ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece welcomed back on Tuesday a marble fragment from a frieze decorating the Parthenon temple which an Austrian soldier removed during World War Two, but renewed a call for all its stolen treasures to be returned.

An inscription on the fragment, measuring 7-by-30 cm (2.8 by 12 inches), says it was taken from the Acropolis in Athens on February 16, 1943 -- in the midst of the three-year occupation of Greece by the Axis powers, led by Germany.

Martha Dahlgren inherited the piece -- broken from the frieze adorning the Parthenon's inner colonnade -- from her grandfather and decided to return it to Greece.

"Today we honour the return of an architectural part of the Acropolis ... It is a very symbolic return," Greek Culture Minister Michalis Liapis said in a statement.

Greece in recent years has stepped up its campaign to recover ancient artefacts, and especially large sections of the decorative frieze removed from the Parthenon in 1801 by Lord Elgin, the then-British ambassador to the Ottoman empire.

The Parthenon Marbles, also known as the Elgin Marbles, were bought by the British Museum in 1816 and are exhibited as a prized part of its collection in London.

The British Museum repeatedly has rejected Greek calls for the return of the 2,500-year-old frieze on the ground that its statutes would not allow it to do so.

"The request for the return of the Parthenon Marbles has exceeded the borders of our country. It has become the request and the vision of the global cultural community," Liapis said, flanked by two leading archaeologists who support the return.

The fragment was the third piece of the Parthenon Marbles to return home in recent months after the Vatican returned a small fragment on a one-year loan last month and a museum in Sicily gave back another piece in September.

A fragment of a Parthenon frieze returned to Greece by the Vatican's Museum Gregoriano Etrusco was presented by Culture Minister Michalis Liapis stressing that "this gesture by one of the most important museums in Europe sets an example for others to follow and eventually restore the unity of the Parthenon Marbles".

The special event on Wednesday, 05 November 2008 was held at the New Museum of the Acropolis in the presence of Vatican's ambassador to Greece Patrick Coveney, Greece's ambassador to the Vatican M. Hiskakis, head of the Vatican museum's classical antiquities department Giandomenico Spinola and Organization for the Construction of the New Museum of the Acropolis President Prof. Dimitris Pantermalis.

The fragment, returned on a one-year loan, is from a section of the Parthenon frieze depicting part of a youth's head and part of a tray he carries.

The efforts for the return of the fragment were launched in the early 90s and intensified after 1997. The late Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and All Greece had, during his visit to the Vatican in 2006, requested from Pope Benedict XVI that the fragment be returned.

Two more fragments are still kept at the Vatican museum, one of which will be returned to Athens soon.

The opening of the New Acropolis Museum will almost certainly reignite the debate over the Elgin Marbles.
The museum, which is expected to open in early 2009 after 30 years in conception, has even reserved a space for the missing sculptures in optimistic anticipation of their return.

The Elgin marbles, which were removed from the Parthenon in Athens by Lord Elgin in the early nineteenth century, and sold to the British Museum, now remain in its Duveen Gallery, to the distress of the Greek government.

At present the British Museum's policy remains the same, that the marbles, which are the largest collection of Parthenon sculptures outside of Greece, are staying put.

The Greek government's appeals have had more luck elsewhere – it has already received a slab of the Parthenon frieze from the Salinas Museum in Palermo, where it has hung for more than 200 years, but will now take its place in the New Acropolis Museum.

It portrays the draped lower leg, ankle and foot of a seated goddess, believed to be Artemis.
Missing body parts like this are commonplace in the Athens frieze – the new museum displays its original pieces and missing parts are shown in glaring white plaster chunks. The Greek government hopes these sections will gradually be replaced by the genuine artefacts.

Commenting on the Italian gesture, Anthony Snodgrass, chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles said: "Following on the return of the 'Heidelberg foot', a somewhat smaller fragment from the Parthenon's North Frieze, two years ago, and of a piece from another Acropolis temple, the Erechtheion, by a retired Swedish teacher a little later, it looks like part of an inexorable chain reaction.
"We are looking forward to the news of further returns of Parthenon fragments, from other European museums."

One of the arguments that has kept the marbles in London concerns the lack of suitable space and environment in which to display them in Athens, but the opening of the state-of-the-art museum will quash that tack.

Architect Bernard Tschumi designed the museum to allow the sculptures to be seen in natural light, but high-spec glass and climate-control ensures they are not damaged by sunlight. The piece de la resistance is the top floor, where visitors will be able to see the frieze, then turn their back to look at the Parthenon.

The Greeks hope that public opinion will sway in their favour following the museum's opening. The museum expects to receive some two million visitors a year – a sizeable chunk of the 13 million who visit the site of the Acropolis annually.

Currently opinion is divided – a 2008 Mori poll of 2,100 people found that 50 per cent of people were familiar with the marbles debate, and 69 per cent of them believe the marbles should be returned to Athens.
Regardless of your stand on the debate, the New Acropolis Museum, and its priceless treasures housed in a stunning modern building at the base of the Acropolis, is a must see.

Need to know
The New Acropolis Museum is expected to open in early 2009, and entry is currently free of charge, although the pricing policy is still under review.

Italy returns Parthenon fragment

President Napolitano places the returned fragment in the Acropolis Museum.
Italy's president has returned a piece of the frieze from the Parthenon temple to Greece after some 200 years.

President Giorgio Napolitano said the move was part of a campaign to restore artefacts "torn from their context".

The fragment of a goddess's leg will be on show in the Acropolis Museum, designed to reunite all the surviving sculptures from the temple.

The British Museum refuses to send back its own collection of sculptures from the Parthenon - the Elgin Marbles.

Most of the surviving sculptures from the Parthenon - built on the Acropolis overlooking Athens in the fifth century BC - are either in Athens or in the British Museum.

Greece has long campaigned for the return of those sculptures which are in London, most of which were removed by the British envoy Lord Elgin in the early 19th century.

The Greek authorities plan to combine their own sections of the frieze and other sculptures with those from the British Museum and a number of smaller pieces which are scattered in museums across Europe.

The piece returned by President Napolitano on 23 September had been in Palermo, Sicily, since the early 19th century. It is now on permanent loan to the Acropolis Museum.

In 2006 a smaller fragment of the Parthenon frieze - a man's heel - was returned to Athens by the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

Vatican move?

The same year, a retired Swedish teacher returned a fragment of the neighbouring Erechtheion temple.

At the handover of the Palermo fragment Louis Godart, cultural adviser to President Napolitano, claimed that two pieces of the Parthenon sculptures held in the Vatican museums would be handed over to the Acropolis Museum on 8 October.

The fragment is part of a goddess's leg from the north frieze of the Parthenon.

Such a handover would represent a change of policy by the Vatican, which has not previously acceded to appeals by the Greeks for the sculptures' return.

Commenting on the latest handover, Professor Tony Snodgrass of the British Committee for the Unification of the Parthenon Marbles said: "That's good news... it certainly does look like a trend.

"We now await hearing from Copenhagen, Würzburg, Munich, Vienna and Paris, who all have pieces too."

The British Museum said in response to the Italian move that its trustees' position on the sculptures remained unchanged.

"Here in London the sculptures are an important part of a world collection which is free to all and which allows six million visitors a year to explore the complex network of interconnected world cultures," it said in a statement.

Italy has returned to Greece the 'Palermo fragment', a marble piece of the Athens Parthenon missing for nearly 200 years, officials said Tuesday.

The sculpted fragment of the ancient Greek hunt goddess Artemis, part of the eastern Parthenon frieze depicting the twelve gods of Olympus, had been in the collection of the Antonio Salinas Archaeological Museum of Palermo.

Greece had sought to secure its return for 13 years, the Greek culture minister said.

The fragment depicts the goddess' right foot and part of her long robe.

"For the first time in nearly two centuries, a valuable fragment of the Parthenon's sculpted decoration returns to be embodied where it belongs," Culture Minister Michalis Liapis told reporters.

The fragment was brought back on loan by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, who is on an official visit to Greece, and will be restored to the frieze on Wednesday.

It had been removed by Lord Elgin, the 19th century British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire occupying Greece at the time, and given to the British consul-general of Sicily in 1816, Napolitano's cultural advisor Louis Godart told reporters.

Elgin also took to Britain a large collection of sculptures from the iconic 5th BCE temple known as the Parthenon Marbles which Greece has campaigned to have returned from the British Museum in London for decades.

"Greece aspires to bring back the Parthenon Marbles, so you can understand the contribution and importance of such a gesture," Greek President Karolos Papoulias told reporters after meeting with Napolitano.

The British Museum has long refused to repatriate the friezes but the Greeks have lately had more success in securing claims from other museums and collections, including the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Shelby White collection in New York.

A number of these items are part of a landmark exhibit of over 70 Greek and Italian antiquities reclaimed from foreign museums and collections in recent years which Napolitano will inaugurate on Wednesday.

"This is the first time these antiquities are seen abroad after going on display at the Quirinale Palace (last year)," Godart said.

Two more Parthenon fragments held by the Vatican will return to Greece on October 8, he added.

The joint exhibit at the New Acropolis Museum runs to December 31.

Greece has finally taken possession of a chunk of the Elgin Marbles, and now holds renewed hopes of regaining the rest.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Tuesday presented Greek authorities with a small piece of sculpture from the Parthenon kept in a museum in Palermo, Sicily, for the past 200 years.

The 2,500-year-old marble fragment was one of the works Scottish diplomat Lord Elgin removed from the ancient Acropolis in the early 19th century.

Elgin gave it to a friend in Sicily during a stop on his trip back to London, where the rest of his collection is still displayed in the British Museum — despite repeated Greek requests for its return.

Greek President Karolos Papoulias thanked Napolitano for the return of the fragment, which will stay in Athens on permanent loan from the Antonio Salinas Museum.

"As you know, Greece is seeking the return of the Parthenon Marbles (from the British Museum), so you are aware of the importance and the symbolism of this gesture," Papoulias said after talks with Napolitano Tuesday. "This gesture is especially appreciated."

The 14-by-13-inch artifact is a foot from a sculpture of Artemis, ancient goddess of the hunt, and originally stood above the entrance to the Parthenon as part of a 520-foot frieze that ran round the temple.

"When we opened the crate, the marble just shone ... like a gem," said Vivi Vassilopoulou, a senior Culture Ministry archaeologist.

It comes from a broken block, larger pieces of which survive in Athens and London, and will be displayed at a new museum designed to host all the Acropolis finds — including the Elgin Marbles.

An Italian official said a museum in The Vatican has agreed to follow up the gesture next month by returning two pieces of the Parthenon sculptures in its collections.

"I hope this will at least open the way (for the return of the Elgin Marbles)," said archaeologist Louis Godart, Napolitano's cultural adviser.

Culture Minister Michalis Liapis said the loan from Palermo was a boost to Greece's campaign to reunite all the Parthenon works at the new museum at the foot of the Acropolis.

"The positive responses we received in our international efforts encourage us to continue until we have achieved our target," he said.

The British Museum argues it legally acquired the Elgin Marbles, which form an integral part of its collections and are easily accessible to visitors from all over the world

The Palermo piece is the second fragment of the Parthenon marbles returned to Greece: The University of Heidelberg in Germany sent back a tiny fragment of the frieze two years ago.

The Parthenon was built between 447 and 432 B.C. in honor of Athena, ancient Athens' patron goddess, and was decorated with hundreds of sculpted figures of gods and participants in a religious procession. The marble temple survived virtually intact until 1687, during the Ottoman occupation of Greece, when a Venetian army besieging the Acropolis blew it up with cannon fire.

The Venetians started the plunder that was continued by later Western visitors, culminating in Elgin's visit.

About half of the surviving works are now in London, while museums in France, Germany, Austria and Denmark also own small fragments.

The $190 million Acropolis Museum is set to open early next year.

Designed by U.S.-based architect Bernard Tschumi in collaboration with Greece's Michalis Photiadis, the glass and concrete building will contain more than 4,000 ancient works.