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

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

 Artemis Papathanassiou's response:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zeynep Boz and Artemis Papathanassiou

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday 09 June and 18:15 on BBC Radio 4, Pick of the Week, with historian (& proud member of BCRPM) Tessa Dunlop. To listen to the podcast, visit: BBC Radio 4 - Pick of the Week, with Tessa Dunlop.

An extraordinary week of commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings and as a historian, Tessa has worked to reflect the best of those aired on Sunday's programme, alongside the selections of a veteran who served in the summer of 1944 and the views of a soldier from one of Britain's more recent conflicts, Afghanistan.

There is music, reflection .... including the irony of stolen artefacts being returned to the British Museum (Katie Razzal and Danish antiquities dealer Dr Ittai Gradel) and - at the insistence of Tessa’s mum - a slice of levity in the form of a duck's nether regions.

Presenter: Tessa Dunlop
Producer: Elizabeth Foster
Production Co-ordinators: Paul Holloway & Brigid Harrison-Draper

The Ministry of Tourism, the Greek National Tourism Organization and the Acropolis Museum present a photography exhibition by Robert McCabe titled “Χαίρε Ξένε. In the land of dreams” from 28 May 2024 until 8 September 2024, in the Temporary Exhibition Gallery of the Acropolis Museum's ground floor.

This unique retrospective exhibition to McCabe’s “Greek era”, consists of about 100 photographs, aimed to highlight the timelessness of the photographs of the American artist.

Robert McCabe’s photographic lens portrays Greece marked by toil and limited means, yet also highlights its prospects and the anticipation for a brighter future. The selected photographs underscore the significance of preserving Greece’s natural beauty and cultural heritage, safeguarding the elements of our identity that make Greece a truly unique place - vibrant, optimistic, with a rich tapestry of past, present, and future.

Entrance to the exhibition “Χαίρε Ξένε. In the land of dreams” is free to the public. A free admission ticket is required from the Museum Ticket Desk.

A bilingual publication (Greek-English) will also be available in the Museum Shops.

A poetic documentary on “nostalgia”, which delves into the debate over the rightful home of the 'Elgin Marbles' - Athens or London - narrated by BCRPM member, Stuart O'Hara. The film explores the complexity of finding a place to belong through the voice of Mrs Maro Stamatiadou, who grapples with her sense of identity in both Athens and London. 

This documentary was created by: 

Anna Gkioka is a first year undergraduate student at UCL studying BA Creative Arts and Humanities. Anna is from Athens, Greece and graduated from Athens College in 2023. Anna's aspirations include filmmaking, writing and fine art. 

Nafsika Polemis is also a first year UCL undergraduate student studying BA Creative Arts and Humanities. She graduated from St Catherine's British School in Athens, Greece 2023. She is half Greek, with Polish and Lebanese heritage; Nafsika ambitions include filmmaking, journalism, writing and acting. 

Both Nafsika and Anna won the UCL Film Society 48 hour Challenge in September 2023. 

Notes:

• UCL has been ranked ninth best university in the world for the second year in a row, marking UCL’s 13th year among the top 10 universities worldwide, in the 2025 QS World University Rankings.
• The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM) has been campaigning for 41 years and was founded by the architect, James Cubitt.
• Stuart O'Hara has been a member of BCRPM since 2012 and his grandfather, Eddie O'Hara was BCRPM's Chair from 2010 to 2016.

On May 15 2024 the Philology Department of the University of Thessaloniki honoured Professor Paul Cartledge (A.G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow, Clare College, Cambridge) by conferring upon him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his contributions both to Hellenic archaeohistorical scholarship and to Hellenism (the Parthenon Marbles and their reunification in Athens' Acropolis Museum) more generally.

The chair of the Department, Prof. Ioanna Karamanou, and the chief promoter, Prof. Alexandra Lianeri, made exceptionally eloquent addresses, to which Professor Cartledge (Commander of the Greek Order of Honour) replied with a short talk on the modern Olympic 'ideal' as compared/contrasted with any ancient Greek equivalent notion.

The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is the largest university in Greece.