Celebrate International Museum Day 18-19 May 2024 at the Acropolis Museum for Saturday 18 May 2024 and Sunday 19 May 2024, with the following activities:

Saturday 18 May 2024, the Museum will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. with free admission for all visitors. The restaurant on the second floor will be open until midnight.

As every Saturday in the morning, visitors will be able to watch the thematic presentation "Saturday at the Museum with 20+1 masterpieces". A walk through the Museum's exhibition spaces, during which myths and legends, beliefs and traditions, historical landmarks and human stories are transformed into art and weave a unique experiential experience. Hours: 12:30 a.m. Greek & 10:30 a.m. English Reservations: https://events.theacropolismuseum.gr/

On Sunday, May 19, 2024, the Museum will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. with a regular general admission ticket. The restaurant will be open during the same hours. In addition, as part of this year's International Museum Day theme "Museums, Education and Research", families with children aged 6-12 will have the opportunity to take part in an adventure within its exhibition spaces entitled "A mystery... asks for its solution." The young friends of the Museum take on the role of detectives and with the help of their guardians and the Museum's archaeologists seek the solution of an imaginary mystery that will save the celebration of the Panathenaic Festival. Learning is woven through play, the Panathenaea and the myth of the Gigantomachy come alive by unfolding all their dimensions and symbolisms as the Museum becomes a place of entertainment.

The London mayoral contest was won by Sadiq Khan. The announcement made on Saturday 04 May secured Mr Khan his third term in office. 

Mayor Khan spoke about the Parthenon Marbles in July of last year, supporting the proposal by the British Museum to share these priceless artefacts between London and Athens, and post the ongoing discussion that had began between George Osborne and Greece's PM Mitsotakis.

Chair of BCRPM, Janet Suzman and Vice-Chair Paul Cartledge with the support of all the members wrote to Mayor Khan last July outlining seven key points on the continued campaign to reunite Parthenon Marbles with the surviving sculptures displayed in Athens' Acropolis Museum.

Before this election, Mayor Khan once again was interviewed and stated that there ought to be a way forward for these sculptures, citing the return of many Benin bronzes to Nigeria by the Horniman Museum in London.

Mayor Khan also referred to the complexity of the British Museum Act which prohibits the deaccessioning of British Museum's items. He suggests that the time has come for the UK government to reconsider the limitations of this act. Noting that if the current Conservative government was concerned with the lack of support from its backbenchers, that a Labour government would support the British Museum as it sought to reach an agreement on this matter with Greece.  

Chair Janet Suzman and Vice-Chair Paul Cartledge today sent their congratulations to the Mayor and in the note included:

"These ancient sculptures belong in the beautiful modern museum built to house them, in sight of the emblematic Parthenon which continues to crown the city of Athens. They have done their work here in London, and now the Greeks deserve their turn. Thank you for your support." 

On the occasion of 200 years since Lord Byron’s death, the Acropolis Museum honours his memory with a small, symbolic exhibition related to Lord Elgin’s removal of the architectural sculptures of the Parthenon.

It is said that Byron’s last words before his death were about Greece: ‘I gave her my time, my health, my presence, and now I am giving her my life. What more could I have done?’

And yet, as one will notice in the small exhibition at the Acropolis Museum ground floor, Byron left us one more, unexpected gift, that contributes eloquently and powerfully to the arguments for returning and reuniting the architectural sculptures of the Parthenon. It is Byron’s passport, an authentic Sultanic firman, which allowed him to travel across the territory of the Ottoman Empire. The firman-Byron’s passport provides yet another opportunity to challenge the argument of the alleged existence of Elgin’s “firman” which ostensibly sanctioned the removal of the Parthenon sculptures. Other than the firman, Museum visitors will have the opportunity to see the “Exodus from Messolonghi” (1827) by Louis Joseph Toussaint Rossignon, one of many painters inspired by this subject.

The small exhibition and the publication accompanying it include three sections:

a) a selection of annotated traveler images from the Acropolis and the Parthenon (by Carrey, Dodwell, Fauvel, Pars, among others), from a time before Lord Byron and the plunder of the monument’s sculptures by Elgin up until the constitution of the modern Greek state and the founding of the archaeological site of the Acropolis in 1834, as seen in the exhibition video

b) a short biography and excerpts from Byron’s poems “The Curse of Minerva” and “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”, which refer to the brutal detachment and destruction of the Parthenon’s architectural sculptures by Elgin and their subsequent underhanded seizure and removal

c) Byron’s original passport, a genuine, unexpected Sultanic firman [Islamic royal mandate or decree], exhibited for the first time in the Museum, and serving as an opportunity to reopen the discussion on the return and reunification of the Parthenon sculptures.

The exhibition “The Parthenon and Byron. On the occasion of 200 years anniversary since Byron’s death” will open to the public on Friday 26 April 2024 at the Museum’s ground floor. No ticket is required to visit this space. A bilingual publication (Greek-English) will be available in the Museum Shops from Monday 29 April 2024.   

Your Excellency, Your Eminence, esteemed guests, my name is Kyriaki Mitsou. I am honoured to stand before you today as both the Representative of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture in the United Kingdom and as the emissary of Mayor Spiros Diamantopoulos and the cherished citizens of the Sacred Town of Messolonghi.

Before I embark on the solemn duty of conveying Mayor Diamantopulos's message to you, I must also speak for myself, as a daughter of Messolonghi. There, beneath the branches of an ancient olive tree, I vividly recall being captivated by the tales told by my great-grandparents about our ancestors who fought for the freedom of Messolonghi - tales of fortitude in the face of adversity, of human dignity in the darkest of nights, and of an indomitable spirit that held fast to the flames of freedom and faith.

Today, as I stand in this glorious hall, I am humbled by the opportunity to pay homage to Lord Byron, a towering figure whose name is etched into the very heart of Messolonghi itself. His words amplified our cries of injustice, his presence ignited the flames of Hellenic pride, and from his death sprung the rebirth of the Greek nation.

Let us now hear the words of Mayor Diamantopulos as we embark on this sacred journey of remembrance and reflection:

Your Excellency, Right Honourable Ministers, Your Eminence, Lord Byron, Master of Trinity College, vice-Chancellor, esteemed delegates,

As you gather at Trinity College, Cambridge to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the passing of your eminent alumnus Lord Byron, so we too in the Sacred Town of Messolonghi honour the man who stood steadfastly by our side during our darkest hours.

Today, we pay our respects to his memory by laying a wreath at his statue in the Garden of Heroes in Messolonghi, while similar wreaths adorn his likeness in the Wren Library. And as the United Kingdom is honoured in Messolonghi through the presence of your Ambassador, the Ambassador of Greece stands with you in Cambridge.

In this moment, the constraints of our physical separation vanish, and our unity transcends distance and time. It is a unity forged in the pursuit of the noble cause that Lord Byron championed - the cause of freedom, and the relentless fight against all forms of oppression. It is a cause that embodies the very essence of Hellenism, which he served with unwavering devotion.

Today, we stand together to honour a national hero of Greece for his invaluable contribution to our freedom.
 
With the warmest regards,

The Mayor of the Sacred Town of Messolonghi, Spyros Diamantopoulos

Professor of Linguistics and Fellow at Trinity College Mr Napoleon Katsos with Kyriaki Mitsou,the Representative of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture 

The Right Honourable Robert Jenrick published his thoughts in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday 07 April. You can also read the entire article on MP Jenrick's website.

The article, 'Our Museums have fallen into the hands of a careless generation', caused concern amongst all generations represented in today's electorate of the UK. It would seem that Robert Jenrick did not appreciate the British Museum talking to another nation about artefacts from countries of origin in the museum's collection. 

"As was revealed last week the museum is in talks with four foreign governments to part with its collections.

The published minutes of the board tell us less about their plans than parish council minutes would of changes to verge cutting. We do know, however, that it is negotiating the long term loan of its most celebrated objects, the Elgin Marbles." Writes Robert Jenricks

“Long term loan” is a legal fiction constructed to circumvent the museum’s statutory duty to maintain its collection. There is surely no realistic prospect of the marbles returning from Greece should they ever be sent there. Parliament, like the nation, is being treated like a fool." He concludes going on to suggest that UK's curators are happy to denude museum, that the 'slippery slope' and 'floodgates' is 'corrosive post-colonial guilt wracking the progressive Left.'

Janet Suzman, BCRPM's Chair responded: 

Robert Jenrick's petulant essay on his website about the Parthenon Marbles - one might dub them the star steal - is typically high Tory; feigning ignorance of the full story of the steal. Their continuing presence in Bloomsbury is lumped with Jenrick's 'finders keepers' philosophy about all the other objects in the BM which were questionably obtained by a once powerful empire. His nationalism is depressing since these Marbles have a unique history, but with any luck a more generous solution might be achieved by more thoughtful actors.  

And many took to Twitter including BCRPM member Stuart O'Hara.

You can read all of Stuart's thread, here. 

Mark Stephens added his response too:

“Any holders of Parthenon Sculptures outside Greece to return them forthwith to Athens, where they can be reunited with their brothers and sisters”, the distinguished historian of the University of Cambridge, Dr. Paul Cartledge, stated in Kathimerini. Vice-Chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles and a 50-year scholar of ancient Greek history, he congratulates the tireless struggle of the Greeks for the return of their stolen antiquities, while stressing the favourable climate in the UK for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

“YouGov polls regularly register above 60 percent support for reunification” argues Professor Cartledge, explaining that “The UK’s main journal of record, The Times, has recently flipped its longstanding editorial policy – from a retentionist to a reunificatory stance”.

Regarding the problems of the sculptures' storage at the British Museum, Cartledge, critical of the British Museum, also stresses their poor conservation, focusing among other things on the issue of dampness in Room 18, as well as the series of thefts by the former curator of the Greek and Roman wings. According to Dr. Cartledge, «The Museum’s repeated claim to have been an exemplary caretaker of ‘its’ Marbles since 1817 has also been exploded on two academic fronts: a) by the late William St Clair, exposing the hushed-up, irreparable damage (‘skinning’) inflicted on frieze sculptures on Lord Duveen’s orders in the late 1930s; and lately b) by international human rights lawyer Professor Catharine Titi exposing the fragility of the UK’s original claim to legality of purchase in 1816”.

The timeline of the sale of the sculptures is set four years after the removal of the sculptures from the Acropolis, but personal debts lead Lord Elgin to submit a proposal to the British Museum to sell the stolen sculptures, estimating their value at £35,000, with the British Parliament accepting Elgin's offer. From then on, the sculptures began to be exhibited at the British Museum with the newly-established Greek state making the first request for their return in 1835.

But did Lord Elgin have the right to sell the sculptures? According to Dr. Cartledge, who relies on the legal assumptions presented in the book, “The Parthenon Marbles and International Law”, “the UK does have legal title to ‘ownership’ of the British Museum holdings, but only with regards to domestic law. Contrariwise it is evidenced that Lord Elgin’s title to what he sold to the U.K. for £35,000 in 1816 was anything but Acropolis rock-solid. So far, despite rigorous searches in Ottoman archives, the best that ‘retentionist’ defenders of the UK and the BM can dredge up is an Italian translation of a permit issued by an Ottoman high-up, not formally carrying the imprimatur of the Sultan himself, allowing Elgin’s men to pick up marbles lying around on the ground and copy stones bearing figures – no mention of hacking worked marbles off the extant Temple itself and having them shipped at great risk of further damage to the UK”.

“Conclusively, one of the issues at the heart of that ancient-history debate is the existence or nonexistence of any sort of official Ottoman firman authorizing Elgin and his cohorts to damage the Acropolis. On the other hand,”, Professor Cartledge adds, “the reunification requires at least one, possibly two Acts of Parliament to be either amended or rescinded: a) of “1816” about the purchasing of and the claim to ownership of the Elgin Collection including the Parthenon Sculptures and, b) of “1963”, “Museums Act”. That requires parliamentary time and support. The present (Tory) UK government is dead against even talking about any legislative change, for example, witness the UK PM’s recent extreme discourtesy to the Greek PM. The Chair of the British Museum Trustees is, therefore, unable to help the Greek government directly, even if he wanted to; his talk about a ‘deal’ is just that – “hot air”.

After two centuries of claims by the Greek State, the provocative fashion show in the Duveen Hall, in front of the Greek antiquities, provoked the anger of the Greek Ministry of Culture, with the Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni speaking of "zero respect", while the British media reiterated the conflict between the two governments and the Greek demand for the return of the sculptures.

As vice-chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, Professor Cartledge argues for the reunification of the sculptures on Greek soil, stressing, “Outside Athens and Greece any Parthenon Marbles held abroad risk looking like imperial loot without much if any current cultural-political significance”. At the same time, he underlines, “The Parthenon was a temple of as well as on the Acropolis, so any sculptures therefrom that survive but cannot be re-placed on what remains of the temple itself should be reunited in the dedicated Acropolis Museum”.

Highlighting the historical and cultural value of the Parthenon, the distinguished academic elaborates on the argument of return by explaining that, “due to a series of historic conjunctions, like the liberation of the new state of Greece from the Ottoman empire, end of the Ottoman empire, growth of representative democracy, the increased importance of the Parthenon as a symbol of the world’s first democracy or ‘people-power’, division of Europe – and the world -  between democracies and autocracies, Parthenon stands as a symbol of both cultural excellence and political freedoms, and even more importantly so. Therefore”, he adds, “any holders of Parthenon Marbles/Sculptures outside Greece to return them forthwith to Athens, where they can be reunited with their brothers and sisters in a fully appropriate space”.

In summary, the Emeritus Professor of Cambridge argues that the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece will influence the global debate on the return of stolen antiquities to their place of origin, pointing out that, “The Parthenon Marbles is, in fact, a unique case, without implications for the fate of any other ‘restitution’ case, but, even so, reunifying the Parthenon Marbles back in Athens would have a mega impact on other legitimate claims for repatriation currently being lodged against the British Museum, above all perhaps that for the Benin Bronzes”.

This article was first published in ekathimerini and writte by Athanasios Katsikidis.

To read the article in Greek, follow the link here.