A group of UK MPs are putting pressure on the government to return the disputed 'Elgin Marbles' to Greece or risk "great discredit".

Labour MP Edward O'Hara led the MPs in tabling a motion in the House of Commons on Thursday calling for the return of the antiquities in time for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The early day motion read as follows:

"That this house is aware that the Parthenon Marbles, most of which are included in the Elgin Marbles collection in the British Museum,

• are integral architectural features of the Parthenon, itself a UNESCO world heritage site;
• notes with interest that the Greek Government has commissioned a new Acropolis Museum at a cost of twenty nine million pounds to be situated at the foot of the Acropolis and including a glass gallery facing the Parthenon and specifically intended to house the Parthenon Marbles;
• understands that this gallery will remain empty as long as the Parthenon Marbles are not available for display in it;
• is concerned that this will bring great discredit to the British Government and the British Museum in the eyes of the estimated three million visitors per annum to the Acropolis Museum from around the world;
• recognises that this location is unique as the only one in which it will be possible to view the Parthenon and its sculptures together in one experience;
• and calls upon the Government immediately to enter into discussions with the Greek Government with the purpose of returning the Parthenon Marbles to Athens for display in their gallery in the Acropolis Museum when it is opened at the time of the Athens Olympics in 2004."

The motion was supported by fourteen MP's:

• Edward O'Hara
• Richard Allen
• Tony Banks
• Tom Cox
• Jackie Lawrence
• John Austin
• Alan Meale
• Rudi Vis
• Bill Etherington
• Desmond Turner
• Paul Flynn
• Gordon Prentice
• Ann Cryer
• Jimmy Hood

The new Acropolis Museum, designed by architects Bernard Tschumi and Michalis Fotiadis, has come into the limelight. The winning design for the project represents the triumph of common sense. A plain, elegant, non-monumental building, it is far removed from the architecture of excess and from any tendency to exhibitionism or narcissism.

The new museum makes great use of natural light, which enhances the effect of the building as it shines in through the roof and reaches down to the lowest level. Light is the motive force of this building, which is positioned so discreetly at the foot of the Acropolis.

"The exhibits were made to be in the Attic light, and in the new museum they will continue to be in the Attic light," Fotiades told Kathimerini. This may be the element that shifted the balance in favour of the Tschumi-Fotiadis study.

In contrast to the depressing exhibition halls at the British Museum where the Parthenon Marbles are on display, the new museum has transparent walls of different types of glass, some of which is polarized. But this is nothing at all like a glass office block tower. Here there is surgical use of a material that absorbs light and reflects it onto vertical and horizontal surfaces. Glass shutters and skylights will create an explosion of light - Attic light. The entrance is on Dionysiou Aeropagitou. Visitors will follow a pathway through the excavations, receiving a powerful impression of walking through a city that has had unceasing life ever since the Neolithic era. The entrance, next to the store, will lead to the central section. Antiquities will be on display at one end, the Erectheion will be in the center and at the other end, toward the Acropolis, are a refreshment area and a restaurant.

Upstairs, the atrium will be devoted to the Parthenon marbles. The frieze will be put back into place, and natural light will shine in from above and down onto the central hail where the Caryatids are.

Fotiadis says the museum itself does not appear to take up space. "It's a building you discover gradually," he explains. "Perhaps the only incursion it makes into the area is with the atrium at the top." An airy, transparent building that is both Attic and international seems to respond to the riddle set by the competition.

Nikos Vatopoulos
Reproduced from Kathemerini
Thursday, September 13, 2001

On Friday 8 June 2001, during a visit to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, the Greek Prime Minister, Mr. Costas Simitis, announced that following an agreement between the German Museum and the Greek Ministry of Culture, the missing parts of the "Philippeion" monument - an entirely legitimate German possession -on the historical site of Olympia would be returned in situ to Greece. He added that the Pergamon Museum would also undertake a full restoration of the "Philippeion", which "assumes even greater importance in light of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens".

In exchange, Greece would send to the Pergamon Museum a number of artifacts from the vast Pheidias workshop found in Olympia, the debris of which contained a pottery cup with his name scratched on it. These treasures will be given to the Berlin Museum on loan to be used for an exhibition that will last two years. "This", explained Mr. Simitis, "is only the beginning of an era of cooperation between the Greek Ministry of Culture and the Berlin Archaeological Institute. A space will be devoted to Greece permanently in the Pergamon Museum for periodic exhibitions of archaeological findings discovered in Olympia".

The Greek Premier went on to explain that "this marks a new era in Greece's cultural policy, an era of mutual understanding and common concern for bringing together nations, who, having freed themselves of past rigidities, will enable millions of people to appreciate and enjoy the products of the world's great civilisations".

NB. The history that forms the background to the Greek Premier's announcement is as follows:

In 1875 Greece signed with Germany an agreement allowing German archaeologists to dig up the historical site of Olympia where the Olympic Games were held in antiquity. The excavations revealed, amongst other finds, many priceless and stunning artifacts. As a gesture of gratitude, a thankful Greek Government decided in 1892 to offer Germany some of these, namely parts of the foundations of a monument dedicated by Philip II of Macedon in celebration of both his military and athletic victories. This was the " Philippeion", an elegant round building looted with carved marble tiles and surmounted by a bronze poppyhead. The circular shape is reminiscent of the Macedonian beehive-tombs called "tholoi" a survival from the Mycenaean period. This Ionic Structure was adorned with five statues made of ivory and gold - materials normally received for the gods - representing Philip, his son Alexander the Great and other members of the Macedonian royal family. The "Philippeion" was built between 338 and 336 B.C, by architects who were obviously conversant with the style of the vaulted royal tombs of Macedonia. The parts from the foundations of the "Philippeion" were shipped in 1892 to Berlin, where the Pergamon Museum has ever since taken excellent care of those priceless exhibits.