Latest News

Стремитесь к победам, которые остаются в памяти? Vavada откроет двери в мир уникальных возможностей!

I look to partner with clients who are willing to take the time and to do quality architecture. It’s a lot of effort to build; let’s make it worthwhile.

Lina Ghotmeh, Architect

More than 60 teams applied to the International Architectural Competition, which ran for nine months before five architect-led teams were shortlisted for the bold transformation of the British Museum's Western Galleries.

The initial ideas by the five short listed teams were displayed in the British Museum's Reading Room from December 2024.

The British Museum director Dr Nicholas Cullinan posted on Instagram that Lina Ghotmeh Architecture's initial ideas “unanimously impressed the jury with their beauty, sensitivity and ingenuity and for her deep interest in archaeology”. 

"Her initial ideas for us (slides 1-4) unanimously impressed the jury with their beauty, sensitivity and ingenuity and for her deep interest in archaeology. These including using Portland stone spolia, 40% of which otherwise goes to waste and the striated surface of the process of chiselling would instead be employed here, along with As part of their submission rubble from the building process being reused to line the walls of the Lycian wing to ravishing effect."

Read more on Lina Ghotmeh Architecture (LGA) appointment in The Art Newspaper.

Ghotmeh designed the 2023 Serpentine Pavilion in London and has also been commissioned to design a contemporary art museum in the AlUl, Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, an ancient Arabian oasis city located in Medina Province in northwestern Saudi Arabia. An online biography, which describes her as a “humanist architect”, says that in 2005 she won the international competition for the design of the Estonian National Museum while working in London, collaborating with Ateliers Jean Nouvel and Foster & Partners.

As part of their submission, Lina Ghotmeh Architecture's were asked to create a short video describing the team’s vision and approach, watch that too. "We reimagine a rich canvas of enchanting experiences sparking curiosity, cultural exchange, and healing", was posted on the practice's Instagram.

Lina Ghotmeh will be consulting with artist Ali Cherri, a Lebanese Paris-based artist whose works explore geopolitical and cultural histories. 

The Western Range covers a third of the museum’s overall gallery space, as well as back-of-house areas, totalling 15,650 square metres. The Western Range refurbishment is part of the wider museum masterplan which also includes a new museum Energy Centre designed to phase out the use of fossil fuels, replacing them with low-carbon technologies. This project—partly funded with government support—should save 1,700 tonnes a year of carbon dioxide, making the institution more sustainable. 

Last year Ghotmeh told the Robb Report publication: “The field of archaeology is always telling you stories about how we used to build and interact with our environment, constantly putting in perspective what has been done already… It’s not just an obsession with ecology, it’s also a quest for more sustainable materials. Any act of building has to have a positive impact on its environment.”

 

 

 

 


Write comment (0 Comments)
 

Whether as a testament to the Athenian enlightenment or Periclean imperialism, the Parthenon is a monument of civilization. For those of us who derive a humanist and democratic ethos from classical Athens, the temple matters greatly. In this sense, the marbles aren’t simply Greek, but belong to all of humanity. The case for reunification has to be made on this cosmopolitan basis. The world deserves to see the story that Phidias intended to tell in whole.

Ralph Leonard

 'What Christopher Hitchens Understood About the Parthenon. The British Museum should return the ancient treasures to Greece for the sake of art, not nationalism.' Writes Ralph Leonard for The Atlantic.

"Ever since the early 19th century, when Thomas Bruce, seventh earl of Elgin, sawed off and crowbarred many of the carvings that ringed the top of the Parthenon and sold them to the British Museum to dodge bankruptcy, the British have been sharply polarized over whether Britain or Greece has the right to these sculptures. For many liberals and radicals, beginning with Lord Byron, Elgin was a vandal who had committed sacrilege. Yet others maintained that he’d acquired the marbles legally, and even that he’d rescued them from inevitable neglect under the Ottoman empire." Continues Ralph Leonard

"Christopher Hitchens, among the most eloquent and forceful advocates of rejoining the Parthenon marbles, helped tilt me toward the cause of repatriation. With great timing, Verso Books has just reissued his slim book The Parthenon Marbles: The Case for Reunification." Adds Ralph Leonard.

 

That para transported a few of us to a May day at Chatham House in 2008, a year and a month before the official opening of the Acropolis Museum. On a personal note, meeting Christopher Hitchens was memorable on so many levels but for now will say that what makes his book special and the third edition in particular, is that it is dedicated to James Cubitt, BCRPM's founder and that at the launch George Bizos also a BCRPM member spoke. Timely to have George in London and his words of wisdom as the preface to that edition was written by Nadine Gordimer, plus George through his South African Committee had raised funds for the book too. 

Sadly many that gathered at that book launch ae no longer with us and that includes Christopher as well as BCRPM's Hon Secretary Eleni Cubitt, the then Vice-Chair Christopher Price and the exceptional human rights lawyer George Bizos with historian William St Clair, all pictured above. The two young supporters, Benjamin Godwin (aged 11) and Lucia Mary Bizos (aged 12) pictured at the book launch, in 2016 attended the Commemorative event to mark 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 and elsewhere on the Athenian Acropolis. BCRPM held the event at Senate House in June 2016 and both Ben and Lucia were taller by then but they had also read the book, and continue to support the campaign.

"Hitchens’s dedication to this cause wasn’t merely due to a romantic philhellenism rooted in the classical British-private-school curriculum; his life was intertwined with the Hellenic world. As a young socialist and internationalist in the 1970s, he had written and spoken against the Greek military junta that had persecuted his fellow leftists. The independence of Cyprus was among his precious causes, alongside self-determination for the Kurds and the Palestinians—who had long been victims of occupation and imperialist power games. His first wife was a Greek Cypriot, and, as he noted movingly in his memoir Hitch-22, his mother died by suicide in a hotel room overlooking the Acropolis, amid a 1973 anti-junta student uprising. The cause of the Parthenon marbles was therefore both personal and political, emblematic “of a long and honourable solidarity between British liberals and radicals and the cause of a free and independent Greece,” as he wrote in the introduction to the 2008 edition." Writes Ralph Leonard as adds why Christopher Hitchens made his case for repatriating the works almost exclusively on artistic grounds.

The then arguments for keeping the Parthenon Marbles slowly fell by the wayside once the Acropolis Museum opened, "proving Greeks are not just worthy, but superb custodians of their antiquity." The only argument that continues to creep in despite restitution taking a more prominent stage in recent years, is the precedent, the slippery slope, the emptying of museums - all  unfounded. There are not enough museums when one considers how many artefacts sit in storage facilities and then you add the continued discovery of more artefacts and wonder why anyone would imagine that any museum should ever be empty! And don't get us started on precedent ..... 

Ralph Leonard also writes about the Benin Bronzes as they deserve to have their place in history and in museums. Scotland's museums and the Horniman Museum have agreed to return their bronzes to Nigeria. Some remaining to be displayed in the Horniman, proving that cultural co-operation still exists. As Ralph Leonard also points out these were "part of a unified work depicting the history and mythology of the kingdom (which was annexed by the British empire in 1897), yet the majority are stand-alone pieces."

"Whether as a testament to the Athenian enlightenment or Periclean imperialism, the Parthenon is a monument of civilization. For those of us who derive a humanist and democratic ethos from classical Athens, the temple matters greatly. In this sense, the marbles aren’t simply Greek, but belong to all of humanity. The case for reunification has to be made on this cosmopolitan basis. The world deserves to see the story that Phidias intended to tell in whole." Concludes Ralph Leonard.

To read Ralph Leonard's article in full, follow the link to The Atlantic.

Ralph Leonard is a British-Nigerian writer on international politics, religion, culture and humanism.

 


Write comment (0 Comments)

Victoria and Alicia walk proudly on the path marked out by the great romantic poet, each with their own unique stylistic writing style, reinforcing the idea of ​​freedom and camaraderie, against all kinds of injustice. Like Byron, Victoria Hislop and Alicia Stallings choose to live in this place and, reflecting on its history and literature, illuminate modern Greece through their words

The founder of the Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism (SHP), Konstantinos Velentzas

Victoria Hislop and Alicia E. Stallings were awarded with the Lord Byron Medal of Philanthropy 2025 at the Athens Academy, on Tuesday 04 February 2025.
 
The two internationally acclaimed ladies of literature, British author Victoria Hislop and American poet and poetry professor at Oxford University, Alicia Elizabeth Stallings were honoured with this award an initiative of Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism (SHP). Since 2021 this annual award is held in cooperation with the Academy of Athens. Through the Lord Byron Medal and Lord Byron Award, the Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism (SHP) commemorate the concept of Phillellinism, whose expression became celebrated during the 19th century with the support of the Greek Revolution, but its existence and continuity has a timeless determination.
 
The presentation of the diploma and medal was carried out by the President and founder of the Society, Konstantino Velenza, the President of the Academy of Athens,  Michael Tiverio, and the General Secretary of the Academy of Athens Christo Zerrefos.
 
 "The Academy of Athens and the Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism wish, through the Lord Byron Medal and Lord Byron Award, to honour the concept of Philhellenism, as an ideal first expressed and  amplified during the 19th century with the support of the Greek Revolution, but whose existence and continuity are timeless," said, among other things, the President of the Academy, Michalis Tiberios.

And he continued: "Today's honourees, with the Greek Secretariat as their "excavation site" and the eternal field of research in the interpretation of the Greek landscape and the people of this nation, have worked and are working for many years to promote Greek culture and disseminate it as a common point of reference for all of us. Both chose to divide their lives between their countries of origin and work and Greece. For them, as for Byron, Greece is a homeland of choice."

The founder of the Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism (SHP), Konstantinos Velentzas, presented to the packed Academy of Athens the most important milestones in the course and the admirable work of the two laureates, distinguishing them as "two prominent personalities of letters and the arts, internationally renowned, who through their intellectual and social work give flesh and blood to what is defined today as Contemporary Philhellenism."

"Victoria and Alicia walk proudly on the path marked out by the great romantic poet, each with their own unique stylistic writing style, reinforcing the idea of ​​freedom and camaraderie, against all kinds of injustice. Like Byron, Victoria Hislop and Alicia Stallings choose to live in this place and, reflecting on its history and literature, illuminate modern Greece through their words."

“When Victoria became a member of the Royal Society of Literature in 2024, she was asked to choose the pen of an acclaimed writer from her country to sign her entry into the Society. The pens belonged to Charles Dickens, George Eliot and Lord Byron. She chose that of Lord Byron, stating of her choice: I like to imagine that Byron carried it with him on his travels in Greece! ”

Inspired by Lord Byron's well-known phrases, " A thousand hearts unite in one common cause" and "Those who fight for a great cause never fail," he referred to the heartfelt participation of the two honourees in the significant event that took place in October 2024 at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus,  to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the death of the romantic poet and the Year of Philhellenism, where their stirring recitations on stage with Lina Nikolakopoulou, brought a rapturous response from everyone.

Victoria Hislop and Alicia Stallings in thanking the Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism and the Academy of Athens for their awards reiterated their love for Greece and Greek culture, reaffirming the spirit of Lord Byron as always remaining relevant.

In particular, Victoria Hislop referred to Lord Byron and his love for Greece as well as his poetry, which she said, "As a writer, he managed to write with passion, originality and sincerity and touch the heart of every reader, knowing from his manuscripts that he laboured to find the right words, although the result seems as if it came effortlessly from his pen and it is as if you are hearing his voice."

"Lord Byron is a great inspiration for all writers. He certainly is for me. Many times Byron wrote for some important purpose to influence and lead others to action. Rarely were his texts simply for entertainment. His speech in support of Greece in Europe was important."

"If I were talking to Lord Byron my first words would be, 'You have succeeded. Your great struggle has been vindicated.' "

Alicia E. Stallings expressed her honour to receive the Philhellenism Medal, especially when it bears the name of the greatest Philhellene of all time. She clarified that “Lord Byron is not well known for his heroism in English-speaking countries, and he is not well known for his poetry in Greece. If Greeks know anything about his poetic work, it is usually the first four stanzas of his famous poem, The Isles of Greece .”

Continuing, "Byron, the man of letters, the greatest comic and satirical poet of his time, and the man of action and political mobilization, were not two different men, but one poet. But Byron knew that both words and deeds, both swords and odes, reach their peak, and shine brightest, in the darkest times.

Poets sharpen words. They help them keep their meaning sharp, in an era when tyrants and oligarchs dull them with the repeated blows with which they try to tame societies. When the battle seems lost, then more than ever, we need poetry.”

With a view to strengthening the extroversion of the Academy of Athens, its President, Michalis Tiberios, stated that for the first time, within the framework of the collaboration with the Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism and the award ceremony of the Lord Byron Medal of Philhellenism, a concert with an orchestra would follow the award ceremony. 

The Music of Greece's Air Force conducted by the well-known and excellent artist, Alexandros Litsardopoulos, also featured wo exceptional and talented performers, baritone Angelos Mousikas and soprano Sofia Zova.

 

 


Write comment (0 Comments)
Stephen Fry in Athens to launch Odyssey: The Greek Myths Reimagined and speaks on the Parthenon Marbles

Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni welcomed Stephen Fry to Athens for the launch of his latest book 'Odyssey: The Greek Myths Reimagined'. 

Speaking at the Acropolis Museum alongside Minister Kefalogianni and Professor Stampolidis, the Director General of the museum, Stephen Fry stressed the importance of Britain working together with Greece to find a mutually agreeable solution for the return of the sculptures, currently housed at the British Museum in London. He pointed to recent examples of international collaboration, such as the return of the Fagan fragment from Sicily and the Pope’s donation from the Vatican Museum. We would add that there was an earlier return, the 

Stephen Fry’s calls for the return of the Parthenon Marbles began in 2011, continuing the efforts of his late friend, journalist Christopher Hitchens, who passed away that same year. Christopher Hichens wrote and was in London for the 3rd edition launch of 'The Parthenon, A Case for Reunification' in May 2008 at Chatham House, organised by BCRPM. The third edition is dedicated to BCRPM founder, James Cubitt and funds to publish this edition were raised by BCRPM and George Bizos with the South African Committee supporting the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

BCRPM member, Christina Borg, interviewed Christopher at the 3rd edition book launch. To read that interview follow the link here.

To listen to Stephen's words during his Athens visit, visit YouTube. During this clip Professor Stampolidis the Director General of the Acropolis Museum is also speaking and reminds us all of the huge contribution that UNESCO's ICPRCP has made to raising the the plight of the divided Parthenon Marbles at international level. This was initiated over four decades ago by the then Greek Minister of Culture, Melina Mercouri and since 2021 including consecutive meetings of the ICPRCP, the recommendations made have added pressure to both the UK government and the British Museum, to begin dialogue and find a way forward. 

The great news is that dialogue did begin between PM Mitsotakis and the British Museum in 2021, and continues. 

Articles on Stephen Fry's Athens visit also in eKathimerini, ProThema and GTP.

 


Write comment (0 Comments)
Parliament speaker Constantine Tassoulas has been nominated for the Greek presidency.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis nominated parliament speaker Constantine Tassoulas from his centre-right New Democracy party for the Greek presidency.

Other prominent figures, including Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras and former prime ministers Lucas Papademos and Evangelos Venizelos, had also been considered.

Tassoulas, a lawyer, served as Culture Minister a decade ago and accompanied Mrs Clooney to the Acropolis Museum during her visit to Athens as the international awareness of the campaign received a boost with the support of both Mr and Mrs Clooney.

The Greek presidency is largely ceremonial, with the president elected to a five-year term by the country’s 300 lawmakers through a process that may require up to five rounds of voting. Victory in the first or second round requires 200 votes, decreasing to 180 in the third round and a simple parliamentary majority of 151 in the fourth.

The New Democracy party currently holds 156 seats, with the centre-left PASOK controlling 31 and the left-wing SYRIZA holding 26. 

The first round of voting is scheduled for 25 January with opposition parties not expected to support Tassoulas' candidacy. A fourth-round vote requiring a simple majority is anticipated by 12 February. 

President of Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, was the country's first female president and her five-year term expires in March.

More on this in ReutersThe Independent and ekathimerini.

 
 

Write comment (0 Comments)

In a world filled with conflict and division, the path forward is precisely one of international cooperation and partnership in the name of culture, which has always carried a message of dialogue and peace.

Alberto Samonà

The Italian news agency Ansa reported on the increased efforts being made to reunite the Parthenon Marbles housed in the British Museum with those exhibited in the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

“The international debate on the return of the marbles to Greece was reignited, in part thanks to Italy, particularly Sicily, which paved the way in 2022,” Ansa noted. The news agency referenced the pivotal decision three years ago taken by Alberto Samonà, the then cultural heritage adviser for the Sicilian regional government, to return the “Fagan Fragment.” This marble fragment, part of the eastern frieze of the Parthenon, had been housed at the Salinas Museum in Palermo as part of the archaeological collection of British consul Robert Fagan. Samonà’s initiative ensured the permanent return of this fragment’s rightful place at the Acropolis Museum in Athens.
 

Dialogue with Greek Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni and collaboration between the Acropolis Museum Director Nikolaos Stampolidis and the then-director of the Salinas Museum, Caterina Greco resulted in the Fagan fragment being reunited in perpetuity in the Acropolis Museum. The fragment had been sent to Athens for the opening of the Acropolis Museum in 2009.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed gratitude to Italy and Sicily for this gesture. One year later, the Vatican followed suit, with Pope Francis donating three additional Parthenon fragments from the Vatican Museums to Greece.

In a statement, Alberto Samonà commented on the latest developments:

“The day when the Parthenon Sculptures will finally return to Athens is approaching. I can proudly say that, thanks to our initiative, the international conversation about returning the sculptures, which were removed from Athens, gained new momentum. In a world filled with conflict and division, the path forward is precisely one of international cooperation and partnership in the name of culture, which has always carried a message of dialogue and peace.”

In 2023, the President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou awarded Alberto Samonà Commander of the Republic in the Order of the Phoenix (Greece): an honour conferred to him for having contributed to developing ties between Italy and Greece. 

Photo posted by Alberto Samonà on his instagram feed.

 


Write comment (0 Comments)
"Returning an object is not simply a matter of putting it in the post as if it had been ordered from eBay", writes Professor Abulafia

David Abulafia in the Spector asks: Is the tide turning on restitution? 

"When passions are aroused, all of us are liable to overstate our case. Dan Hicks, a curator at Oxford’s extraordinary Aladdin’s Cave of anthropology, the Pitt-Rivers Museum, is perhaps a case in point. A Swedish academic, Staffan Lunden, has convincingly argued that Hicks is guilty of ‘distortion’ when writing about the British raid on Benin in 1897, which brought several thousand objects, including finely wrought brass statuettes, to museums across the world. Hicks published his uncompromising views in 2020 in a prize-winning book, The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution. His opinions about the Benin bronzes – which have been instrumental in the restitution movement – are only part of his wider programme that would leave thousands of gaps in the cabinets of the world’s finest museums."

Calling the key texts of the pro-restitution movement into question is what Professor Abulafia continues to do in this article as he also highlights that "Historians, in a democratic society, do not exist to pass judgment, but to identify the truth." 

From explaining the usefulness of the universal museum and lamenting the lack of more universal museums, Professor Abulafia arrives at the Parthenon Marbles. 

"The Elgin Marbles may well be sent to Athens in a reverse exercise to that of the Horniman Museum: the British Museum would claim ownership, but they would be on permanent loan to the Acropolis Museum. And, we are told, the British Museum can, at great expense, make exact replicas out of the Pentelic marble from which they were carved, and put them on show in London – as if its millions of visitors prefer fakes to the objects lovingly carved by the hand of the greatest Athenian sculptors." 

If the truth matters, we must also point out that it isn't millions that see the Parthenon Marbles in Room 18, albeit millions do visit the British Museum. Plus 'ownership' of these sculptures has been questioned for centuries, and to this day

Then Professor Abulafia refences Tiffany Jenkins’s Keeping Their Marbles (2016) and Justin Jacobs’s Plunder? How Museums Got Their Treasures (2024) as the books that cast serious doubt on the argument that our museums are stuffed with loot. 

Does that matter? Surely what matters is how objects are exhibited, the context and meaning they have for visitors and scholars.

In the last paragraph, Professor Abulafia writes: "Restitution is virtue-signalling of an irresponsible sort, threatening the integrity of great collections by pretending to apologise for past sins, often connected to empire building." To read the article in full, follow the link to the Spectator.

We'd like to add that restitution isn't just about giving artefact back it is also about expanding our understanding of the cultures of others. Already in the article Professor Abulafia acknowledges that the Horniman agreed to repatriate a number of Benin Bronzes and yet many have been left in that museum on loan. Cultural co-operation is alive and well, plus it also seeks to improve on what was the norm in the past.

Here's to truth, hope, empathy and understanding, not least restitution. There are artefacts whose county of origin have been asking for their return not to empty a museum but because they hold a specific significance and in the case of the sculptures, to the Parthenon, which still stands. Time to show our collective respect for this peerless collection of sculptures. Time to reunite them with their other halves in Athens. 

 

p.s letter sent to from BCRPM the editor of the Spectator but not published:

 

“Historians, in a democratic society, do not exist to pass judgment, but to identify the truth” David Abulafia

 

We agree!

The British Museum holds 108,184 Greek artefacts, of which only 6,493 are even on display.

The first request for the return of the sculptures in the British Museum was made shortly after Greece’s independence in 1832 and continues. Greece is not asking for anything more than the Parthenon Marbles/Sculptures. Amongst the ‘Elgin Marbles’ in the British Museum there is more than what constitutes the pieces removed from the Parthenon and displayed in Room 18.

Half of the sculptures that survived Lord Elgin’s removal (when Greece had no voice) are today displayed the right way round in the Acropolis Museum, which opened in June 2009. The Parthenon Gallery in the Acropolis Museum is aligned with the Parthenon, which d can be seen through the glass panelled walls. This gallery is the one place on earth where it is possible to have a single and aesthetic experience simultaneously of the Parthenon and its sculptures. The Parthenon still stands and crowns the city of Athens despite millennia of history, which included many wars and plenty of destruction.

Cultural co-operation and understanding is the cornerstone of UNESCO’s ICPRCP decisions and recommendation. A bold, imaginative British Museum and UK government taking centre stage for preserving  the world’s cultural heritage would make a magnanimous gesture to return these sculptures, part of a peerless collection that deserve our collective respect. In this case restitution is not ‘irresponsible virtue-signalling’, nor  will it ‘threaten the integrity of great collections by pretending to apologise for past sins’. It is signalling that sometimes there is a right place to exhibit and curate for all of humanity to have better understanding.  The British Museum will continue to tell its stories across many cultures including those of ancient Greece long after the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. We continue to look forward to that special day.


Write comment (0 Comments)

Page 1 of 13

© 2022 British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. All Rights Reserved.