A BCRPM letter was delivered to Nicholas Cullinan, the British Museum's new Director on 15 June by BCRPM campaigners and friends. The choice of the 15th was significant as this June, the Acropolis Museum celebrated its 15th anniversary.

Alexandros and David were inspired to cover the remonstration at the British Museum as this cause is very close to both their hearts, and  they were with us also in 2022. We look forward to their continued involvement with the movement going forward.

Below a link to the video that Alexandros and David artfully put together. It features interviews with Dame Janet Suzman and Victoria Hislop and a narrative of the events by Alexandros.  

"This campaign is contingent on public awareness, which in turn is raised through high-profile endorsements and large amounts of content being created on the topic. With this in mind, David and I are very excited to also submit a review on the current debate surrounding the campaign to reunify the Parthenon Marbles." wrote Alexandros post the 15th of June.

Watch: Talking Parthenon Marbles with Dame Janet Suzman and Victoria Hislop.

Alexandros Lees: Alexandros is a British-Greek lawyer who first studied the Parthenon Marbles during his Law degree at the London School of Economics. Alexandros’ Greek heritage, legal training, and interest in cultural property give him a unique passion for repatriation.

David Pinto: David Pinto is a Franco-American journalist, documentarian, and presidential campaign aide. A recent alum of Brown University, he earned a double bachelors degree in History and Film Studies. As a specialist in both international affairs and ancient history, David uses filmmaking to cover cultural property disputes.

Next steps: Alexandros and David are currently writing a thinkpiece on the prospects of repatriation, focussing on the effects of a Labour Government, increasing international support for repatriation, and growing public awareness of the cause. The article will feature interviews with prominent figures involved in the debate.

The UK General Election will take place on 4 July 2024 and whichever party you decide to vote for, we'd like to ask you to consider writing to your constituency MP.

BCRPM has been campaigning for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles since 1983 and if you wish to add your voice to the plight of the divided Parthenon Marbles/Sculptures we would be grateful.

We've drafted a letter which you can use as a template. Feel free to add anything that you also feel might make your MP understand that amending the Museum Act to allow these sculptures to be reunited with their other halves in the Acropolis Museum would make a great difference.

To download the letter, click the link here.

We thank you. 

At 11 a.m. Saturday,15th June, members of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, Janet Suzman, Chair of BCRM joined author Victoria Hislop and Stuart O’Hara, together with members of the Greek community led by George Gabriel, at the British Museum to welcome its new Director, Dr Nicholas Cullinan to make their case, and mark the 15th anniversary of the Acropolis Museum.

Their request for an urgent meeting with Dr Cullinan to discuss the fate of the Marbles, will be one of the first to hit the new Director's desk. To read the letter, follow the link here.

George Gabriel, BCRPM Committee Member said, “Elgin's excuse for not producing written authorisation for the removal of the Marbles never amounted to much more than “my mate kindly translated my homework into Italian before my dog ate it”.

The Turkish authorities have now put the final nail in the coffin of the argument that these treasures were taken lawfully. Listen to the web recording of the 24th session of UNESCO’s ICPRCP held in Paris.

We hope the British Museum's new leadership will embrace this moment and put right this historic wrong. Reunifying the Parthenon Marbles would restore the Museum's standing as a moral leader in the protection of our shared human heritage.” 

Author Victoria Hislop, also a member of BCRPM, said, “We are delighted to extend our warm welcome and congratulations to Dr Cullinan following his appointment as Director of the British Museum.

We come with an urgent request for a meeting following the Turkish announcement. 

We have never been closer to seeing this incredible work of art reunified and it is our solemn hope that Dr Cullinan can join Museum Chair George Osborne in the history books as the men who helped make it happen.”

Photo credits to: Thomas Primidis, Alexander Lees, David Pinto, ERT and Hellenic TV.

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