The world watched and listened on Wednesday 16 November, as President Obama fulfilled a childhood wish to visit the Acropolis in Athens.

Adding photos of President Obama walking around the Parthenon on BCRPM's facebook page some commented that President Obama was 'fortunate to have the Acropolis to himself'. But for a US President with great understanding, we thought he deserved the exclusive visit as a worthy fulfilment of his dream.

President Obama's visit to the Acropolis Museum was also a highlight - seen below walking with Professor Pandermalis along the magical Parthenon Gallery (many casts  of the original pieces, still in the British Museum) and views to the Acropolis and the Parthenon.

And today, as this week comes to a close, we reflect on the many clear and concise refrerences that President Obama and others have made about democracy. 

BCRPM's Vice Chair Professor Paul Cartledge published a book on that very topic earlier this year and Benjamin Ramm interviewed Professor Cartledge about democracy post Brexit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRxN877n6Lc&t=2s

Today we're also inspired by Edith Hall's article, aptly entitled 'Making democracy thrilling'.   

Edith concludes: 'Cartledge has an unrivalled eye for detail, as the sensitively selected visual images reveal. But what makes this book most memorable is his true ear. Time and again, he points out how the democratic phrase or mot juste has been instrumental in changing history, from the slogans inscribed on ostraka (the pottery shards used in Athenian ostracism), to Rainborough’s ‘the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he’ and Lincoln’s incomparable formulation ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’. The restatement of these resonant phrases leaves Cartledge’s reader not only informed, but inspired.'

31 October 2016 and The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Karen Bradley) states: "We have waited a long time to be able to ratify the 1954 Hague convention and accede to its two protocols. The need for this Bill is paramount. In recent months, we have seen the wanton destruction of cultural heritage.

Heritage, monuments and cultural artefacts are part of what makes a country great, educating and inspiring people, and bringing them together as a nation."

And indeed it is a welcomed Second Reading. For the full debate, click here.

Newspaper articles that followed this second reading included the Express and the Herald.

Brendan O'Hara (Argyll and Bute) (SNP) suggested:"While The Hague convention is specific to times of armed conflict, the work of protecting cultural heritage must also continue in peacetime. In the spirit of the convention, we urge the Government to take this opportunity to return the Parthenon marbles—the Elgin marbles—to Greece where they belong. The passing of the Bill and the ratification of the protocols give the Government an excellent opportunity to lead by example and celebrate the ratification of the convention with a highly appropriate and long overdue gesture."

Campaigners were grateful for this support from Brendan O'Hara and not surprised by  Ed Vaizey response - although as ever one questions the real reasons for anyone wishing to keep a peerless work of art fragmented between two great museums - the Acropolis Museum in Athens and the British Museum in London.

Newspaper articles that followed included the Express and the Herald.

Tmes like this we reflect on BCRPM campaigners such as the late Chris Price who spoke of cultural mobility and tried to meet with Ed Vaizey. Not least Eddie O'Hara, Chairman of BCRPM from 2010-2016 who also campaigned for what he believed in:

The Parthenon Gallery in the Acropolis Museum, is the one place on earth where it is possible to have a single and aesthetic experience simultaneously of the Parthenon and its sculptures

The Acropolis Museum has organised a presentation by the Director of the State Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky, which will be held on Monday, 31 October 2016, at 6 pm, in the Auditorium of the Museum, entitled "Conservatism and innovation at the Hermitage".

The presentation will be made in English. Admission to the talk is free.

Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky in an interview with the Guardian in February this year described the loan of the river god Ilissos in 2014 as showing how much trust there is between the British Museum and the Hermitage Museum, adding that culture was always above politics.

28 October 2016

Today is a significant Greek National holiday* and to commemorate this day, the Acropolis Museum invites families with children aged 8 to 12 to discover the Parthenon Gallery with the aid of the new backpack “The Parthenon Sculptures”. Through specially designed printed material and games, children will learn about the exhibits in a creative way, while discussing with their parents the story of the sculptures. The backpack is available in Greek and in English. 

On 28 October the Acropolis Museum will be open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. with 
free entry, and visitors will be able to enjoy the permanent exhibition areas but
also the temporary exhibition ‘Dodona. The oracle of sounds’. 

Every Friday, visitors are able to participate the gallery talks 
held by the Museum Archaeologist-Hosts: ‘Dodona. The oracle of sounds’ 
(at 1 p.m. in Greek and at 11 a.m. in English) and ‘A walk through the Museum 
with the archaeologist’ (at 8 p.m. in Greek and at 6 p.m. in English).     

The Museum restaurant on the second floor stays open until 12 midnight offering
special dishes based on traditional recipes and jazz live music from 8 p.m. onwards.

*28 October is the National Anniversary of Greek Independence or  Ochi Day" in 
celebration of Greece's refusal to yield to the powers of the Axis in 1940.

The Jesus College cockerel is in the news again (Daily Telegraph).

Prince Edun Akenzua quite rightly wants back what was stolen (along with hundreds of other priceless artefacts, most now in the B.M.), from his great-grandfather, Oba Ovoramwen.

There is a difference between the Benin snatch in 1897 and Elgin's robbery of Parthenon marbles: the latter at least had the veneer of diplomacy and legality, whereas the Benin episode was just a crude British imperialist reprisal raid! But the outcome is the same in both cases: cultural objects that belong meaningfully in their original locations have been forcibly removed and replaced in alien environments.

For the article in the Daily Telegraph, follow the link.

Professor Paul Cartledge

Vice-Chair

BCRPM

In an article in the Guardian on 07 October, 2016, Neil MacGregor bemoaned Britain’s narrow view of its own history, calling it “dangerous and regrettable” for focusing almost exclusively on the “sunny side”. We ask - has Neil MacGregor lost faith in the universality of the BM?

Neil MacGregor, OM, is a brilliant ambassador for Anglo-German relations - would that he were anything like half as good a one for Anglo-Hellenic relations too.

2016 is the 200th anniversary of an act (of Parliament) for which the British Museum's Duveen Gallery is what the Germans most expressively call a 'Mahnmal', a monument to past and present national shame.

There is a simple solution: restore the Parthenon Marbles that the Museum so shamefully retains to Athens and to the Acropolis Museum, and there will then no longer be cause for any national shame whatsoever - so far as the present and future condition and curation of the Marbles are concerned, at any rate.

For the article in the Guardian, follow the link.

Professor Paul Cartledge

Vice-Chair

BCRPM