Statement written by Dame Janet Suzman, Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles read out by Danny Chivers during Saturday's BP or not BP? protest at the British Museum.

These unmatched sculptures that you see before you have a home waiting for them. These figures, part of an ancient belief system, have been stranded in the grandest refugee centre you’ve ever seen - the great British Museum itself. But home is where they were created two and a half thousand years ago. 

In Athens stands a fine building especially built to house them, and next year this New Acropolis Museum will celebrate its tenth anniversary. On its top floor there are yearning gaps where these very sculptures should be sitting, joined with the other half of the pedimental carvings and in direct sight of the ancient building from which they were chopped, and which, astonishingly, still stands proud on its ancient rock. That fact alone makes these sculptures unique; we can still see exactly where they first displayed themselves, for they were never intended as separate 'works of art', but as part of the mighty whole of Athena’s glorious temple. Who, one wonders, was a mere occupying Sultan to sign away the genius of Periclean Athens? 

Now is the time to make a grand and generous gesture to the Greek people who in distant times laid the foundations of our modern democracies and who informed our artistic heritage. No sculptures have ever matched these languishing here. They are unarguably part of a history the Greeks feel profoundly. Modern Greeks may be as distant from their forebears as we to Anglo-Saxons but that never stopped a nation feeling viscerally connected to its antecedents. 

Let’s do so by celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Acropolis Museum in 2019 with the return of their prodigals. What a fabulous birthday present that would be! How civilised and decent of the British Museum to divest itself of dated strictures belonging to an era - now so over - of colonialist finders keepers. The time has come to do the right thing. Go BM! Do it! 

For more information on BP or not BP, visit here.

23 October 2018

The debating society at UCL schedule a debate for the evening of the 23rd October with the motion 'This House believes the Elgin Marbles should be repatriated'. The evening, part of  society's weekly debate series, will be held at the Bloomsbury campus in London at 19:00.

Speakers for the motion are: William St Clair, Tom Flynn and Alexi Kaye Campbell, a member of BCRPM since October 2017. Speakers opposing the motion include Dominic Selwood, Nick Trend, Deputy Travel Editor for the Telegraph and Jonathan Jones art critic for the Guardian. 

Pictured above are the speakers supporting the motion from left to right: Tom Flynn, Alexi Kaye Campbell and William St Clair, supported by BCRPM's Chair Dame Janet Suzman.

Alexis Tsipras cabinet reshuffle in September 2018 includes Myrsini Zorba as Minister of Culture. As a widely respected member of the literary community, with experience in policy, her background spans from a Law degree from the University of Athens to one in Philosophy of Law at the University of Rome. She founded the publishing house Odysseus and has served as consultant to the Minister of Culture (1993) and as a Member of the European Parliament (2000-2004). She was the first Director of the National Book Centre of Greece (1994-1999). From 2006 until 2012, she taught cultural theory and cultural policy at postgraduate level.

Minister Zorba has participated in European committees and networks and founded along with others the "Network for Children's Rights" where she served as the head of the Board of Trustees (2004-2016). She has published essays and articles on matters of cultural policy. Her book Policy of Culture is part of the curriculum of postgraduate studies in many departments in Greece and abroad.

More on Minister Zorba's books and articles, here.

22 September 2018

When the Parthenon in Athens fell into ruins in early the 1800s, a British ambassador with permission from the Ottoman Empire preserved about half the sculptures, which are now at the British Museum. But Greeks for centuries have wanted them back; the deal was made before their country fought for independence from the monarchy. NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Christopher Livesay reports.

Watch the PBS Newshour podcast here or listen to the audio here.

Read the Full Transcript

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

A highlight of London's British Museum is one of its earliest acquisitions, the Parthenon Marbles. These sculptures once decorated the great 5th century BCE temple on the Acropolis in Greece. Considered among the great achievements of the classical world, they depict mythical creatures, stories of the gods along with average people.

• HANNAH BOULTON:

They are very significant and important masterpieces, really, of the ancient Greek world.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

Hannah Boulton is the spokesperson for the British Museum. She admits that how these classical works came to be in England is a sensitive subject, one the museum takes some pains to explain.

• HANNAH BOULTON:

I think it, obviously, has always been a topic of debate ever since the objects came to London and into the British Museum. It's not a new debate.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

The story starts in the early 1800s. The Parthenon had fallen to ruin. Half the marbles were destroyed by neglect and war. Then, a British ambassador, Lord Elgin, made an agreement with Ottoman authorities who were in control of Athens at the time to remove some of statues and friezes. He took about half of the remaining sculptures.

• HANNAH BOULTON:

And then he shipped that back to the UK. For a long time it remained part of his personal collection so he put it on display and then he made the decision to sell the collection to the nation. And the Parliament chose to acquire it and then pass it on the British Museum. So we would certainly say that Lord Elgin had performed a great service in terms of rescuing some of these examples.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

But Greeks don't see it that way. For decades now, they have argued that the Ottomans were occupiers, so the deal with Elgin wasn't valid, and the marbles belong in Greece. Why does Greece want to have the Parthenon Marbles back in Athens?

• LYDIA KONIORDOU:

It's not just bringing them back to Athens or to Greece. That's where they were created. But this is not our claim. Our claim is to put back a unique piece of art. To put it back together. Bring it back together.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

Lydia Koniordou was Greece's Minister of Culture from 2016 to 2018. We met her at the Acropolis where the Parthenon temple stands overlooking Athens.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

So first it was Lord Elgin who removed 50 percent.

• LYDIA KONIORDOU:

Almost 50 percent.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

All of the marbles, she says, have now been removed from the monument for protection from the elements. Then it was Greece that consciously decided to remove the remaining.

• LYDIA KONIORDOU:

Yes, the scientists that were responsible decided to remove and take them to the Acropolis Museum. It was nine years ago when the Acropolis Museum was completed.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

In fact, the Acropolis Museum was built in part as a response to the British Museum's claim that Greece did not have a proper place to display the sculptures. The glass and steel structure has a dramatic view of the Acropolis, so while you're observing the art you can see the actual Parthenon. The third floor is set up just like the Parthenon, with the same proportions. These friezes, from the west side of the temple, are nearly all original. On the other three sides, there are some originals but also a lot of gaps, as well as white plaster copies of the friezes and statues now in Britain.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

We believe that one day we could replace the copies with the orginals to show all this unique art in its grandeur. Every block has two or three figures and here is only one.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

Dimitrios Pandermalis is the Director of the Acropolis Museum where the story of the missing marbles differs widely from that of the British Museum. Presentations for visitors portray Lord Elgin critically. One film shows the marbles flying off the Parthenon and calls it the uncontrollable plundering of the Acropolis. You have these videos that actually show how the pieces were removed. Another film depicts how one of the marbles was crudely split by Elgin's workmen.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

He damaged the art pieces, yes.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

He did damage some of these pieces.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

Of course, it was to be expected.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

The British Museum disputes the claim Elgin damaged the sculptures. It also sees it as a plus that half the collection is in Britain and half in Greece.

• HANNAH BOULTON:

I think the situation we find ourselves in now we feel is quite beneficial. It ensures that examples of the wonderful sculptures from the Parthenon can be seen by a world audience here at the British Museum and in a world context in terms of being able to compare with Egypt and Rome and so on and so forth. But we feel the two narratives we are able to tell with the objects being in two different places is beneficial to everybody.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

But Pandermalis says rather than being in two places the sculptures should be reunified, literally. He showed us examples around the museum, including one that is almost complete save for one thing.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

So this sculpture is original except the right foot.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

And this. The chest of the god Poseidon. So the marble portion in the center where we can see clearly defined the abdomen, that's original but the surrounding portion in plaster, the shoulders, that's in London. So the piece has been completely split in half.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

Yes.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

And perhaps most dramatic, this frieze. So the darker stone is the original and the white plaster that represents what's in the British Museum.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

Yes. Exactly.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

And here it is in the British Museum. The missing marble head and chest floating in a display space.

• LYDIA KONIORDOU:

It just doesn't make sense. It's like cutting, for instance, the Last Supper of Da Vinci and taking one apostle to one museum and another apostle to another museum. We feel also it's a symbolic act today to bring back this emblem of our world. To put it back together.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

If you bring back this emblem, aren't there untold other emblems that need to be brought back. Is this a slippery slope?

• LYDIA KONIORDOU:

We do not claim, as Greek state, we do not claim other treasures. We feel that this is unique. This claim will never be abandoned by this country because we feel this is our duty.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

As for visitors to the Acropolis museum. How do you feel about the fact that half the collection is in the British Museum?

• MAN:

Not good.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

The Roscoe family is from Ohio. What do you guys think?

• JIM ROSCOE:

I think it would be nice to have them in one spot where they originated.

• EMMA ROSCOE:

You're coming here to see the history of it so it would be nice to see the complete history rather than replicas.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

You've seen them in the British Museum. So what do you think about the fact that the collection is kind of split.

• TIM:

It's sad. When you see this. I think this museum is a phenomenal place to display them. It's beautiful and they way it's been built almost waiting to have them back. It's interesting.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

As recently as May the Greek President, Prokopios Pavlopoulos, told Prince Charles that he hoped the Marbles would be returned. And the British opposition Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn has said he too is in favor of returning the Marbles to Greece. But the British Museum's position is the marbles in its collection are legally theirs. They would, however, consider a loan. After all, the British Museum regularly loans pieces from its collection to other museums around the world.

• HANNAH BOULTON:

I think we would certainly see there being a great benefit in extending that lending and trying to find ways to collaborate with colleagues, not just in Greece but elsewhere in the world to share the Parthenon sculptures that we have in our collection.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

But sharing the sculptures is not what the ancient Greeks who created them would have wanted claims Pandermalis.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

They would be very angry.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

The ancient Greeks would be very angry?

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

Yes

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

Why?

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

Because they were crazy for perfection. It was a perfection but today it is not.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

As for whether he will ever see all the remaining Parthenon Marbles together under this roof.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

I'm sure.

• CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:

You' re sure that you will see them.

• DIMITRIOS PANDERMALIS:

But I don't know when.

Letter from Dame Janet Suzman to Jeremy Wright, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport 

Dear Minister,

Re: Greek Culture Minister, Lydia Koniordou's request for talks on the Parthenon Marbles

As Chair of the BCRPM, I met Lydia Koniordou in June at Kings College for the 100th anniversary of the Korais Chair and found her to be both eloquent and understanding, and I am writing to urge you to be kind enough to respond positively to her invitation to discuss the long-standing matter of the Parthenon Marbles. They mean everything to the Greek people, just as St Paul's or the dolmens of Salisbury Plain do to the English. That they embody the essential political philosophy of the West makes them even more precious to the Greeks.

Reading the Scotsman, I was heartened that you believe Britain can continue to be outward looking post Brexit and that you said that "Culture is an essential part of UK plc. British theatre and film, music and museums are why so many people visit this country, and shape how we are seen around the world." How Britain shapes its image around the world would be hugely embellished, I truly hope you will agree, if proper talks could be commenced on the wounding division of the Parthenon marbles.

The annual number of visitors to the New Acropolis Museum at Athens has grown to exceed that of the viewers of the London-based sculptures, and next June that marvellous Museum will celebrate its 10th anniversary. How wonderful it would be for it to celebrate a return of its own if a way could be found, perhaps even as a long term loan, to facilitate the reunification in Athens. The UK and the BM would be seen as the real saviours of this peerless work of art.

My Committee were pleased to note that H.M. Government commended the Museums Association for its attempts to produce new codes of ethics for the disposal of museum objects.

The sculptures currently in the British Museum are cut from part of a larger whole. "What we have we hold" is no longer an adequate policy, either for the Government or for the British Museum, above all because it smacks of residual cultural colonialism.

Dialogue will enable both Greece and the UK to look to the future with perhaps a fruitful programme of mutual loans and exchanges. Visitors from around the world would be able to appreciate the significance of the Parthenon marbles in relation to that most famous of world heritage monuments, the Parthenon which, uniquely in the ancient world, still stands. And still stands in sight of the Parthenon Gallery that should house the Marbles. The fragments in London (in some cases literal halves), are seen in Athens as plaster casts standing next to the originals, a brutal reminder that cultural co-operation has yet to find a solution on ethical and moral grounds to the question of reunification.

Yours sincerely,

Dame Janet Suzman, Chair
British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles

Law student from Limassol, Cyprus, Petros Papadopoulos, met with Jeremy Lefroy MP for Stafford to discuss the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

Today, 05 July, Petros is organising a peaceful protest outside the British Museum from 4:30pm to 6:30pm.

RETURN is a non-governmental organization campaigning for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, back to Greece.The aim of the organization is to peacefully influence the British government to re-unite the Parthenon Marbles removed by Lord Elgin in the nineteenth century and shipped back to Britain.

On 07 June 1816, British Parliament voted to purchase from Lord Elgin his collection of sculpted marbles collected from the Parthenon and elsewhere on the Athenian Acropolis, these have remained in the British Museum despite repeated requests from Greece and elsewhere to find a way to reunite them.

On 20 June 2009, the Acropolis Museum in Athens was opened to the public and since it opened it has received millions of visitors from all over the world. The missing sculptures exhibited in the Parthenon Gallery of the Acropolis Museum are casts that were made by the British Museum and bought by Greece. Underneath these casts it simply says BM.

70% of the Parthenon Frieze is still preserved, much of it in very good shape, after nearly 2500 years this is something amazing and, it's not difficult to imagine the missing bits. The sculptures already in
Athens, especially the West Frieze, show much more detail than the over-cleaned London ones.

Members of RETURN will be handing out informative leaflets to people entering the museum, highlighting the merits of reunification of this specific work of art.

At the same time, passers-by may stop to take photos with the banners, to post on social media, adding their support to our cause. Posters and banners of RETURN will be outside the museum.

Notes to editors:
Petros Papadopoulos is a law student at the University of Cambridge, involved in Cypriot politics and aspires to lead his country to peace in the future.

"I have inspired memories of my uncle explaining how the Parthenon marbles were removed from Athens by an English Ambassador when Greece was under Ottoman rule and why it would be a great act to reunite what has survived in a museum in Greece. When I arrived in the UK to study I decided to carry out research on the issue in order to construct solid arguments for this cause. The reunification of the Marbles has nothing to do with nationalism- it is not a national matter- it is an issue that the whole world should be concerned with, especially as the Parthenon is listed as part of the Acropolis, a World Heritage Site."

The young activist is hopeful that this peaceful protest will have a massive appeal to people from all over the world. He believes that it could act as a small catalyst for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles movement. Petros believes in achieving greater awareness amongst those that feel there is a just cause to reunite the Marbles in the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece. People from various cultures, backgrounds and ethnicities, support the cause and he concludes: "This indicates the sincerity of our arguments, associated with values of logic, fairness and justice; they are arguments which recognize no borders; they are arguments of humanity."