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do the right thing and return the Marbles to their mother country, the Act that formally adopted them could be quickly rescinded to un-adopt them.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."

 A party-protest organised by the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM) in the British Museum to celebrate the 13th birthday of the Acropolis Museum

TA NEA,  Monday 20 June 2022, London. Yannis Andritsopoulos, UK Correspondent, reporting.

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

It was a birthday party the likes of which has never happened before. The celebrant could not attend as it was 2,390 kilometres away. Inevitably, the candles of the cake were extinguished by proxy.

The celebrant was none other than the Acropolis Museum, which today celebrates its 13th anniversary. The person that was grinning, was Victoria Hislop, who, with a white cake in her hand, sang, along with about 100 British and Greeks of the United Kingdom, "Happy birthday".

Not only in English, but also in Greek with a twist to the traditional happy birthday words ( and it did rhyme when sung in Greek) :«Να ζήσεις Μουσείο και χρόνια πολλά, μεγάλο να γίνεις με όλα τα Γλυπτά!». Which translated says: "Long live the museum, happy birthday, may you grow older with all of your sculptures reunited!". 

The imaginative party-protest was organized inside the British Museum, in Bloomsbury, central London, with the double aim: to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the emblematic Athenian museum and to send an eloquent message to the British Museum, which continues to house half of the surviving and fragmented sculptures from the Parthenon: the time has come, at last, to make the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures a reality.

It was one of the most well attended events of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures (BCRPM), which has marked the anniversary of the museum annually. This year the gathering had the assistance of groups of Greeks living in London (invited by Avgoustinos Galiassos and his Greek List), alongside Britons of all ages, but also to the interest of those who visited the Museum on Saturday, while in the streets of the British capital thousands of people marched in protest at the rising cost of living.

As soon as they entered the classic building, the architecture of which reflects that of an ancient Greek temple, visitors saw Greek flags tied to the Gate of the Museum.

"What's going on here?" asked a Canadian visitor. "A demonstration for the return of the Parthenon Marbles. Will you follow us?" asked one of the organizers. "Of course. I love Greece and the Marbles belong there", replied the Canadian.

The award-winning British author of "The Island" and a Greek citizen since September 2020, arrived and donned the demonstration's official blue T-shirt with the laconic and clear message: "R E U I T E, Επανένωση".

"It's exciting that so many people have gathered today. The passion for the reunification of of the Parthenon Marbles is constantly growing. We are very optimistic," Hislop told Ta Nea. She added: "The sculptures from the Parthenon were not legally acquired. Elgin uprooted them to decorate his ancestral home. Greece is their home, it is the best place for these sculptures to be exhibited. That's my message to the British Museum and the UK government."

The assembled, who remained in the museum for 45 minutes, did not stop chanting in favour of the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, and  made time to also inform the multinational passers-by that wanted to find out more. Most visitors said unequivocally that they supported the reunification and, some, joined in with the protesters.

Shortly after 2 p.m., in the museum's atrium, the famous Great Court designed by architect Norman Foster, an elegant blue banner with white writing measuring eight by two meters  was unfurled and the words in English: "Reunify the Marbles!" The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, www.parthenon.com

At the same time, a second banner was raised with a message to the British Museum: "!!!COME CLEAN BM!!! #tellthestory, #thetimeisnow. This banner was designed by BCRPM's Chair Janet Suzman for last year's protest and the Acropolis Museum's 12th anniversary. On that Sunday, 20 June 2021, Room 18 was closed and in fact did not re-open until middle of December.

Another couple of placards were held up, including two by the Miliotis family: Dimitra, Fotini, Julia and Chris. The words: "They are coming home", struck a cord.

IN THE DUVEEN HALL

The demonstrators, some wrapped in Greek flags, then proceeded to the Duveen Hall that houses Pheidias' masterpieces and sang again the "Happy Birthday" to the Acropolis Museum.

There, next to the Sculptures, the famous classicist Edith Hall unfolded her scarf which was also a Greek flag, receiving warm applause. "We hope and believe that these wonderful sculptures will be returned to Greece. Britain must allow them to be reunited with their halves in Athens. This act would elevate us so much in the eyes of the whole world. It would be a win-win arrangement," Hall, a professor of Classics and Ancient Greek Literature at Durham University, told Ta Nea.

In addition to the Acropolis Museum, Boris Johnson celebrated his 58th birthday on Sunday. I asked the leading professor of ancient Greek literarure to send a message to the British Prime Minister and Edith said: "Boris, I know you are really interested in Britain's international image. Give back the Pathenon sculptures to the Greeks and you will become one of the most magnanimous prime ministers in history".

The demonstration was also attended by two special guests: Anna and Lucy Collard, daughters of Eleni Cubitt. In 1983, Eleni and her architect husband James with the encouragement of Melina Mercouri and Jules Dassin, discussed the idea of a British Committee whilst visiting Evia. BCRPM was founded in October of that year. Mrs Cubitt became Honorary Secretary of the Committee and ran the campaign up to 2012, she sadly passed away in April 2020.

"We noticed that the British Museum recently changed the words it uses to explain how the Sculptures ended up in its collection. Removing words to controll accuracy is a step in the right direction. However, the Museum still refuses to tell the full story as it is and to publish the alleged 'firman'' on its website," said BCRPM's Chair Dame Janet Suzman.

On the same day, Helena Smith wrote in the Guardian mentioning the demonstration and Ta Nea's report on the six British MPs that called on Johnson's government to return