TA NEA 02 February 2019

"My family is from Kythera",  explains the first campaigner for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, Emanuel J.Comino. "But  I was born in Rockhampton Central Queensland Australia on the 13th May 1933 and continue to work and live in Sydney. My father John, was from Perlegianika and my mother Sophia from Drimona in Kythera. They met and were married in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1931.

I first visited Greece in 1938. War overtook us so I spent the war years on my parents’ island, Kythera. Growing up in a small Australian country town, and wartime Kythera, limited exposure to wider Greece. So, when I returned to Europe in 1976, it was without a substantial background in Greek culture or history.

After visiting many of the great museums I was intrigued and somewhat disturbed by the many Greek antiquities they held. Finally, on my arrival in Athens I saw the Parthenon for the first time and was struck by its magnificent. I’m sure everyone who visits the Parthenon for the first time has their own recollection of that magic moment. It was then, for the first time, that I also came to appreciate the damage Elgin had inflicted on the Parthenon. From that moment I became committed to seeking the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

I began reading everything I could find on the Parthenon and from 1976 onwards I started giving short talks on the Parthenon Marbles. As my reading and research expanded, and with the help of the Greek National Tourism Organisation and the National bank of Greece, I developed a set of slides to illustrate my talks.

In 1981, I formed the first committee to campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles under the auspices of the Australian Hellenic Educational and Progressive Association (AHEPA).

The following year, Melina Mercouri, the Minister of Culture and Sciences for Greece, addressed the World Conference on Cultural Policies, organised by UNESCO in Mexico. She told the conference that the Parthenon Marbles must be returned to Greece. I read an article about her address in the Sydney Morning Herald. Parts of her brilliant speech in Mexico were quoted. She said in part:

'I think that the time has come for these marbles to come back to the blue sky of Attica, to their natural space, to the place where they will be a structural and functional part of a unique whole.

We are not naive. The day may come when this world will create other visions, other concepts of what is proper, of what comprises a cultural patrimony and of human creativity. And we well understand that the museums cannot be emptied. But I insist on reminding you that in the case of the Acropolis marbles we are not asking for the return of a painting or a statue. We are asking for the return of a portion of a unique monument, the privileged symbol of a whole culture.'

I felt compelled to write to Melina Mercouri immediately and I was delighted to receive her reply. She enthusiastically supported my initiative and also introduced me to the chair of the newly formed British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles, Robert Browning, Emeritus Professor of Greek at the University of London.

Melina was adamant, as was I that we should never use the term the 'Elgin Marbles', but rather the term, the 'Parthenon Marbles' to describe the pedimental sculptures, frieze and metopes Elgin tore from the Parthenon.

In the meantime, I sent the original motion of support for the founding of our committee to Melina Mercouri and Robert Browning. Early in 1983 I began to hear rumours that Melina was coming to Australia. So, I wrote to her and asked if we could meet and discuss the Parthenon Marbles campaign while she was in Sydney.

When she arrived in Sydney, the Premier of New South Wales invited me, along with some 25 other members of the Greek Australian community, to a meet Melina. At the beginning there was the usual formal line of guests who shook hands with her. I too greeted her in the formal manner. When she had settled into the meeting, I approach the official accompanying her and gave him a copy of the letter she had sent me. He walked over and handed it to her, on the other side of the room. She glanced at the letter, her face lite up, she threw up her hands, and turned towards me. She came straight across the room to me and hugged me.

We chatted a little about the Parthenon Marbles, but she soon had to move on and circulate amongst the other guests.

As she was leaving, she came over to me and said in Greek, “My boy, don't ever stop the campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to our country.”

I looked at her and replied, in English: “I will fight on for the return of the Parthenon Marbles until the England promises to send them back or until the day I die.”

She embraced me. There was a tear in her eye as she kissed me on the cheek.

She didn't kiss anyone else.

Emanuel J. Comino AM JP

Ta Nea carried an article on Emanuel Comino written by UK Correspondent, Yannis Andritsopoulos on Saturday 13 February. You can read it in Greek on the Ta Nea's website or in English by following the link here. This article has been published on other outlets also.

Founder and Chair of the International Organising Committee Australia for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (IOCARPM)

Emanuel and his Committee IOCARPM have worked closely with BCRPM for decades, starting with Graham Binns, Robert Browning and Eleni Cubitt. When Eleni retired as Secretary of the BCRPM in June 2012, the then Chair of BCRPM, Eddie O’Hara struck a very special relationship with Emanuel. This was born out of respect and by way of gratitude for Emanuel’s decades of support for the BCRPM. Such loyalty was in Eddie’s eyes priceless. The International Colloquies launched in London in June 2012,  also took place in Sydney in November 2013 and Athens in July 2015, thanks to Emanuel's support.

In Room 18 of the British Museum with Graham Binns and Robert Browning

Robert Browning, Eleni Cubitt and Jules Dassin with Emanuel Comino

Emanuel Comino with Eddie O'Hara in London, June 2012

After the campaign lost Eddie, Emanuel and his Committee were in London for the Commemorative Event held at Senate House, where BCRPM were honouring Melina and 200 years from the date in 1816 when the British Parliament voted to purchase from Lord Elgin his collection of sculpted marbles collected from the Parthenon.

The Bicentenary Commemorative Event was jointly organised by BCRPM with IOCARPM and held at Senate House on 07 June 2016. Melina Mercouri had spoken at Senate House in the 80’s and BCRPM had hoped to hear Eddie speak in 2016 alongside key note speaker Tristram Besterman, Professor Paul Cartledge a Vice-Chair of BCRPM, Victoria Solomonides (who paid tribute to Melina Mercouri), Artemis Papathassiou, George Bizos, William St Clair and Russell Darnley. Eddie tragically passed away 10 days before the event and it was Emanuel’s tribute that touched all the hearts of the assembled, as it embraced his reflections of when he first met Melina Mercouri and what she had said to him at that time, which encouraged him to also forge the long stading relationship with BCRPM.

Bicentenary Commemorative Event, 07 June 2016, Senate House: William St Clair, Artemis Papathassiou, George Bizos, Emanuel Comino, Russel Darnley, Professor Paul Cartledge and Tristram Besterman

Emanuel is a man whose friendships means a great deal as he has welcomed campaigners from all over the globe. Melina meeting him for the first time in 1983 no doubt recognised in his twinkling blue eyes, the warmth of Emanuel as a human being and despite the difficult decades of the campaign, losing Melina in 1994 and others over the years, he has stood steadfast.

In April 2019, in Athens, Emanuel was elected as Vice-Chair of the Executive Committee of the International Association of the Parthenon Sculptures ( IARPS). 

Emanuel Comino with Christiane Tytgat, Chair of the IARPS, in Athens in April 2019 

Marlen Godwin adds:
"On a personal note…. I never met Melina Mercouri but having become acquainted with Emanuel for the last decade I see in those very blue eyes (which still twinkle), all the emotion of a very special person. Life may not always be fair (Emanuel lost his mother just aged 4 and despite his years of dedication to the campaign, he was not invited to the opening of the Acropolis Museum in June 2009). Nor is life as fair as we would always wish it to be, sadly the Parthenon Marbles remain divided. For some campaigners the fact that the marbles are still divided is a reflection of how ‘little’ BCRPM and IOC-A-RPM have done/achieved but the reality is that what has been achieved is the camaraderie across timeless, priceless moments, from the books published, to the photos, conferences, debates, exhibitions and myriad of peaceful protests. Emanuel's dedication to upholding principles continues to inspire many young people and will be forever treasured, not least the 400 school children of SAHETI School in South Africa which he addressed with George Bizos in 2012. There have been no gimmicks, no clever advertising or PR,  just stripped back sensibility and sensitivity. And what does Emanuel hope for? That the campaign remembers his heartfelt messages and his infectious enthusiasm, which continues to inspire so many more young people to the campaign, and to this day."

June 2012

Professor Paul Cartledge has written the text that will be used for a pamphlet and distributed under the auspices of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM). The puropose of this publication is twofold: to set out briefly, in the light of current and likely future political, cultural and environmental circumstances, the arguments FOR reunification of those Marbles taken from the Parthenon back to Greece to the purpose-built  Acropolis Museum of Athens, and AGAINST the supposed arguments advanced, mainly by the Museum’s Trustees, in favour of their retention and display in the British Museum (BM), where they have been held since 1817.

The stakes are high, both rationally and emotionally. When the well-known US actor George Clooney publicly declared his support for Reunification, he was accused – by a Classically educated politician no less, now the British Prime Minister – of advocating something equivalent to Adolf Hitler’s despoliation of the cultural treasures of occupied European countries. For someone who admits to Turkish blood in his veins, the irony of such a comment is not lost.

Just as Britain’s ambassador to Ottoman Turkey’s occupied land, Lord Elgin, was doing his worst on the Acropolis, other colonial powers were competitively looting giant obelisks from Ottoman Egypt and shipping them to Paris and New York as well as London. In fact, it was mainly because Britain was France’s enemy and France was Turkey’s, that the Ottoman Sultanate looked at all kindly upon Elgin, based not on mutual respect but on the hardnosed realist principle ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’.

What is in fact required now is not hardnosed instrumentalism but rather a supreme generosity of internationalist spirit and moral courage. BCRPM’s campaign – the nature and origins of which are set out in the text of the document - has as a result recently acquired a further wave of international support from various widespread anti-colonialist movements for the repatriation of cultural treasures that for centuries have been variously looted or misappropriated, officially or unofficially, by colonial powers and their merchant venturers either for purely personal gratification or as an instrument of national self-advancement or both together.

To read the text, kindly follow the link here.

Professor Paul Cartledge, Vice-Chair of BCRPM and author of this document

27 January 2021

'The Armada maps belong in Britain, along with the Elgin Marbles – nothing hypocritical about that', writes Simon Heffer in the Telegraph.

Simon Heffer makes a clear plea: "too many vital pieces of our national heritage have already been lost to overseas buyers. We must keep them, whatever the cost."

His opening paragraph asks: should we rejoice that the Government has banned the sale, to a collector in America, of a series of ink and watercolour maps from the late 16th century that depict the defeat of the Spanish Armada, or is it an act of shocking hypocrisy from a nation that steadfastly refuses to allow Greece to have the Elgin marbles back?

Professor Anthony Snodgrass, rightly points out: The salient point is that there's just no comparison between the two petitioners, in one case "a collector in America" and in the other, “the Greek nation."

Janet Suzman and Perter Thonemann sent letters to the Editor of the Telegraph  in response to Simon Heffer's article. Peter's letter was published in the Telegraph on 30 January 2021 and also in The Week on 06 February 2021.  

Sir,

Simon Heffer on the Elgin Marbles 27th January 2021

I fear Simon Heffer is comparing apples and pears; the Armada maps have a great deal to do with British history, but the Parthenon sculptures were conceived in the time of Pericles & are integrally part of the building that still stands above Athens. Far from being 'perfectly preserved'; they are much damaged by violent detachment from that building by Elgin’s servants.

Heffer fails to tell the BM has one half of the marbles looted by Lord Elgin, and the other half in Athens - neither making any sense without its absent half. Our lot were not kept to 'the most rigorous standards of conservation', once clumsily scrubbed to make them look whiter. They were not meant to look white as driven English snow, but showing up brightly painted in warm Greek sunlight.

Heffer is correct that no written permission has been found giving Elgin the right to steal the Parthenon’s carvings; they are here without the consent of Greece. Demands for their return have been constant since Greece became an independent state. The carvings are as meaningful to the story of Greece as the dolmens of Salisbury plain are to ours. More so.

Sure, they maybe they were saved from further accidents, but the figures left in Greece are pretty fine too. But be it noted Elgin wanted to save them, not for the nation, but for himself in his lordly pile in Scotland. Only when he later got ill and bankrupt he bethought him of selling them to the British Museum.

After two hundred years of captivity in gloomy Room 18 of the British Museum, the Marbles have done their work in reviving classical studies & inspiring the aesthetic, philosophic and political thinking of the West. Their beauty will hardly be diminished by beingby being in the world-class museum awaiting them in Athens . It is high time that the incomplete and inaccurate story told by Simon Heffer and friends was expunged from British urban mythology.

Sincerely,
Janet Suzman DBE
Chair British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Mables

In 1983 the Greek government decided, for the first time, to formally demand the return of artefacts removed from their most famous national monument two centuries before.

The Greek actress turned Minister of Culture, Melina Mercouri, said the British ambassador, Lord Elgin, had no moral right to ship 170 crates of marble sculpture from Athens to London between 1801 and 1804.

The Parthenon marbles are now housed in the British Museum in London, and Melina Mercouri visited it and spoke to the Director of the Museum, David Wilson.

Victoria Solomonides was with Melina Mercouri and remembers the impact the former actress had on the British public.

Witness History: The stories of our times told by the people who were there.

2020: Year of Melina Mercouri
Dr Victoria Solomonidis FKC FRHistS

Member, Board of Directors of the Melina Mercouri Foundation

Why is it important that the Greek Ministry of Culture declared 2020 as the “Year of Melina Mercouri”?

The Greek Ministry of Culture declared 2020 as the Year of Melina Mercouri, a year-long series of events marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of the much-loved internationally acclaimed actress, activist, politician and former Minister of Culture. With her legacy still alive 26 years after her death, Melina’s work was to be highlighted and remembered through exhibitions, lectures, concerts and film screenings.

The inaugural celebration took place last January at the Acropolis Museum, Melina’s most cherished project, though this ambitious programme was hampered by the covid-19 pandemic which led to the postponement of most of the events for 2020.

The initiative to mark this centenary was taken by Dr Lina Mendoni, the Minister for Culture & Sport and, as circumstances were to prove, the plan assumed an additional symbolic significance: Melina Mercouri was known for her indomitable perseverance and spirited optimism under adverse circumstances, her self-awareness and self-discipline, attributes vital in our challenging times, especially in the face of the pandemic.

What is, in your opinion, the legacy of Melina Mercouri to our contemporary cultural dialogues?

Melina’s legacy is multifaceted. A number of institutions encapsulate this legacy in a tangible way:

1. The Melina Mercouri Prize established by the EU Commission and awarded to the annual winners of the European Capital of Culture competition (value: 1.5 million Euros). The scheme was conceived and implemented in 1985 by Melina Mercouri as Minister of Culture and, over the past 35 years, the European Capitals of Culture have developed into one of the most ambitious cultural projects in Europe, becoming one of the best known, publicly salient EU projects. The cities are chosen on the basis of a cultural programme with a strong European dimension, a programme to engage and involve the candidate city's inhabitants and contribute to its long-term progress.

Becoming a European Capital of Culture brings renewed life to the winning cities, boosting their cultural, social and economic development. Many of them, like Lille, Glasgow and Essen, have demonstrated that the title can be a great opportunity to regenerate urban centres, bringing creativity, visitors and international recognition.

Today, Melina’s vision of the project is more relevant than ever. European Capitals of Culture highlight the richness of Europe’s cultural diversity and take a fresh look at shared history and heritage. They promote mutual understanding and show how the universal language of creativity opens Europe to cultures from across the world. Through this institution, Europeans are provided with an opportunity to learn more about each other's cultures, to enter into an intercultural dialogue and to enjoy shared history and values. It is of particular importance that as of 2021 and every third year, the initiative will be open to cities in EU candidate countries or potential candidates for EU membership.

This development would have been be particularly welcome to Melina. Even before the fall of the Berlin Wall, a fruitful and constructive dialogue with the countries of Eastern Europe began on her initiative when in 1988, during the second Greek EU presidency and despite the strong reservations of her European counterparts, she promoted the idea of cultural cooperation between Eastern Europe and the European Union in a bid to open up the borders. The idea was implemented in 1989 with the celebration of an EU sponsored Month of Culture in Eastern countries. The initiative to open up the European City of Culture to countries outside the EU family, would be a source of great satisfaction for her.

2. The UNESCO-Greece Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes was established in 1995, to reward outstanding examples of action aimed at safeguarding and enhancing the world’s cultural landscapes, defined as the combined works of nature and man, a category of the World Heritage List.

Valued at US $30,000, the Prize is awarded every two years to an individual, an institution or a non-governmental organization for outstanding efforts to protect and manage sites that embody an enduring, intimate relationship between people and their environment, in the face of numerous threats, such as unplanned infrastructure development and urbanization, lack of agents to manage landscapes due to depopulation and changes in traditional ways of life, as well as increasing disaster risks and the effects of climate change.

The latest Prize was awarded in November 2019 during the 40th Session of the UNESCO General Conference. The recipient was the Instituto do Património Cultural in Cabo Verde for its outstanding contribution to the safeguarding, management and sustainable development of the Natural Park of Cova, Paul and Ribeira da Torre, an emblematic example of Cabo Verde’s mountain wetlands and one of its most important agricultural ecosystems. The prize money will be used to elaborate a Management Plan, create a centre for landscape interpretation, train young tourist guides and promote female entrepreneurship.

3. The Melina Mercouri Drama Award, presented annually by the Melina Mercouri Foundation to the best young actress of the previous theatre season in Greece. In addition to the prize money of 3.000 Euros, the recipient receives Melina’s favourite brooch as a precious, unique trophy to hold for one year and pass on to the next award winner.
Established in 2007, the Award is highly prized, and the annual award ceremony is one of the highlights of the theatrical season. The Jury consists of five eminent theatre personalities, chaired by the legendary actress Maya Lyberopoulou.

In October 2020, the 14th Melina Mercouri Drama Award was presented to Dimitra Vlagopoulou, for her performance in "The tragic story of Hamlet, a prince of Denmark", based on the eponymous Shakespeare tragedy. Under Covid-19 restrictions, the ceremony took place at the National Theatre, in the presence of the President of the Republic Mme Katerina Sakellaropoulou and the Minister of Culture and Sport Dr Lina Mendoni.

Alongside the Melina Mercouri – Jules Dassin Scholarships, offered annually by the Melina Mercouri Foundation to young Greeks wishing to pursue research at Ph.D. level in Classical Archaeology or Greek Literature, the Drama Award reflects Melina’s concern for the younger generation and her wish to see excellence rewarded across the board.

These institutions epitomize Melina’s concern for humanity at large, for the value of culture and cultural heritage in bringing people together, for the importance of the younger generation and its aspirations. Back in 1982, addressing the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies, she said: “It is time to declare that the concepts of “foreign” or “other” should revert to their first meaning; that is, different or perhaps unique, but never better or worse, bigger or smaller. Let us here together, and each one of us in his or her own country, find a way to give substance to this new vision, making it a concrete reality and making it possible for children in their schools to know, to love and to appreciate the cultures of the entire world.”

Melina’s legacy is as valid today as it was back in 1982.

What is it about Melina Mercouri that has made her a longstanding symbol for Greece? Is it her contribution to arts, culture, politics or something else beyond these? How do you believe, people remember her?

Melina was, and still is, synonymous with “passion”, “drama”, “philosophy”, “justice”, “moral values”, “self-sacrifice”, notions that stem from our ancient Greek heritage and are as classic as the stones of the Athenian Acropolis. From the days of her struggle against the junta of the colonels, and later on, as an MP and Minister of Culture, Melina was a Greek heroine who fought against the injustices inflicted upon the common people. Culture, politics and the arts were the three different roads she walked at the same time, all leading to the same destination: the creation of a better world through mutual understanding and respect.

The general public remembers Melina for her passionate quest for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures, for “putting Greece on the map” in terms of contemporary cultural cooperation and enterprise and, crucially, for her love of Greece and its people, a love reciprocated widely, as evidenced by the hundreds of thousands of Athenians who followed her funeral cortege back in 1994. Melina had voiced her fear that she might be forgotten after her death. How wrong she was!

How do her roles as an artist, as a campaigner against the junta, as a politician compare, in your opinion? Would you say that Mercouri was more apt to a specific role compared to another? Which of these capacities may still have an impact on our nowadays history and how?

For Melina, culture was political, and politics were a matter of culture. She was equally successful in everything she tackled and was a prime example of a woman who took the front stage, even at a time when the female role was relegated to “behind the scenes”. Referring again to her famous UNESCO address of 1982, we read:

“Let us therefore be realists: women still represent an oppressed continent and I am profoundly convinced that one of the first duties of people concerned with cultural affairs is to fight for the humanitarian and democratic qualities of modern societies by giving women their due place in those societies.

This fight has an institutional aspect but, when the political will exists, it is relatively easy to conduct. There is also another aspect: that which relates to mental attitudes and habits which have developed over the centuries and which cannot be ended without the militant and arduous intervention of culture.”

My belief is that at the heart of all her activities, political or cultural, Melina had one great passion and that was Justice, with a capital J. To this end, she explored all possible avenues, used all her attributes and talents to the full.

Could you please tell us about the aims and activities of the Melina Mercouri Foundation? How does the Foundation contribute to keeping Mercouri’s vision for the reunification of Parthenon Marbles alive?

In line with the fundamental ideas and policies that Melina Mercouri envisioned, planned and implemented when she was Minister of Culture, our Foundation aspires to contribute to the promotion and dissemination of Greek culture in Greece and abroad. In Melina’s words, “our cultural heritage remains a leading force, our inner strength and our pride”.

In 1981, during the first days of her term of office as Minister of Culture, one of the foremost priorities she set was the project of conservation of the Acropolis monuments, including the initiative for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures. This choice echoed her firm conviction that, as an integral entity of unique artistic value, the Acropolis monuments convey the classical Greek spirit, while as universal symbols, they embody values, principles and ideals which contemporary societies strive to attain.

Reflecting this conviction, the Foundation has focused its activities towards the same direction and, contributing to the overall efforts of the Greek state in this field, works in close collaboration with the pertinent Greek authorities.

Melina’s vision for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures is today pursued by many people around the world, with national committees working towards that goal, from the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Serbia and Russia, to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, Brazil and Chile. It is heartening to see the younger generation working alongside distinguished personalities, through social media, interviews, publications and conferences in a concerted effort to inform the international community regarding the plight of the Sculptures. The Foundation works closely with the umbrella International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures and its Chair Dr Christiane Tytgart. Mr Christoforos Argyropoulos, the Chairman of the Melina Mercouri Foundation, chairs the Hellenic Advisory Committee for the Parthenon Sculptures set up by the Ministry of Culture in 2015.

How does the Menina Mercouri Foundation cultivate awareness about the legacy, the personality, the artistic and political trajectory and the visions of Melina Mercouri among the young generation?

As I have said, the younger generation was always at the forefront of Melina’s projects, be it internationally, through, for example, the regeneration of urban centres and the creation of work places via the institution of the European City of Culture, or nationally, with the Melina Programme aiming to link culture with education at all educational levels so that pupils and students find pleasure in learning. It is part of the Foundation’s mission to promote her legacy among the young through various programmes, such as the Drama Award and the postgraduate scholarships scheme, but also through a sustained and constant presence in the social media so enamoured of the younger generation.

The Exhibition Hall of the Foundation is open for school visits and the Melina Mercouri Archive, consisting of audio-visual material [films, documentaries, recordings], press cuttings from 1951 to the present, speeches delivered from 1982 to 1994 and some 13,000 photographs constitutes, a rich resource for research.

As all celebrations planed by the Ministry of Culture and by the MM Foundation for the Year of Melina Mercouri have been suspended, due to the coronavirus pandemic, is the Foundation going to put in place online events or does it draw up plans for future celebrations?

It is our sincere hope that this year 2021, which has such a special meaning for our country, will see the implementation of the postponed 2020 events. As things stand at present, it is difficult to make specific plans so…watch this space!

This interview was also published in the Greek Emabassy Newsletter.BCRPM thanks Dr Solomonidis for her decades of dedication to the cause, her archives and source material. Dr Victoria Solomonides worked closely with the founder of BCRPM, Mrs Eleni Cubitt. 

After Melina Mercouri’s death, Eleni collaborated with successive Greek Culture Ministers on this issue.

"During my 25 years as Cultural Counsellor at the Embassy of Greece in London, I have had the pleasure and luck to work closely with Eleni. Tireless, inspired and always on the front line, she was a great friend and generous adviser. She was my great teacher. The thought that she is now joining Melina and Jules is a source of comfort," concludes Victoria Solomonidis, a member of the Board of the Melina Mercouri Foundation.

"There are a lot of historical artefacts that should be returned to their original owners, but none more important than the Parthenon Marbles.”

George Clooney writing to Janet on the 8th of January this year.

His latest film 'The Midnight Sky' was released a month earlier on 09 December 2020 and there were a number of articles in the weeks that followed including one in the Guardian, written by Tom Lamont. To read that, you can use the link here.

George Clooney remembers when he met Amal in February 2014 and that in the same month he was also in the UK for the launch of 'The Monuments Men', a film about soldiers at the tail-end of the Second World War who were tasked to protect priceless works of European art from Nazi looters.At this time Clooney also viced his  belief that the United Kingdom might return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece. The then Mayor of London Boris Johnson retaliated by comparing the actor to Adolf Hitler. That evening he met with Amal for dinner and she gave George lots more facts about the plight of the Marbles including an update on UNESCO rulings.

Journalist Tom Lamont suggests to Clooney, that the actor owes everything to UK's Prime Minister Johnson: marriage, kids and present state of domestic contentment. George agrees and then suggests he might send a thank you note to  the PM..... plus a comb. We would concurr that a comb would be useful and we sincerely hope that the thank you note may persuade the PM to be more magnanimous when it comes to considering the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles too.

We live in hope and agree with George Clooney that despite the current challenges, here's to better days for all.

Nina Kelly is a London student studying A level Mathematics, Further Mathematics, History and Biology. She had always wanted to know more about the Parthenon Marbles and last year she made use of her EPQ (rs) as an opportunity to find out more.

Nina's research had her attend the BP or not BP? prtotest at the British Museum on 08 February 2020, travel to Athens and interview both Prof Paul Cartledge in Cambridge and William St Clair in London.

Professor Paul Cartledge

To watch her video, kindly follow the link here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbD-0qGwg08&feature=youtu.be

Nina's conclusion is one we can all take note of: "the more we know and understand about the Parthenon Marbles, the more we can all do to encourage and appreciate a fairer world. The outcome on the debate of this specific collection of sculptures is likely to go on forever or until the oldest of stories is being told in the most holistic setting possible." 

BCRPM wish Nina all the best with her University studies.