpalatable truth is that the committee was expected to arrive at a predetermined conclusion: the Marbles should be bought for the nation. The absence of any statement in the committee’s report regarding the legality of the acquisition is significant. The committee repeated statements made by Elgin and his agents as if they reflected the truth. But never did it offer its own express conclusion that the acquisition was lawful. Nowhere in the select committee report do we find the committee’s opinion that Elgin’s actions were ‘legal’ – let alone ‘entirely legal’.

Catharine Titi

Catharine Titi is a tenured Research Associate Professor at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and author of 'The Parthenon Marbles and International Law' (Springer 2023).

This event was a panel discussion about the cultural repatriation of national treasures, inspired by the current status of the Parthenon Marbles.The event was held at the LSE by the Hellenic Observatory.

The debate over the reunification of the Elgin/Parthenon Marbles remains newsworthy. With attention post the Black Lives Matter protests signalling initiatives taken to return national treasures to their countries of origin, the campaign continues. For the Marbles, the British Museum has signalled a willingness to consider 'a deal', and the Greek Prime Minister highlighted Greece's willingness to discuss this further. He was due to visit the UK next month and have talks with UK's PM, although he did try to do this when Mr Johnson was PM too, gaining the support of UK audiences with his appearance on ITV's Good Morning Britain,16 November, 2021.

The panel that spoke on 18 October, considered the implications of reuniting the Marbles back to Athens and the issues that would arise should such a maganimous act take place any time soon.

Listen to Professor Paul Cartledge, BCRPM and the IARPS's Vice-Chair, alongside Ed Vaizey Chair of a new campaign the 'Parthenon Project', and Dr Tatiana Flessas, Associate Professor in Cultural Heritage and Property Law at the LSE. You can also revisit the talk that Dr Flessas gave on 09 October 2019 at the seminar held at the City of London University alongside BCRPM's Oliver Taplin, Jonathan Jones from the Guardian and Dr Florian Schmidt-Gabain, Attorney, Zurich, Lecturer in Art Law, Universities of Basel and Zurich.

Whichever side of the fence you may be sitting by, there is no doubt that the compelling moral and ethical reasons for reunificaton are as strong today as they were in June 2009, when the Acropolis Museum was opened. Considering also that the first request was made when Greece became indepependent, a request by the morden state of Greece to the UK, nearly two centuries ago.

Greece's requests have never waned garnering greater impetus through UNESCO's ICPRCP also. Yet the BM have remained firm in not wanting to reunite the marbles, that is up until this summer, when the new Chair of the British Museum Trustees, George Osborne suggested to Andrew Marr on LBC that a 'deal' could be made. This deal rests on Greece accepting to share half of the surviving, fragmented sculptures, and would be formalised as a loan agreement that would enable parts of the sculptures to travel back and forth with fragmented pieces currently held in the Acropolis Museum doing the same. With over 100,000 Greek artefacts in the BM, surely there are other exemplars to display in Room 18 which might allow Greece's justifiable request to be met with magnanimity, understanding and empathy? And let's also not forget that since Greek Minister of Culture Evangelos Venizelos in 2000 visited the BM, Greece pledged that should the Parthenon sculptures be returned, the Greek Government would make sure that the Duveen Galleries would always host Greek antiquities on loan for exhibitions. Greece would be willing to send rare and even newly discovered antiquities, which have never been seen outside Greece. This Greek offer has been repeated, and most recently by PM Mitsotakis when he was last in London.

Thursday, 6 February 2020 from 18:00 to 20:00

SW1.18, Somerset House East Wing
The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London
Strand
London WC2R 2LS
United Kingdom

WHO OWNS HISTORY?  A panel Discussion at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London

Description
The panel will feature a discussion of Geoffrey Robertson's recently published book, "Who Owns History? Elgin's Loot and the Case for Returning Plundered Treasure" (Biteback Publishing, 2019).

The biggest question in the world of art and culture concerns the return of property taken without consent. Throughout history, conquerors or colonial masters have taken artefacts from subjugated peoples, who now want them returned from museums and private collections in Europe and the USA.

The controversy rages on over the 'Elgin Marbles', and has been given immediacy by figures such as France's President Macron, who says he will order French museums to return hundreds of artworks acquired by force or fraud in Africa, and by British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has pledged that a Labour government would return the 'Elgin Marbles' to Greece. Elsewhere, there is a debate in Belgium about whether the Africa Museum, newly opened with 120,000 items acquired mainly by armed forces in the Congo, should close.
Although there is an international convention dated 1970 that deals with the restoration of artefacts stolen since that time, there is no agreement on the rules of law or ethics which should govern the fate of objects forcefully or lawlessly acquired in previous centuries.
Who Owns History? delves into the crucial debate over the ;Elgin Marbles', but also offers a system for the return of cultural property based on human rights law principles that are being developed by the courts. It is not a legal text, but rather an examination of how the past can be experienced by everyone, as well as by the people of the country of origin.

Speaker:
Mr Geoffrey Robertson QC
Mr Robertson is founder and joint head of Doughty Street Chambers. He has had a distinguished career as a trial and appellate counsel, an international judge, and author of leading textbooks. He has argued many landmark cases in media, constitutional and criminal law, in the European Court of Justice; the European Court of Human Rights; the Supreme Court (House of Lords and Privy Council); the UN War Crimes courts; the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and in the highest courts of many commonwealth countries.

Geoffrey has, as a jury advocate, appeared in many criminal trials at the Old Bailey and libel trials in the High Court. He has appeared in several hundred reported cases in the Court of Appeal (both civil and criminal divisions) and in judicial reviews in the High Court, and in subsequent appeals. He has a large advisory practice, for clients including governments, media corporations, NGO’s and local councils.

Commentators:
Professor Edith Hall, Department of Classics, King's College London

Since being awarded the Hellenic Foundation Prize for her Oxford doctorate (1988), Edith has held posts at Cambridge, Oxford, Durham and London Universities. She has published twenty books. She is Co-Founder and Consultant Director of the Archive of Performances of Greek & Roman Drama at Oxford and Chairman of the Gilbert Murray Trust. She has won funding for research from the AHRB, the AHRC, the Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy, the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, and has just been awarded a Humboldt Research Prize. She appears regularly on BBC Radio, and has acted as consultant to professional productions of ancient drama at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, Northern Broadsides, Theaterkombinat and other professional companies.

Professor John Tasioulas, Director of the Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre for Politics, Philosophy and Law, King's College London

Professor John Tasioulas joined The Dickson Poon School of Law in September, 2014 as the inaugural Chair of Politics, Philosophy & Law and Director of the Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre for Politics, Philosophy & Law. He was previously Reader in Moral and Legal Philosophy at the University of Oxford, where he taught from 1998-2010, and Quain Professor of Jurisprudence at University College London from 2011-2014. Professor Tasioulas is an Honorary Professorial Fellow at Melbourne Law School, a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, an Emeritus Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford and a member of the Academia Europaea. He has held visiting appointments at the Australian National University, the University of Chicago, Harvard University, and the University of Melbourne, and has acted as a consultant on human rights to the World Bank. He has written extensively on topics such as human rights, crime and punishment, the rule of law, the ethics of Artificial Intelligence, and the theory of international law, including the nature of customary international law, jus cogens norms, and minimum core obligations.

To read Professor John Tasioulas' response during the discussion please see here.

Chair:
Professor Philippa Webb, Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London

Philippa Webb is Professor of Public International Law. She joined The Dickson Poon School of Law in 2012 after a decade in international legal practice. She was previously visiting Assistant Professor in the Advanced LLM Programme at Leiden University (2009-2011). She has been Visiting Professor at Université Paris X Nanterre, ESADE Law School and Pepperdine University’s London programme. Professor Webb holds a doctorate (JSD) and an LLM from Yale Law School. She obtained the University Medal in her LLB and the University Medal and First Class Honours in her BA (Asian Studies), both of which were awarded by the University of New South Wales in Australia. Professor Webb has extensive experience in international courts and tribunals. She served as the Special Assistant and Legal Officer to Judge Rosalyn Higgins during her Presidency of the International Court of Justice (2006-2009) and, prior to that, as the Judicial Clerk to Judges Higgins and Owada (2004-2005). She was the Associate Legal Adviser to Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo at the International Criminal Court (2005-2006).

23 October 2018

The debating society at UCL schedule a debate for the evening of the 23rd October with the motion 'This House believes the Elgin Marbles should be repatriated'. The evening, part of  society's weekly debate series, will be held at the Bloomsbury campus in London at 19:00.

Speakers for the motion are: William St Clair, Tom Flynn and Alexi Kaye Campbell, a member of BCRPM since October 2017. Speakers opposing the motion include Dominic Selwood, Nick Trend, Deputy Travel Editor for the Telegraph and Jonathan Jones art critic for the Guardian. 

Pictured above are the speakers supporting the motion from left to right: Tom Flynn, Alexi Kaye Campbell and William St Clair, supported by BCRPM's Chair Dame Janet Suzman.

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'.

“It is with a great sense of pleasure I learned that the Greek Minister of Culture and Sports Dr. L Mendoni has announced the reopening of all museums in Greece from June 15, said Emanuel J Comino AM, founder, and Chairman of the International Organising Committee – Australia – for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles.

“The timing is auspicious as on June 20, a mere five days later, we celebrate the eleventh anniversary of the opening of the Acropolis Museum.

The Acropolis Museum is rated one of the 10 best museums in the world. The reason why is obvious as soon as anyone steps inside. It’s a place deeply and dynamically connected with the Acropolis and the Parthenon.

Every time I visit, I’m not only moved by its superb design and the beautiful presentation of the remaining Parthenon Marbles, but I’m touched with a little sadness. I’m reminded of Elgin’s vandalism, and the Parthenon Marbles now kept in the British Museum. This strengthens my commitment to the campaign for their return.

The Parthenon Marbles kept in the British Museum must be returned to Athens and placed in the Acropolis Museum. This is the only place where the people of the world can begin to appreciate the fullness of their beauty and their contribution to the modern world. Only when they are together can people understand what they are telling us about more than 2000 years of glorious Greek history.

I have long recognised that the British Nation and its people strongly espouse and believe in justice, freedom and friendship. They have demonstrated this over the years, wherever these such values are threatened anywhere around the world.

So, it was with interest I also noted comments from Hartwig Fischer, British Museum Director, this week, he said:

“We stand with everyone who is denied equal rights and protection from violence in the fullest sense of these terms. These are challenges that we as a society must address, injustices that must be overcome.” 

These are sentiments that accord with my understanding of Britain as a country that espouses justice, freedom, and friendship.

Mr. Fischer added:

“We will continue to research, acknowledge and address the colonial history of Britain and its impact on our institution in exhibitions like Collecting Histories and Reimagining Captain Cook: Pacific perspectives from 2019. But there is much more to do.”

“Yes Mr Fischer, there is much more to do. The Parthenon Marbles were taken while Greece was under Ottoman occupation, and Britain was an expanding colonial power in the eastern Mediterranean. They were never given to Britain.

Let us hope your comments are not just empty words. It is time to act.”

The BCRPM concurs with our Australian colleagues in their eloquent plea to the Director of the British Museum and would add: “Yes, Mr Fischer, as you say, indeed there is much more to do. The movement unleashed in the world today needs to force those who have profited from peoples deprived of their selfhood by force majeure, to acknowledge that fact, and make restitution.” Dame Janet Suzman Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

Dame Janet Suzman with Emanuel J Comino AM, Sunday 14 April 2019 at the Acropolis Museum 

Our recent trip to Athens after a 10 year hiatus, highlighted the favourable and unfavourable changes in this capital city. I travelled with my husband and daughter, and the main aim was to refresh our memories of the cultural magnificence we (as British born Greeks), take for granted.

Having worked in travel for 27 years, I have been lucky enough to travel to many parts of the world both near and far, and both positive and negative changes are inevitable, as was the case on this occasion, when visiting Athens.

The central areas of Athens known as Syntagma Square, Monastiraki and Plaka, somehow did not compare to previous years as I remember them, where the hustle and bustle was leisurely, and probably more traditionally Greek. This area of the city is busy with traditional buildings, luxury hotels, bars, restaurants, shops and crowds filling this space. Time doesn't stand still and Athens has expanded, its population now over 3 million. This central area in my view looked tired, and in need of revival. Perhaps, this was partly caused by the economic crisis of the last 10 years and more recently, Covid 19 and its aftermath.

I was keen for my daughter to experience the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, just off Syntagma Square, below the Hellenic Parliament; and also to visit the Acropolis and of course the main star attraction, the Parthenon.

Once we reached the top of  the Acropolis, Athens' iconic tourist attraction, we watched the Greek flag gently blowing in the wind against a blue cloudless sky, and soaked up the many years of ancient history. I was consumed by a sense of pride and honour of my Greek heritage.

Even in November, the citadel was buzzing with tourists from different parts of the world. The evening view of the Acropolis from Monastiraki was captivating in that one picture was just simply not enough!

We then made our way down to the newly built Acropolis Museum which focuses on the findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis. The museum houses every artifact found on the rock and surrounding slopes dating back from the Greek Bronze age to Roman and Byzantine Greece. A plethora of artifacts with a wealth of information feeding the curious mind.

This modern museum, officially opened in June 2019, houses the original marble sculptures of the Parthenon, exhibited in the same way as they would have been on the monument. Sadly, it is obvious to also see, the missing sculptures, those so many refer to as the 'Elgin marbles', removed by Lord Elgin when Greece had no voice.

Lord Elgin was forced to sell what he had removed, to the British government in 1816, and in turn the government placed these treasures in trust with the British Museum.

The sculptures that are still in the British Museum's Room 18, have been replaced in the Acropolis Museum's Parthenon Gallery by contrasting, stark white plaster copies, further emphasising their harsh removal.

The importance of this collection of sculptures and why the calls for their return grows louder, and louder, is that these marbles deserve to be returned to their birthplace. They deserve to be housed in this amazing museum, to join their surviving halves, with direct views to the Parthenon. This would be the ultimate gesture of respect by the UK to Greece. The Parthenon Marbles were, and will always be referenced by the Parthenon, the jewel in the crown that is the Acropolis.

Athens will always hold a special place in my heart, and after this latest trip, in the hearts of my family too. Our short visit allowed us to re-engage with our Greek heritage but above all, enrich our minds with the profound cultural wealth present in this amazing ancient capital city.

We're looking forward to visiting again, this time, not leaving it so long.

Zoe Hawa