Eleni Cubitt

  • Today, 04 May 2020, Eleni Cubitt's obituary is in the Times: 'Film-maker and activist who ran a high-profile campaign for the Elgin Marbles to be returned to her native Greece' 

    Asked whether she dreamt in Greek or English, Eleni Cubitt replied: “When I’m in Greece I dream in Greek and when I’m in England I dream in English.” She retained a foot in each country, deeply immersed in their cultural worlds. While Britain was her home for many years, her Greekness was fundamental, and were you to ask her nationality she would give the neutral reply “European”.

    Cubitt sought to bridge the divide between her home and her heritage over one of the most contentious cultural issues: the Parthenon Marbles. Also known as the Elgin Marbles, the sculptures have been the subject of a bitter dispute since the 19th century when Lord Elgin, ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, removed them from the Acropolis and sold them to the British government.

    As a founding member of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, Cubitt organised protests, mobilised journalists and was the driving force behind the Acropolis Museum in Athens, which opened in 2009. She turned dozens of politicians, academics and artists into Hellenophiles, persuading them of the need to “right a very old wrong”. They included Michael Foot, Neil Kinnock, Christopher Hitchens, Nadine Gordimer and Dame Janet Suzman, whom Cubitt recruited as chairwoman of the committee. “She knew where my sympathies lay and wanted to attract ‘activist- actors’,” Suzman recalled. “She was ever so Greek despite her very British associations; a cosmopolitan, elegant, intelligent woman.”

    To read this obituary in full, in The Times, use the link here.

    Eleni Cubitt Nana V BM small

    Photographs courtesy of NANA VARVELOPOULOU, taken at the British Museum for an artucle in LIFE & STYLE MAGAZINE in 2009, the year the Acropolis Museum was opened.

  • 13 April 2020

    Yannis Andritsopoulos, London Correspondent for Ta Nea, Greece's daily newspaper commemorates the extraordinary life of Mrs Eleni Cubitt.

    Eleni Cubitt Nana V BM small

    Photos courtesy of Nana Varvelopulou, Eleni Cubitt at the British Museum July 2009 

    Life and Style Magazine 2009

    Eleni Cubitt was the heart and soul of the international movement for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures; the unsung hero of the campaign launched by Melina Mercouri 38 years ago; and the person who persuaded dozens of British politicians - including two Labour leaders - academics, artists and journalists of the need to right a ‘very old wrong’, as she called it, in the face of the intransigence of the British Museum and successive British governments.

    Eleni Cubitt, a London campaigner, activist, filmmaker and protagonist against the Greek military junta, passed away last Wednesday at the age of 95.

    She was born in Thessaloniki in 1925. Her family later moved to Athens where Eleni attended the American College for Girls.

    At the age of 23, she married English diplomat Douglas Collard, then British consul in Patras, with whom he had five children. In 1964, having already lived in seven countries with her husband, she got divorced and settled in London, where she founded a film production company.

    According to her son Paul, it was the Scottish Laird Sir Amer Maxwell who suggested to Eleni the idea of being a film producer, an activity in which he was actively involved at that time.

    She later met French New Wave pioneer Jean-Luc Godard in Paris and persuaded him to make a film in Britain. 'Sympathy for the Devil', starring the Rolling Stones and produced by Cubitt, was released in 1968.

    She also produced several documentaries on Ancient Greece. Her most recent film was 'The War That Never Ends' in 1991 for which she was the executive producer.

    In 1968 Eleni married the distinguished British architect James Cubitt. Between 1975 and 1982, she was in charge of cultural affairs at the Greek Embassy's press office in London.

    In 1982, during a meeting with Jules Dassin and Melina Mercouri, whom she had known since the 1960s, Eleni and James decided to set up a lobby group for the return of the Marbles.

    The British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles was founded in 1983, later renamed British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. Eleni became the Committee’s secretary, a post she held for 29 years.

    Her husband died shortly afterwards but Eleni continued their work and dedicated her life to the Marbles’ reunification, working tirelessly to raise awareness of the cause.

    She used her connections with the arts and business worlds, set up campaigns to inform the British public, organised protests, and mobilised journalists and MPs, among them Labour Party leaders Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock. Unfortunately for the cause, neither became prime minister.

    “Family was very important to Eleni and, despite the many calls on her time professionally, it was always her first priority. The sound of the phone ringing, as it did constantly, was always followed by her call: ‘Tell them I am out, unless it is one of the children.’ She was also always happy to share her professional life with any of her children and grandchildren who were interested”, her children said in a statement.

    “As children, we were expected to participate actively and to varying degrees, in the many causes she took on, not least the return of the Parthenon marbles. Because of her huge energy, she would prioritise finding the time for her children as they negotiated the many crises of growing up. Eleni loved to tell us stories, whether about the past, Greek myths or her daily experiences. In her later years, when her professional life was less demanding, she embraced her role as grandmother and great grandmother with the same enthusiasm, interest and energy and was much adored by all her 11 grandchildren and 2 great-granddaughters,” her children added.

    Eleni was a member of the Honorary Committee of the Melina Mercouri Foundation and received awards from the Prefecture of Athens in 2009 (Ambassador of Hellenism) and the American College of Greece in 2011 (Maria West Lifetime Achievement Award).

    Ambassadors of HellenismAmbassadors of Hellenism: Eleni Cubitt, Christopher Price and Professor Anthony Snodgrass


    From 2012, she took a less active role and four years ago she moved from her Islington home to a care home.

    “Eleni Cubitt - mischievous and classy and ever so Greek despite her very British associations. I remember she simply charmed me into joining the great Melina’s crusade, which of course I instantly wanted to do. It seemed such an attractive and important thing to try to put before ignorant eyes,” Dame Janet Suzman, Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM), told Ta Nea.

    “I suppose Eleni felt drawn to another, half this and half that as she was, and we became friends. Besides being an actress and bit politically voluble and full of all the usual ingredients to help push this thing along, I happily fell in on the Greek side of things - long before my son took up with one so that I now have two half-Greek grandchildren. Isn’t life wonderful? Vanessa Redgrave, much more charismatic and activist and blonder was also hauled in to push. At the centre of it all, the hurricane of Melina, both beautiful and eloquent, drew us all along in her furious wake.

    “But hey, much good did it do - here we are years and years after Melina’s tour of office as Minister of Culture, and even with a fabulous new Acropolis Museum duly built (thanks to Eleni and numerous others) we all sit here waiting...and waiting. Yet it won’t go away; around the whole world, many fervent Hellenophiles are busy making waves, exercising great patience with an intransigent British Museum pretending to be unaware of how old hat and unpleasant is its stance.

    But, dear electric, charming, voluble Eleni, your dream of the Marbles returning home to the land of your birth will one day be a reality. So for now we all salute you and your amazing life. You will be missed by all of us and most of all by those who loved you, of which I am one,” Dame Janet added.

    Her friendship with Melina

    Melina and Eleni at BM April 12 1984 web site

    Photo from the archives of  Victoria Solomonidis. From left to right: Melina Mercouri, Eleni Cubitt, Graham Binns in the British Museum's Duveen Gallery June 1986

    Eleni Cubitt constantly supported Melina Mercouri, Greece’s then Culture minister, in her fight over the marbles. They became friends and worked closely together for several years.

    "Melina's vision, enthusiasm and glow pushed me to get involved in the cause," she told Ta Nea in 2000.

    In May 22, 1983, Mercouri delivered the Herbert Read Memorial Lecture at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. She later came face to face with the then director of the British Museum David Wilson.

    Mercouri’s and Wilson’s showdown was widely seen as a PR disaster for the British Museum. It is a little-known fact that Mercouri had travelled to London thanks to Eleni who had managed to persuade the ICA to invite her.

    Cultural heritage should refer to those objects which are of central significance and vital importance to the sense of identity and dignity of a human group and whose removal by force or deception or even ignorance could cause great sorrow, pain and outrage to people who believe such objects belong to them as an integral and essential part of their history and their heritage,” Eleni said.

    According to Nikandros Bouras’ book Greeks of London (London, 2013), Cubitt played a key role in the birth of the reunification campaign.

    After Mercouri’s death, Eleni collaborated with successive Greek Culture Ministers on this issue.

    "During my 25 years as Cultural Counsellor at the Embassy of Greece in London, I have had the pleasure and luck to work closely with Eleni. Tireless, inspired and always on the front line, she was a great friend and generous adviser. She was my great teacher. The thought that she is now joining Melina and Jules is a source of comfort,"concludes Victoria Solomonidis, a member of the Board of the Melina Mercouri Foundation.

    eleni and victoria

     Victoria and Eleni at the New Acropolis Museum for the official opening in June 2009 from BCRPM's archives

    To read the article in Ta Nea, please follow the link here.

    The pdf is also here.

    The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles wishes to thank Ta Nea for covering this Committee's work from the very start and as early as 1983 (the year BCRPM was founded) and thanks also to the paper's UK correspondent, Yannis Andritsopoulos for allowing family and friends a few days to come to terms with the loss of Mrs Cubitt. Ta Nea respected this time and during these extraordinarily challenging times with news reported instantly, it has meant a great deal. Thank you Ta Nea.

    The BCRPM was a lifetime's work and dedication for Eleni. Honorary President Anthony Snodgrass, Chair Janet Suzman and Vice Chair Paul Cartledge plus the thirteen members will continue to support all the initiatives that Eleni had put in place, not least this web site and we thank many more individuals, organisations and campaigners here in the UK, in Greece and elsewhere all over the globe. 

    Over the course of the next days and weeks, we will add messages we receive and wish to sincerely thank each and everyone for making time to write, remembering the exceptional and much loved Eleni.

     

     

  • TA NEA 02 February 2019

     

    "My family is from Kythera",  explains the first campaigner for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, Emanuel J.Comino. "But  I was born in Rockhampton Central Queensland Australia on the 13th May 1933 and continue to work and live in Sydney. My father John, was from Perlegianika and my mother Sophia from Drimona in Kythera. They met and were married in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1931.

    I first visited Greece in 1938. War overtook us so I spent the war years on my parents’ island, Kythera. Growing up in a small Australian country town, and wartime Kythera, limited exposure to wider Greece. So, when I returned to Europe in 1976, it was without a substantial background in Greek culture or history.

    After visiting many of the great museums I was intrigued and somewhat disturbed by the many Greek antiquities they held. Finally, on my arrival in Athens I saw the Parthenon for the first time and was struck by its magnificent. I’m sure everyone who visits the Parthenon for the first time has their own recollection of that magic moment. It was then, for the first time, that I also came to appreciate the damage Elgin had inflicted on the Parthenon. From that moment I became committed to seeking the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

    I began reading everything I could find on the Parthenon and from 1976 onwards I started giving short talks on the Parthenon Marbles. As my reading and research expanded, and with the help of the Greek National Tourism Organisation and the National bank of Greece, I developed a set of slides to illustrate my talks.

    In 1981, I formed the first committee to campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles under the auspices of the Australian Hellenic Educational and Progressive Association (AHEPA).

    The following year, Melina Mercouri, the Minister of Culture and Sciences for Greece, addressed the World Conference on Cultural Policies, organised by UNESCO in Mexico. She told the conference that the Parthenon Marbles must be returned to Greece. I read an article about her address in the Sydney Morning Herald. Parts of her brilliant speech in Mexico were quoted. She said in part:

    'I think that the time has come for these marbles to come back to the blue sky of Attica, to their natural space, to the place where they will be a structural and functional part of a unique whole.

    We are not naive. The day may come when this world will create other visions, other concepts of what is proper, of what comprises a cultural patrimony and of human creativity. And we well understand that the museums cannot be emptied. But I insist on reminding you that in the case of the Acropolis marbles we are not asking for the return of a painting or a statue. We are asking for the return of a portion of a unique monument, the privileged symbol of a whole culture.'

    I felt compelled to write to Melina Mercouri immediately and I was delighted to receive her reply. She enthusiastically supported my initiative and also introduced me to the chair of the newly formed British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles, Robert Browning, Emeritus Professor of Greek at the University of London.

    Melina was adamant, as was I that we should never use the term the 'Elgin Marbles', but rather the term, the 'Parthenon Marbles' to describe the pedimental sculptures, frieze and metopes Elgin tore from the Parthenon.

    In the meantime, I sent the original motion of support for the founding of our committee to Melina Mercouri and Robert Browning. Early in 1983 I began to hear rumours that Melina was coming to Australia. So, I wrote to her and asked if we could meet and discuss the Parthenon Marbles campaign while she was in Sydney.

    When she arrived in Sydney, the Premier of New South Wales invited me, along with some 25 other members of the Greek Australian community, to a meet Melina. At the beginning there was the usual formal line of guests who shook hands with her. I too greeted her in the formal manner. When she had settled into the meeting, I approach the official accompanying her and gave him a copy of the letter she had sent me. He walked over and handed it to her, on the other side of the room. She glanced at the letter, her face lite up, she threw up her hands, and turned towards me. She came straight across the room to me and hugged me.

    We chatted a little about the Parthenon Marbles, but she soon had to move on and circulate amongst the other guests.

    As she was leaving, she came over to me and said in Greek, “My boy, don't ever stop the campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to our country.”

    I looked at her and replied, in English: “I will fight on for the return of the Parthenon Marbles until the England promises to send them back or until the day I die.”

    She embraced me. There was a tear in her eye as she kissed me on the cheek.

    She didn't kiss anyone else.

    Melina with Emanuel

    Emanuel J. Comino AM JP

    Ta Nea carried an article on Emanuel Comino written by UK Correspondent, Yannis Andritsopoulos on Saturday 13 February. You can read it in Greek on the Ta Nea's website or in English by following the link here. This article has been published on other outlets also.

    Founder and Chair of the International Organising Committee Australia for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (IOCARPM)

    Emanuel and his Committee IOCARPM have worked closely with BCRPM for decades, starting with Graham Binns, Robert Browning and Eleni Cubitt. When Eleni retired as Secretary of the BCRPM in June 2012, the then Chair of BCRPM, Eddie O’Hara struck a very special relationship with Emanuel. This was born out of respect and by way of gratitude for Emanuel’s decades of support for the BCRPM. Such loyalty was in Eddie’s eyes priceless. The International Colloquies launched in London in June 2012,  also took place in Sydney in November 2013 and Athens in July 2015, thanks to Emanuel's support.

    Emanuel in BM IN 80S

    In Room 18 of the British Museum with Graham Binns and Robert Browning

    Emanuel with Eleni and Jules

    Robert Browning, Eleni Cubitt and Jules Dassin with Emanuel Comino

    Emanuel with Eddie 1

    Emanuel Comino with Eddie O'Hara in London, June 2012

    After the campaign lost Eddie, Emanuel and his Committee were in London for the Commemorative Event held at Senate House, where BCRPM were honouring Melina and 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.

    The Bicentenary Commemorative Eventwas jointly organised by BCRPM with IOCARPM and held at Senate House on 07 June 2016. Melina Mercouri had spoken at Senate House in the 80’s and BCRPM had hoped to hear Eddie speak in 2016 alongside key note speaker Tristram Besterman, Professor Paul Cartledge a Vice-Chair of BCRPM, Victoria Solomonides (who paid tribute to Melina Mercouri), Artemis Papathassiou, George Bizos, William St Clair and Russell Darnley. Eddie tragically passed away 10 days before the event and it was Emanuel’s tribute that touched all the hearts of the assembled, as it embraced his reflections of when he first met Melina Mercouri and what she had said to him at that time, which encouraged him to also forge the long stading relationship with BCRPM.

    Emanuel London 2016

    Bicentenary Commemorative Event, 07 June 2016, Senate House: William St Clair, Artemis Papathassiou, George Bizos, Emanuel Comino, Russel Darnley, Professor Paul Cartledge and Tristram Besterman

    Emanuel is a man whose friendships means a great deal as he has welcomed campaigners from all over the globe. Melina meeting him for the first time in 1983 no doubt recognised in his twinkling blue eyes, the warmth of Emanuel as a human being and despite the difficult decades of the campaign, losing Melina in 1994 and others over the years, he has stood steadfast.

    In April 2019, in Athens, Emanuel was elected as Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee of the International Association of the Parthenon Sculptures ( IARPS). 

    Emanuel with Kris Tytgat

    Emanuel Comino with Christiane Tytgat, Chair of the IARPS, in Athens in April 2019 

    Marlen Godwin adds:
    "On a personal note…. I never met Melina Mercouri but having become acquainted with Emanuel for the last decade I see in those very blue eyes (which still twinkle), all the emotion of a very special person. Life may not always be fair (Emanuel lost his mother just aged 4 and despite his years of dedication to the campaign, he was not invited to the opening of the Acropolis Museum in June 2009). Nor is life as fair as we would always wish it to be, sadly the Parthenon Marbles remain divided. For some campaigners the fact that the marbles are still divided is a reflection of how ‘little’ BCRPM and IOC-A-RPM have done/achieved but the reality is that what has been achieved is the camaraderie across timeless, priceless moments, from the books published, to the photos, conferences, debates, exhibitions and myriad of peaceful protests. Emanuel's dedication to upholding principles continues to inspire many young people and will be forever treasured, not least the 400 school children of SAHETI School in South Africa which he addressed with George Bizos in 2012. There have been no gimmicks, no clever advertising or PR,  just stripped back sensibility and sensitivity. And what does Emanuel hope for? That the campaign remembers his heartfelt messages and his infectious enthusiasm, which continues to inspire so many more young people to the campaign, and to this day."

    Emanuel in South Africa

     

     

     

     

     

     

    June 2012

  • A celebration, and view towards a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that's diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together and collectively we celebrate all women today, on International Women's Day, and in 2023, #EmbraceEquity.

    Today, we can all celebrate and raise awareness of all that  women have achieved and continue to do so.

    Professor Judith Herrinhas this message: 

    "On International Women's Day we remember and celebrate Melina Mercouri and Eleni Cubitt, who initiated and inspired the campaign to reunite the Parthenon Marbles. The British Committee continues their efforts led by the redoubtable Janet Suzman."

    judith small

    Duff Cooper Pol Roger Prize 2020 for 'Ravenna. Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe', Heineken Prize for History 2016, Constantine Leventis Senior Research Fellow, Department of Classics,King's College London and a BCRPM member for nearly 4 decades.

    On 02 March, Times2 arts publish a double page article by Chloë Ashby about the 130 women that make up an outstanding collage for the National Portrait Gallery's re-opening.

    "When the National Portrait Gallery reopens (22 June) after a three-year revamp, its walls will feature the creations of many more female artists, and even more female faces. Among them are 130 stencilled portraits that have been cut and painted by members of the public and brought together by the British-American pop artist Jann Haworth and her daughter, the abstract collagist Liberty Blake." 

    Baroness Chakrabarti is featured on Panel 5.   

    arts times2

    And a reminder of what Baroness Chakrabarti said last year, as valid today as it was then:

    “There could not be a better moment for the Parthenon Marbles to be reunited in their Athenian home. Let us put international treasures on carefully chartered aeroplanes instead of desperate refugees,” Baroness Chakrabarti, member of BCRPM.

    800px Official portrait of Baroness Chakrabarti crop 2

     

     

     

  • Today, 18 October 2020, is an extra special day as it marks the 100th birthday of a visionary actress, activist, campaigner and Minister of Culture for Greece, Melina Mercouri. And although she passed away in 1994, the iconic Melina inspired the world, so much so that Greece's Ministry of Culture declared 2020 as the Melina Mercouri year. To this day we continue to reflect on her tireless campaign to reunite the Parthenon Marbles with special thanks and gratitude to Victoria Solomonidis.

    Eddie OHara with Victoria Solomonidis in HOP SMALL

    Victoria Solomonidis pictured here in the Houses of Parliament with the late Eddie O'Hara

    From 1995 until her retirement in 2015, Victoria Solomonidis was a Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Specialist Consultant on Cultural Affairs, with the rank of Minister Counsellor, serving at the Greek Embassy in London.  The issue of the Parthenon Sculptures was high on her agenda: she worked in close association with the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures from its inception in 1983 and actively promoted in the UK all aspects connected with the design, building and completion of the New Acropolis Museum. In 2015 she joined the Governing Body of the Melina Mercouri Foundation

    Victoria agreed in 2016 at the request of our then Chair Eddie O'Hara, to present Melina Mrcouri and the campaign for the reunification of the surviving sculptures from the Parthenon, the 200 Commemorative Event held at Senate House.

    The presentation had the audience glued to Victoria's words. The final slide was a short clip, a video, which we have added across all our social media platforms: facebook, twitter and Instagram. Do watch it here too. Melina's words are as pertinent today as they were then, the campaign will go on until the day that the sculptures currently in the British Museum are reunited with their surviving halves in the Acropolis Museum.  

    Melina and Eleni at BM April 12 1984 web site

    Photo from the archives of Victoria Solomonidis. From left to right: Melina Mercouri (Minister of Culture for Greece), Eleni Cubitt (founder of BCRPM), Graham Binns (the then Chair of BCRPM) in the British Museum's Duveen Gallery June 1986

    In 1986 Melina made her memorable speech at Oxford Union, when PM Boris Johnson was then President of the Oxford Union. Melina's speech concluded with these timeless words: “We say to the British government: you have kept those sculptures for almost two centuries. You have cared for them as well as you could, for which we thank you. But now in the name of fairness and morality, please give them back. I sincerely believe that such a gesture from Great Britain would ever honour your name.”

    boris and melina

    Melina Mercouri, the then Minister of Culture for Greece in conversation with Boris Johnson the then President of the Oxford Union, 1986.

    Melina Mercouri sadly passed away in 1994 and did not have the chance to see the superlative Acropolis Museum. Nor marvel at the superb display of the peerless sculptures from the Parthenon in the Parthenon Gallery or the uninterrupted views to the Acropolis and the Parthenon.

    Janet Suzman's obsevations on  the campaign in February 2019 included the article  published by Yannis Andristsopoulos in Greek on Saturday 09 February 2019, in Ta Nea, Greece's daily newspaper. It was also re-printed in Parikiaki, a Greek Cypriot London community paper. At the start of this article Janet mentions Melina's impact:

    "Melina Mercouri came whirling into Britain many years ago like a mighty wind, to stir up the clouds of dead leaves that often litter the venerable institutions of this land. She demanded the return of the marbles. She is long gone, but the wind still blows, sometimes stronger, sometimes just a breeze to disturb the quiet. Those winds have started up again." To read  Janet Suzman's statement in its entirety, please follow the link here.

    melina and janet

     

    "Melina was an actress, I am an actress; that probably means we are basically open-minded. Acting requires you to be non-judgemental about a character and thus to depict its point of view, often very far from your own in real life, as truthfully as possible. I am no scholar, no academic. My position on the BCRPM Committee is one of a perfectly ordinary museum visitor and as such I can see so clearly that the marbles are in the wrong room. They need the sweet Attic sunlight shining on them and a blue sky beyond; they ask to be re-connected to their other half in the New Acropolis Museum where a space for them awaits. They need to be seen in sight of the Parthenon itself, which still astonishingly stands, in full view of that space, so that I, the visitor could turn my head and exclaim “Now I see - that’s where they came from!” No more gloomy light, no more orphaned statuary. They need to be re-joined to their other pedimental half which sits in this fine museum so that I, the visitor, can understand the whole silent conversation between them." Janet Suzman, 2020

    With thanks also to Viola Nilsson from SverigeSRadio for her time to interview BCRPM and the Swedish Committee on Melina Mercouri, you can hear the programme 'Stil' dedicated to Melina by following the link here.

    melina in sweden

     Melina Mercouri – Greece's brightest star and greatest ambassador..... Actress and politician Melina Mercouri put Greece on a whole new map through her passionate commitment to both culture and politics. This year, 2020, she would have turned 100.

     

  • Eleni Cubitt, an extraordinary woman with a passion


    “Imagine how wonderful it would be to create unity for the sculptures from the Parthenon and be able to celebrate this unity, whilst we still can.”
    Eleni Cubitt

    'This dream of Eleni Cubitt came abruptly to an end when she passed away peacefully, last Wednesday afternoon, April 8, at the age of 95. The International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures (IARPS) and the 21 National Committees campaigning worldwide for the reunification of the surviving fragments of the Parthenon Sculptures in the Acropolis Museum in Athens are deeply saddened by this news', writes Dr Christiane Tytgat, President of the IARPS.

    With background on Eleni's lifetime achievements and overview of the last three decades that Eleni Cubitt dedicated to the campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon marbles, Dr Tytgat and Professor Cartledge pay tribute to the extraordinary Honorary Secretary of the British Committee, a campaigner and friend. You can read the whole statement here.

    In conclusion, Dr Christiane Tytgat writes: 

    The Executive Board of IARPS and all the National Committees in Australia (2), Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom (2) and the United States of America extend their deepest and most sincere condolences to the family and the many friends of Eleni. Thank you Eleni Cubitt, “XAIPE”!

     

     

  • 08 March 2022 

     

     

    Your Excellency, Mrs. President of the Hellenic Republic, Madam Vardinoyannis, Mr. President of the Acropolis Museum, honoured guests, women of the world.

    Let me begin by thanking the Vardinoyannis Foundation and the Acropolis Museum for the very kind invitation to join with you all in Athens this evening. This is one of my favourite places in the world. I was here at the opening of the museum in 2009 and have been back on many occasions since. So it’s an enormous pleasure and honour to be amongst you and to see Professor Pandermalis again.

    I found myself writing these words a week ago at a moment when for the first time in my life I sensed a genuine existential threat to the world order. That feeling of unease was amplified by the fact that my eldest son found himself stranded in Moscow where he has been teaching English for the past seven months to Russian schoolchildren. Restricted air travel into and out of Russia last week meant that he had to fly to Egypt in order to find a connecting flight back to London. But at least he got home safe. Not so, sadly, the numerous Ukrainian children trapped in their bombarded cities or trekking to safety in freezing temperatures under heavy artillery fire. I had hoped that by the time I delivered this talk the situation would have calmed down, but sadly the signs are ominous in the extreme. Encouragingly, however, the international community has shown rare solidarity in opposing the invasion of Ukraine.

    So unity is one of the themes I’d like to explore this evening, to emphasise the importance of building and sustaining unity in Europe and where possible across the world. And culture can play a significant part in the process of unification. You can probably already see where I’m going with this, so let me turn to the main event. We are gathered here to celebrate International Women’s Day and I applaud the Foundation for linking the event to the topic of the Parthenon Marbles. At least I assume that is why I was invited? Because, yes, the Marbles are indeed a topic close to my heart, as close to my heart as are the women in my life for I am blessed with three sisters, which has given me invaluable insights into how feminine instinct is so often the right one and the masculine instinct frequently misguided.

    So allow me to briefly explain the genesis of my commitment to the Marbles issue. I wrote an article for The Spectator magazine some years ago on the topic of museum deaccessioning. One person who saw that article was Eleni Cubitt, a founder and for many years the driving force behind the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, and who I’m sure will be remembered fondly by many of you here this evening. Eleni contacted me shortly after the article appeared and invited me for lunch at her favourite Greek restaurant in Islington. It became the first of many lunches and afternoon teas at her cosy little house in Highbury where we exchanged ideas and books over apple pastries and discussed the ways in which we might persuade more people to the Marbles cause. Eleni was a dear friend and a huge inspiration to me and to everyone involved in the Reunification campaign and her death a few years ago left a big hole in our lives.

    My friend the American sculptor Richard Rhodes gave a TedTalk in Seattle recently in which he quoted the writer David Brooks, who advised that one should always have a permanent commitment to tasks that cannot be completed in a single lifetime. This resonated with me, for it prompted me into asking myself whether I was committed to anything, the completion of which might not be achievable in my lifetime. I concluded that the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles represents an issue about which I care deeply but that I have frequently despaired of ever seeing come to fruition. And yet, seemingly insurmountable tasks occasionally have a tendency to loosen under pressure from other forces — social, economic, geopolitical — that suddenly offer a glimmer of light. Such, I believe is the case with the Parthenon Marbles.

    I was in my late teens when I first visited Athens and since then I have returned to this beautiful place more often than to any other European city. And this is where the beautiful goddesses enter the picture. I wrote my doctoral thesis on the great chryselephantine statue of Athena erected in the cella of the Parthenon during what is often referred to as the Periclean Building Programme of the mid-fifth century BCE. It was not the statue of the goddess that interested me so much as the nineteenth-century British reactions to her physical composition. As you are aware, she was constructed out of gold and ivory — and here I acknowledge the work of my American colleague Kenneth Lapatin, who has written the definitive account of the chryselephantine technique in the ancient world, which remains an invaluable resource on the subject. While I too became fascinated by Pheidias’s great gold and ivory creations, how and why they were made, what they might have meant to Athenian citizenry and so on, my own research was concerned with the controversy that grew up among European artists, critics, and academics in the early nineteenth century.

    Archaeological and philological speculations about the lost statue of Athena, and the Zeus at Olympia began to appear around the same time that the Parthenon Marbles arrived in London. One of the most significant of such studies was the Jupiter Olympien, a reconstruction of the ancient chryselephantine technique assembled by the French academic Quatremère de Quincy in 1805. These various researches divided the artistic community, separating those who saw the gold and ivory tradition as evidence of the widespread use of polychrome sculpture among the ancient Greeks — and therefore an acceptable practice to emulate — and those who viewed it as antithetical to the aesthetic of pure white marble, which became the idée fixe of the neoclassical imagination. That cleaving to the neoclassical aesthetic survived into the twentieth century when even the Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum were subjected to the abrasive obsession of Joseph Duveen whose workmen misguidedly sought to restore the Marbles’ “original” whiteness by scrubbing them. It reminded me of the words of Richard Payne Knight, who, when confronted with the first lawnmowers in the early 19th century, said of their inventors: — “To improve, adorn, and polish they profess, but shave the goddess whom they came to dress.”

    Of course, it was the luxurious and extremely valuable materials from which the Athena Parthenos was made that eventually brought about her terminal dismemberment. The gold plates were designed to be removable so that they could be used in the event of war or external threat. She was, then, literally a store of wealth, a convertible asset. The detachable nature of the gold plates may also have contributed to her eventual destruction for it seems possible that the tyrannical dictator Lachares fearing capture, stole the gold plates from the statue before fleeing Athens in disguise in the third century BCE.

    In the early nineteenth century any number of lofty arguments were deployed to dissuade contemporary artists from emulating the ancient mixed media creations. For some critics the ‘realism’ suggested by their contrasting materials and particularly the use of ivory, veered dangerously close to waxworks, then commonly used for medical anatomical models and in Madame Tussauds lurid displays. Sculpture, it was argued, had a duty to rise above such carnivalesque persuasions. The liberal use of gold and ivory in the statue also unsettled those who looked to medieval ideas of the dubious moral connotations of luxuria. The Athena Parthenos as she was handed down in ancient testimony seemed to be the very embodiment of conspicuous consumption, luxury run rampant.

    And so for me, while researching these critical reactions, the Athena Parthenos became an object of fantasy, of dreams, what she had really looked like was now lost in the mists of time, surviving only in the later written testimony of travellers like Pausanias, in a few small material fragments, and in several intriguing, small-scale souvenirs in marble of questionable reliability. An example of that category is the Varvakeion statue in the National Archaeological Museum here in Athens, which is a Roman copy and an approximation of how the Athena Parthenos might have looked. For me, Athena endures as a Parthenos Imaginaire, a figment of my fevered curiosity. Was she beautiful? I sense that is unlikely. Was she awesome? Sublime? My guess is she was all of these, a dazzling symbol of Athenian power, a triumph of the creative imagination and a demonstration of the collaborative nature of cultural production. 

    Now if the composite nature of the ancient chryselephantine statues was the source of their eventual demise, in time it also came to fuel the various controversies surrounding the animated academic debates about polychrome sculpture that continued throughout the nineteenth century. The nineteenth century did indeed see a kind of chryselephantine revival, one of the most notable being the encouragement provided by King Leopold II of the Belgians, who donated ivory from the Congo to Belgian artists in the hope of persuading the Belgian people of the benefits of his colonial adventure in Africa.

    If any single object came to embody the various debates about the mixed media of antiquity, it was surely the polychrome gilded bronze Minerva created by the French sculptor Pierre-Charles Simart for the Duc de Luynes, which was exhibited at the Exposition International in Paris in 1855. It survives today in its original location in the family château at Dampierre en Yvelines, outside Paris. On visiting the château I found myself pondering whether the Musée d’Orsay might be a better location for the Minerva where many more people would see her and learn of the archaeological research and fascinating currents of academic taste that surrounded her creation. Like the Parthenos, she was the product of diverse skills, crafts and materials – bronze, ivory, enamel, precious stones, silver and gold. But who am I to advise on where the Minerva ought to be displayed? Surely if I’m loyal to my Parthenon logic, the Minerva belongs in the place for which she was made, standing proudly in front of Ingres’ fresco L’Age D’Or,also commissioned by the Duke, and surrounded by the polychrome interior decorations of Félix Duban, a leading exponent of Beaux-Arts Néo-Grec architecture. Like the original Parthenon ensemble, the room in which the Minerva stands is a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk, a complete, total work of art in which all the individual elements are harmonically integrated into the whole. Remove one component and the magic evaporates.

    So why am I rambling on about the chryselephantine statues when we’re really here to discuss the Parthenon Marbles. Well, here’s a thought experiment. Ancient testimony informs us that during the planning stages of the Parthenon building programme, Pheidias was for a time favouring constructing the statue of Athena out of marble. The demos objected, however, insisting on the use of precious materials. Had Pheidias prevailed, might we today have surviving fragments of a colossal acrolithic cult statue of Athena as we do for that of Constantine in Rome? And how might that have changed our knowledge of the temple and its purpose?        

    Had such a thing survived, almost certainly Bernard Tschumi would have accommodated the ancient marble goddess as elegantly and sympathetically as he did with the surviving frieze and metopes upstairs. And here I will repeat another common criticism of the London display — the deliberate ‘inside out’ approach to their disposition. I’ll come back to this in a moment, but I think anyone who has visited this wonderful museum cannot fail to acknowledge the superior museology of the displays here in Athens.

    I see this museum as unique among world museums in being an environment in which one can engage with the beauty and essential mystery of the ancient world in stunning proximity to the Parthenon itself, one of the greatest surviving monuments of the ancient world. It is not only a place to learn and dream. I see it as a kind of public studiolo, a place where the private imagination can enjoy free rein.

    And here’s where I see another interesting parallel with the chryselephantine tradition. We know from the archaeological record that the Ergasterion, the workshop in which Pheidias constructed his chryselephantine Zeus at Olympia, stood alongside the site of the temple, and was orientated in such a way that its position mirrored that of the naos or cella of the temple for which the statue was destined. I meant to email Bernard Tschumi to ask whether this had been one of his reference points in deciding to position the Parthenon Galleries in relation to the temple itself — not that he needed any such pretext, for it is anyway a stroke of genius. In any event, I for one now see the orientation of the Parthenon Galleries as having an extra semantic charge, inviting me to ponder the creative practices of Pheidias and his contemporaries.

    And this brings me to another point. When I was invited to speak to you this evening my first thought was: ‘What can be said about the Parthenon Marbles debate that has not been said already?” As the late great Sir Norman Palmer once quipped when getting up to speak last at a conference. ‘Everything has been said already, but not by everyone.’

    I did not want to come here today to wheel out the now familiar arguments for reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. After all, I am in Athens with people far more knowledgeable about the issue than me. Over time, I have sought to focus my own contribution to the debate on the viability and sustainability of the concept of the Universal Museum, particularly as it is embodied in London. The ‘Universal’ component was eventually replaced by the notionally less controversial term, ‘Encyclopaedic Museum’, but the concept of universality has nevertheless become a fundamental tenet used by those seeking to retain the marbles in London. I don’t wish to rehearse my opposition to this concept here this evening as I vowed to try and adopt a positive outlook on this auspicious occasion. But I do want to draw attention to an aspect of the debate that is still not sufficiently explored. I refer to the continuing tendency of the British Museum to remove those specimens of the Marbles in London from their umbilical connection to the Parthenon. One former director of the museum went as far as to say, “The Elgin Marbles are no longer part of the story of the Parthenon. They are now part of another story.”

    We may not understand the true meaning of the scenes enacted on the Parthenon Frieze, but we know that they are, and will remain, part of the story of the Parthenon. To suggest otherwise is akin to promulgating what recently became known as “alternative facts.” For it is arguably the very ‘story-based' nature of the Marbles that is their most notable feature. The frieze is among the earliest and most cohesive narrative projects in art history, a story of chthonic resonance to Athens and its citizenry. It is one thing to have wrenched half that story from the building itself, it is quite another to sever it altogether from its original meaning and context. Therein lies the pertinence of the concept of unification at this particular moment.

    Today we are witnessing a hinge in history. A moment of potentially deep and lasting division in Europe. Countries from around the world and from all across the political spectrum have come together in unity to oppose a dangerous manifestation of fascism and a mortal threat to democracy. What is developing in Ukraine is, to borrow a phrase from Thomas Paine, “the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies.”  

    By now you might have guessed how I’m going to conclude this brief talk. The need for unity among nations is more urgent today than at any moment since the Second World War. Unity can be expressed as it has been of late, in diplomacy and in vocal opposition to the agents of oppression and division. Following the invasion of Ukraine unity has also manifested itself in the cultural sector, whereby international organisations whose activities normally bring the world together have elected almost unanimously to exclude Russia from major events. The Champions League Soccer Final has been moved from St Petersburg to Paris, the Russian Formula One Grand Prix has been cancelled, this year the Russia Pavilion will be excluded from the Venice Biennale and a season of performances by the Bolshoi Ballet at London’s Royal Opera House has been cancelled. And just this morning I heard that the director of the Bolshoi Ballet has resigned. And let’s not forget the Eurovision song contest, which has also decided to exclude Russia, although as a citizen of the United Kingdom I would perfectly understand if we too were banished from future Eurovisions, if only on account of the uniformly poor quality of our entries every year.

    But now that we have this beautiful museum with its purpose-built Parthenon Galleries, there is surely no more appropriate moment at which to return the London specimens to Athens. What a deeply symbolic gesture it would be to unify a group of objects that until now have been a source of controversy and division. Would that gesture not resonate around the world?

    Is there any prospect of that happening? Some have suggested that London could have replicas made to replace the current display. Technology now exists that would make it possible to create copies from marble that would be indistinguishable from the originals down to the minutest detail. The suggestion has already been rejected by the British Museum on the grounds that its visitors would need to wrestle with the idea of the copy rather than the authentic object. But how can we be sure that La Gioconda in the Louvre is the original Mona Lisa and not a replica exhibited in order to protect the original? It is conceivable that we are already at the beginning of an inevitable journey away from our Romantic obsession with originality and authenticity.

    The Institute for Digital Archaeology, a joint project between Oxford University, Harvard University and the Museum of the Future in Dubai, a world leader in digital imaging techniques, claims to be able to produce convincing replicas of the Marbles in Pentelic marble. The Factum Arte company in Madrid, part of the Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation, are also among the leading practitioners in recreating the world’s cultural heritage through rigorous high-resolution recording and “re-materialisation” processes. Such techniques would be capable of creating replicas of the Parthenon Marbles down to the minutest degree such that the naked eye would be unable to tell the difference between the original and the copy. Now, I appreciate that the very idea of the British Museum displaying replica objects would likely be might be met with a raised eyebrow among curators. However, the two galleries adjoining the Marbles room at the British Museum already contain replicas of some Parthenon sculptures that are still in Greece. Technological replication may have the potential to resolve what often seems an unresolvable conundrum — providing each side with the “golden bridge” — an elegant face-saving compromise, but the idea is unlikely to succeed while we still cleave to the aura of the original. Meanwhile, the ethical arguments for full reunification and repatriation of all the surviving marbles to their home Athens remains the most forceful prospect for resolution. Few are aware that ethics were also at the very centre of the debate back in the 19th century.

    I was looking again at the minutes of the debates in the House of Commons in 1816 which sought to answer the question of whether to purchase the Marbles from Lord Elgin and if so at what price. Some honourable members made clear their scepticism about the purchase, one person opining that “the mode in which the collection had been acquired partook of the nature of spoliation,” while another opposed the decision to buy the Marbles “on the grounds of the dishonesty of the transaction by which the collection was obtained.” Needless to say, I’m being selective here to make the point that despite the eventual decision to buy the sculptures, there was nevertheless moral and ethical opposition even then to the circumstances in which they were acquired by Lord Elgin. But another paragraph stands out. It was decided to pay Elgin £25,000 for the collection in order to — and I quote — “recover and keep it together for that government from which it has been improperly taken, and to which this committee is of the opinion that a communication would be immediately made stating that Great Britain holds these marbles only in trust till they are demanded by the present, or any future, possessors of the city of Athens, and upon such demand, engages, without question or negotiation, to restore them, as far as can be effected, to the places from whence they were taken and that they shall be in the meantime carefully preserved in the British Museum.”

    Well, we know they failed on that final commitment, but we live in hope that one day the Marbles in London will be reunified with their brothers and sisters upstairs.     

    Before closing I should mention that my connection to Athens was strengthened five years ago when my business partner Angelina and I founded our art provenance research agency. Angie is Greek and her family home is here in Athens. She was saddened to be unable to join us here this evening as she currently has her hands full with her lovely new baby boy. Needless to say, she is as passionate as I am about the cause of reunification. 

    And it is on that note that I dedicate this talk to the women in Ukraine. I’m sure you all join with me in standing in support of their struggle for freedom and peace. They will prevail.  

    Finally I have our beloved Mary Beard to thank for an amusing anecdote on which to end. In the frontispiece of her excellent book on the Parthenon she quotes from a moment when the American baseball star Shaquelle O’Neal visited Athens. On arriving home he was asked by a reporter:

    “Did you visit the Parthenon during your time in Athens?” To which he replied,

    “I don’t remember all the clubs we went to.”

    So let me close by thanking you all for inviting me back to the most beautiful club in the world.

    Efcharistó.

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