For my sins, I have since the mid-1980s been heavily involved in a partly political, partly aesthetic, partly academic campaign: to reunify all the extant members of the original Parthenon temple back in Athens where they originated in the sixth and seventh decades of the 5th century BCE. The campaign didn’t, of course, start in the 1980s but rather in the second decade of the 19th century, almost immediately after the largest single act of ‘removal’ occurred, thanks to the endeavours of the 7th Lord Elgin and his cohorts. ‘Thy plunderer’, thundered philhellene Lord Byron, ‘was a Scot’.

A commission of enquiry, set up by the British – or brutish? – government of the day, disagreed with Byron and sided with Britain’s former ambassador to the Sublime Porte, agreeing to pay Elgin £35,000 pounds in return for his handing over what he had ‘collected’ to be held in trust in perpetuity in the British Museum on behalf of the British nation or people. It is that 1816 Act of Parliament under which the Trustees of the British Museum today shelter in an attempt to justify their clinging on to what even they now call the Parthenon (no longer ‘Elgin’) Marbles. For they have no other possible justification: even if there were cast-iron documentary proof that Elgin had been given express official permission by the then Ottoman ruler of Greece to do what he in fact did (which there isn’t), they would still be using the context of a radically alien international order (the Napoleonic wars) to confer a spurious legality on a transaction that according to today’s international norms of cultural diplomacy has no possible justification whatsoever.

A further – and to some of us insurmountable – objection to the British Museum Trustees’ claimsis that since 2009 there exists in Athens, almost within touching distance of the Acropolis, a new Acropolis Museum, the top floor of which has been constructed as a dedicated gallery to house those removed remains of the Parthenon that cannot for obvious reasons be replaced on the remains of the temple itself, but which nevertheless gain immeasurably in perceived significance by being viewed within sight of the actual Parthenon. The key word is ‘Acropolis’. The Parthenon derives its significance ultimately from its physical context. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. A good deal of the original building has miraculously been preserved and in recent times expertly curated. The gap between the Acropolis Museum’s Parthenon display and that in the Duveen Gallery of the British Museum is simply immeasurable.

I must ‘declare an interest’. I am currently Vice-Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM) and an elected Vice-President of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures (IARPS). The BCRPM was not actually the first such national body – that honour belongs to the Australia Committee (IOCARPM) founded by Emanuel J Comino, in 1981. Both national committees were inspired by Greece’s then Culture Minister, Melina Mercouri. The ‘R’ of BCRPM originally stood for ‘restitution’, and that term is still often bandied around in the ongoing debates, but it’s a legal term, and we of the IARPS, following the lead of successive Greek governments, have set our face against pursuing the legal route to reunification. This is particularly relevant to the peculiar British case, where the Museum that holds the largest amount of Parthenon sculptures outside Greece relies on the supposed legality of an Act of Parliament. Actually, neither the claim that Elgin acquired his loot ‘legally’ nor the claim that the British Museum holds what it holds lawfully holds any water.

But over and against the alleged claim of legality – always problematic in the sphere of international diplomatic relations – there is on our side the overriding claim of ethical probity. Times change, and mores with them. Imperial or colonial force majeure cuts no ice today in matters of cultural heritage such as these. It was in post-colonial France, and with special respect to Africa, that the modern movement towards restoring to their homes of origin artefacts forcibly removed under colonial-imperial dispensations first acquired a head of steam. The Parthenon and its sculptures are a resolutely European-European issue, and one moreover with a peculiarly political dimension.

In the 1960s the late Balliol Classics don Russell Meiggs wrote a brilliant short essay entitled ‘the Political Implications of the Parthenon’. In the later 1980s Balliol Classics undergrad and President of the Oxford Union, Boris Johnson, forcefully argued for reunification – yes, really! Since then, the place of the Parthenon as an integral component of the development of Europe’s’ earliest form of democracy has become ever clearer, as, for example, perception of the deliberate alignment of the monumental entranceway to the Acropolis with the island of Salamis has made plain. Aeschylus’s Persians, Europe’s earliest extant tragic drama, is above all else a hymn to the Athenians’ democracy. Of course, their democracy was not ours: the Athenians owned slaves and denied votes to citizen women. But the notions of freedom and equality are equally fundamental to both their men-only direct democracy and our gender-inclusive representative democracy. This is what gives the call for the reunification of the Marbles in Athens its peculiar salience: what is required from our British government is a gesture of generosity – one that would be reciprocated by the Greek government in, if you’ll forgive the pun, spades. The Parthenon sculptures simply mean much much more to the Greeks than they do to us in Britain. It is time therefore for Hestia (see illustration) and her companions to be allowed to go home.

And in case anyone should still suggest that that would be to open the floodgates of claims for ‘restitution’ of other artefacts among the 8 million currently held by the British Museum, let me be crystal clear: we of the BCRPM and IARPS are adamant that the Parthenon Marbles are a unique case, without any further implications. The proof? We are not even asking for the return of the most beautiful Caryatid support pillar removed by Elgin from the Athena temple known as the Erechtheion, even though her sisters can now be seen to truly stunning effect in the new Acropolis Museum!

This blog post was first published in Hestia, the official blog of Trinity College Dublin Classics. 

About
Paul Cartledge is A.G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow, Clare College & Emeritus A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture in the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge. Paul was a lecturer in ancient history in the School of Classics, Trinity College Dublin between 1973-78.

 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