CANBERRA, Australia: The prime ministers of Australia and Greece united Wednesday in calling for the British Museum to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.

Kostas Karamanlis this week became the first Greek prime minister to visit Australia.

In a joint news conference with Karamanlis, Prime Minister John Howard revealed he had been lobbying British counterpart Tony Blair to return the ancient sculptures and artifacts which were removed from the Parthenon 200 years ago by Lord Elgin, Britain's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire which then ruled Greece.

"I have on a number of occasions raised the issue in discussions I've had with the British prime minister stretching back some years," Howard told reporters.

"But ultimately, it is a matter that is a bilateral one between Greece and the United Kingdom," he added.

Karamanlis did not directly answer when asked by a reporter whether he wanted Australia to do more to help Greece in its long-standing battle to have the artifacts returned.

"We will not spare any effort to communicate to all our friends in government and also all the people to join the voices which would lead to a solution that's satisfactory," Karamanlis said, referring the 50 percent of the Parthenon collection now held by the British Museum.

The Australian and Greek prime ministers signed an agreement Wednesday allowing tens of thousands of Greeks who migrated to Australia to claim Australian old-age pensions if they return to their homeland.

The British Museum says on its Web site that a British parliamentary inquiry found the artifacts had been legitimately acquired by Elgin as a private individual.

The British Museum bought the collection in 1816 and British law prevents the museum from permanently disposing of the artifacts, it said.

Objects of uncontrollable, almost sexual, desire? Or as alluring as old men in prison pyjamas?

When the new Acropolis Museum in Athens sets new grey-muslin-draped copies of the Elgin Marbles alongside its own original pieces (the bits of the Parthenon frieze which his lordship left behind) I'm not sure what the public verdict will be.

The Greek government is hoping that their bizarrely shrouded imitations of the famous carvings - from virginal worshippers to sacrificial cattle - will drive visitors wild when seen next to the real 5th century marble figures in their special new room (see previous post).

Alternatively tourists may wander past the ghostly gaps, wondering why, in the world capital most crowded with classical art, the pride of place goes to so many fakes garbed in grey.

This is the one surprising question from my preview of the long-awaited Greek plans to show their Acropolis treasures in a manner fit for the 21st century.

I had read about the proposed 'shrine to absence' - and of the firm response from local scholars that their latest protest at British policy was to be any such thing.

But I wasn't expecting to hear that their replicas of Elgin's collection in the British Museum would be half hidden by cheesecloth.

To some enthusiasts for old Greek glories these new veiled figures may prove as seductive as in the days when Emma Hamilton (above) entranced Nelson and Goethe (to name just two) using gauze and silk to clothe her statuesque cabaret of classical poses. To others it may look plain ridiculous. When will we begin to know?

The Observer newspaper reports today that we are 'only months away from the opening' of the new museum.

The present view of the site, certainly from my own experience of builders, suggests that the wait for this magnificent building may be a little longer, perhaps quite a lot longer. Maybe even time to reconsider the muslin.

The Observer also reports new hope in Athens that Gordon Brown will change British policy - and put his own pressure on the British Museum trustees to give the Marbles back.

I am asked the same question. Surely, friends say, this is a great opportunity for Mr Brown to show his difference from Tony Blair and to go back to days when Neil Kinnock was the great Greek hope.

But I can't see the man for whom the real Athens is Edinburgh falling for a stunt like this. What about David Cameron, asks another anxious Greek questioner. I try to say that most of the Conservative leader's veils are still on - but the joke gets lost in translation.

Talks held on Elgin Marbles row
UK and Greek officials have held fresh talks on the Parthenon marbles, taken from Athens by Lord Elgin in 1806.
Greek demands for the sculptures' return will be discussed at a meeting organised by the UN in Paris in June.

Remarks by the director of the British Museum - saying items from the museum may be lent out - have heartened supporters of the marbles' return.

But the museum's trustees then issued a statement rejecting Greek demands for the sculptures to be sent back.

The British museum said the talks on 4 May came at a regular meeting between Greek and British government officials, attended also by representatives from the British Museum and the UN cultural organisation Unesco.

On 17 April the Bloomberg news service quoted remarks by British Museum director Neil MacGregor when asked if he would agree to a request from Athens to borrow the marbles.

"There is no reason why an object in the BM, if it is fit to travel, shouldn't spend three months, six months somewhere else." he replied. "So in principle, absolutely yes."

But he added that the Greek government had never asked for a loan: "The issue has always been about the permanent removal of all the Parthenon material in the BM collection to Athens."

A new museum is being constructed in Athens in which the Greeks wish to reunite the sculptures removed by Lord Elgin with those which remained on the Parthenon temple.

Following Mr MacGregor's remarks, Victoria Solomonidis, cultural counsellor at the Greek embassy in London, said they were "most welcome news" adding: "The Greek side is interested in the reunification of the Parthenon and the issue of ownership does not come into it."

The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles also welcomed the remarks.

But on 21 April the BM's trustees issued a statement stressing that they saw the sculptures as an integral part of its collection in London, and could not allow the removal of all of them to Athens "even for a short period of time".

"The trustees have lent often to Greece... but they have never received a normal loan request for any of the Parthenon sculptures," the statement went on.

"What successive Greek governments have always sought is the permanent removal of all the sculptures to Athens.

"The trustees do not foresee a situation where they could possibly accede to such a request."

The BM said its representative repeated these points at the meeting on the 4th of May.

But it said the trustees believed that "friendly discussions continue with Greek colleagues to see if there is any reasonable ground on which a way forward might be constructed".

Unesco's committee on the return and restitution of cultural property is due to meet in Paris on 5-6 June. The Parthenon marbles dispute is always discussed at the meeting's sessions, a Unesco spokeswoman told the BBC News website.

In 2005 the committee invited Unesco's director-general to help organise meetings between the United Kingdom and Greece, "with a view to resolving the question taking in account at the same time the sensitivities of both sides".

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/6578661.stm

PARTHENON MARBLES
Greece to speak to British Museum next month about loan of artifacts

Greek officials and representatives of the British Museum may discuss possibly loaning the Parthenon Marbles to Greece when they meet on May 4, Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis said yesterday. Voulgarakis was reacting to comments by Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum, who said that "in principle" the antiquities could spend three or six months in another country. However, MacGregor told Bloomberg News that the Greek government would first have to admit the Parthenon Marbles belong to the British Museum. "The Greek government has never asked for a loan of the material from the British Museum. The issue has always been about the permanent removal of all the Parthenon material in the BM collection to Athens," said MacGregor. Voulgarakis said he read the comments "with interest.."

Source: ekathimerini

Article from: The Advertiser

Return Elgin marbles, UK told

GREG KELTON, STATE POLITICAL REPORTER

OPPOSITION Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith has moved to build Liberal connections with the multicultural community by calling for the Elgin Marbles to be returned to Greece.

He has written to British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the marbles, currently in the British Museum, to be returned to their homeland.

The sculptures - commonly known as the Elgin marbles - were removed from the Parthenon and Acropolis in Athens 200 years ago by Lord Elgin, then Britain's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

They have been a major attraction in the British Museum since 1816 and Britain has consistently rejected Greek calls for their return.

Mr Hamilton-Smith said he would also be moving a motion in Parliament next week calling for a bipartisan support for the sculptures' return.

"I am doing this on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of people from the Greek community who reside in SA and Australia who, like me, believe the return of such important historical treasures would be an appropriate and just course of action," he said.

"Recently, one of the world's richest museums, the J Paul Getty in Los Angeles, returned several artefacts to Greece that had been removed under doubtful circumstances.

"The British Museum should now follow suit and return one of the world's greatest ancient treasures to its place of origin."

From: The Times

The British Museum has intimated that the Elgin Marbles could be lent to Athens.

Neil MacGregor, its director, said that, like any object in its collection, a loan would be possible if the Greek Government acknowledged the museum's ownership of the sculptures.

The Greek authorities hailed his comments as unprecedented. One source told The Times: "This is the first time they've ever said they'd let them out of the museum. We've said we're not disputing the ownership."

The Marbles, now known as the Parthenon Marbles, have been the subject of a bitter dispute since the 19th century, when Lord Elgin, as the British Ambassador, removed them from the Acropolis in Athens.

In an interview with Bloomberg News, Mr MacGregor appeared to open the door to a compromise. Asked whether the trustees would consider a request from Athens to borrow the Marbles, he said: "There is no reason why any object in the museum, if it is fit to travel, shouldn't spend three months, six months, somewhere else. So, in principle, absolutely yes.

"The difficulty at the moment is that the Greek Government has formally, and recently, refused to acknowledge that the trustees are the owners of the objects." He said the Greek Government had never officially asked to borrow the treasures. "The issue has always been about the permanent removal of all the Parthenon material in the BM collection to Athens," he said.

Victoria Solomonidis, the cultural counsellor at the Greek Embassy in London, said: "The words of Neil MacGregor are most welcome news. The Greek side is interested in the reunification of the Parthenon and the issue of ownership does not come into it."

Eleni Corka, an official in the Greek Culture Ministry, told the BBC: "I believe that if we discuss the issue we will find ground which will be suitable and solutions which will be profitable for both sides."

Britain has argued that when Lord Elgin bought and removed the Marbles between 1803 and 1812 he was acting legally and that, had he not done so, they would have suffered at least a further century of deterioration. Fearing their destruction in the conflict between the Greeks and the Turks, the 7th Earl secured permission from the Turks to remove the antiquities.

Campaigners have challenged whether the removal of the marbles has been of any benefit. Anthony Snodgrass, Laurence Professor Emeritus of Classical Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, has argued the British Museum's Marbles now pale against those that Lord Elgin did not remove.

He believes original details that are absent from the British Museum's creamy-white sculptures — which had a millimetre of the surface skin removed during the cleaning scandal of the 1930s — can be seen in the warm brown Greek figures that remain in Athens.

Looking at a depiction of two horsemen which Elgin did not remove, he noted that chisel marks and traces of colour in the crevices and folds of drapery, along with anatomical details such as veins on the horses' bellies, are all missing from the London sculptures.

Eleni Cubitt, of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, said: "It's the first time Neil MacGregor has made a proposition of this kind."

A multimillion-pound Acropolis Museum, with a spectacular gallery to house the Marbles, is due to be completed this summer.

A spokeswoman for the British Museum said that objects could not be lent to a country where their ownership is not recognised as vested in the museum.

The treasure

— The temple of Athena Parthenos, known as the Parthenon, was built on the Athens Acropolis, probably between 447 and 438BC. It is thought the sculptures were not finished until about 432BC

— The pediments, triangular gables at each end of the building, were decorated with sculptural groups showing the birth of Athena and the contest between Athena and Poseidon for the land of Attica

— Metopes or relief panels showing scenes from the battle between the Lapiths and centaurs also originally decorated the exterior of the building

— In 1816, MPs found that the collection was acquired legitimately by Lord Elgin as a private individual. The collection was acquired by the British Museum

— The suggestion that it be returned to Athens was raised in the Commons in 1816. Greeks began calling for its return in 1833

Source: British Museum