Johnson's contradictions on the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles causes reactions.

The British media, politicians, academics and campaigners welcomed the revelation in Ta Nea about the letters from 1986 of the current Prime Minister, which are in favour for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece. Report by Yannis Andritsopoulos, UK Correspondent for Ta Nea in today's edition of the paper, Monday 04 July 2022.  

Reactions in Britain after the revelation by Ta Nea's weekend news of the letters that Boris Johnson wrote to the then Greek Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri, in 1986. The  letters declared Johnson's support for Greece's request for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures. Written between March and April 1986, by the then 22-year-old President of the Oxford Union, the letters denounced the 'scandalous' attitude of the British government and admitted that Lord Elgin extracted the ancient Greek artifacts without permission.

Leading British media reported extensively on the issue, while British politicians and academics spoke to Ta Nea, and pointed out the 'hypocrisy' of the British Prime Minister.  The Observer article witten by Helena Smith, Sunday 03 July, quotes Johnson's letters:

“If the motion was successful, and I am sure that it would be, it would be a clear message to the British government that their policy is unacceptable to cultured people,” he wrote on 10 March 1986, inviting the actor turned politician to address the union in June that year.

“I think the majority of students agree with me when I say there is absolutely no reason why the Elgin marbles, superlatively the most important and beautiful treasures left to us by the ancient world, should not be returned immediately from the British Museum to their rightful home in Athens.”

And Helena Smith goes on to add:

Johnson has always acknowledged the significance to Greece of carvings regarded as the high point of classical art. But in the ensuing years, his tune would change dramatically. Both as London’s mayor and prime minister he has echoed the long-standing position of successive British governments that the antiquities “were legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the appropriate laws of the time”.

The Sunday Telegraph heads up its report: "Boris Johnson denounced Government for not returning Elgin Marbles, 1986 letters reveal" and points to the contradiction in Johnson's stance then and now. "Only last year he categorically rejected any talks on the return of the ancient marbles to Greece, insisting that they will remain in Britain because they have been legally acquired. However, in letters published by the Greek newspaper Ta Nea, Boris Johnson passionately supported the return of the Marbles, accusing Lord Elgin of widespread looting."

In his Telegraph report, Patrick Sawer points out that Johnson "unreservedly sided with the Greek government's campaign for the reunification of  the marbles" and adds that "supporters of the return of the Marbles have stated that the disclosure of the letters will put pressure on the British government to conclude an agreement with Athens." The publication states that if Britain gave back the Sculptures, Greece would in return, among other things, lend the golden mask of Agamemnon found in the royal tombs of Mycenae and the bronze statue of Zeus of Artemision.

The Artlys also carried the Ta Nea article , and with the heading: 'Boris Johnson Denounced UK Government Over Parthenon Marbles. What About Now?'.

On April 16, 1986, Johnson sent a second letter to the Greek culture minister, insisting that “the issue of the Elgin Marbles (…) has been handled with sophistry and intransigence by the British government”.

“Since the discovery of Elgin’s letter of 1811, the Government’s position has grown even shakier,” he stressed.

Lord Elgin had previously received a letter from the former British Ambassador to Constantinople, Robert Adair, which suggested that Elgin had not acquired the marbles legitimately. A 2002 BBC News report noted that Adair’s letter “could help resolve the row between Britain and Greece over the Elgin Marbles.”

In today's Ta Nea, statements including Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, a current member of the House of Lords, and BCRPM member: “Boris Johnson’s legendary shape-shifting has been at the expense of Greece, the United Kingdom and so many people in his personal and public lives. The elite student politician courted the Greek Embassy with his efforts to return the Parthenon Marbles to Athens, just as the candidate for London Mayor once championed justice, rights and freedoms. As Prime Minister he has torn up his promises to Greece and proposes to tear up the UK’s Human Rights Act for good measure.”

"Moralism is cheap. Things really change when you're in power. That's where you show if what you claimed was right, you also put into practice," John Tasioulas, professor of Ethics and Law at Oxford University, and a BCRPM member, told Ta Nea.

Janet Suzman as Chair of BCRPM also sent a statement to Ta Nea: "thanks to Ta Nea, we were thrilled to read how strongly Johnson once condemned the theft of these sculptures. Today, our Prime Minister changes his mind when it suits him, and seems to have forgotten the youthful anger he felt over the injury caused to the Parthenon by Elgin. At the same time, we welcomed the article in the Times and statements on the BBC made by Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, that British museum law must be changed to ensure that museums can decide for themselves whether to return stolen items to their countries of origin. This is the most important statement made to date by the director of a London British museum, which must have consequences," Suzman  concludes, referring to the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

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Today, Saturday July 2nd 2022, on the BBC’s one o’clock News, the Director of the V&A, Tristram Hunt, was quoted as saying that the de-accession instruments, preventing the return of those objects from British Museums that should be returned when requested, have to be changed. They are ’No longer fit for purpose’ he said.

Big words, true words. This, the most significant statement yet made by the Director of a very major British museum, must have consequences. Who cares if our light-weight Prime Minister, who, like the Vicar of Bray, whistles the tune that suits the prevailing political singsong, has forgotten his once youthful outrage about the injury done to the Parthenon by Lord Elgin? Those days of Boris Johnson telling the truth are long gone. Although it is a joy to read how strongly he once felt about the stealing of the Marbles and well done to Yannis Andritsopoulos for uncovering the story.

But now the Trustees of the British Museum must get their heads together and break the shackles preventing the just return of Greece’s precious heritage to Athens. The time is come.

Janet Suzman,  Chair for the BCRPM

To listen to Tristram Hunt speaking about Cultural Diplomacy at Art for Tomorrow's panel in Athens last month, kindly follow the link here.

More on Tristram Hunt's call for for UK government to be stripped of its power to block the return of objects looted during the colonial era  in The Times, article by Arts Correspondent David Sanderson, also on Saturday, 02 July, 2022.

The British Museum Act 1963 prohibits it returning objects, although the government has disputed this and has said it is up to the museum’s trustees.

Restitution claims are being made to British cultural institutions whose collections contain thousands of artefacts taken under duress or by force during the colonial period. Britain and Greece continue to dispute the division of the sculptures from the Parthenon, which have been in the British Museum for more than two centuries and with no official permission granted by the Ottomans for Lord Elgin to remove what he did during the start of the 19th century. Originally destined for his ancestral home, these sculptures were sold to the UK government in 1816 and contnue to be displayed inwards, in Room 18, the Duveen Gallery of the British Museum. The BCRPM has campaigned for nearly 4 decades that these sculptures deserve to be reunited with their other surviving halves in Athens. On 20 June 2022, the Acropolis Mueum celebrated its 13th anniversary. At the May 2022, UNESCO's ICPRCP meeting held in Paris, Deputy Director of the DCMS, Helen Whitehouse and the deputy director of the British Museum, Jonathan Williams firmly supported the current division of the sculptures.

The British museums declined to confirm to The Times how many restitution claims have been made by nations wishing to assert their rightful ownership of items held in UK collections. In April Glasgow city council voted to return 17 Benin bronze artefacts looted in west Africa in the 19th century. 

Boris Johnson was once such a fervent supporter of the Parthenon Marbles being returned to Athens that he wrote to the Greek culture minister to denounce the British government for not giving back the antiquities.

Greek daily newspaper Ta Nea brought to light today previously unseen and unpublished letters, written in 1986, when Johnson was an undergraduate at Oxford University and Oxford Union president.

In the notes, the future British Prime Minister argued passionately for the ancient sculptures’ “immediate” repatriation, accusing the British government of “sophistry and intransigence”.

Johnson, then 21, went as far as claiming that the British government’s policy on the Parthenon Marbles was “unacceptable to cultured people,” and lamented the “scandalous” way it was handling the issue.

He wrote two letters to the then Greek minister for culture, late actor Melina Mercouri, in which he sided unreservedly with the Greek government’s campaign for the relics to be reunited.

He also cited a letter which proves that Lord Elgin removed the sculptures from the Parthenon in the early 19th century without securing legal permission to do so, arguing that its revelation had made the British government’s position “even shakier.”

Despite his enthusiasm for the Marbles’ return as a student, Johnson has refused to countenance such a move during his time as Prime Minister, sticking to the same position as the British government he criticised so heavily in 1986. Last November, Johnson rebuffed a direct request by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for the Marbles to be repatriated.

In an exclusive interview with Ta Nea published in March 2021, the British premier claimed that the Parthenon Sculptures “were legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the appropriate laws of the time.”

This claim contradicts Johnson’s statement in 1986 that “the Turkish authorities denied ‘that the persons who had sold those marbles to [Elgin] had any right to dispose of them’.” Johnson accused Lord Elgin of “wholesale pillage” of the Parthenon, arguing that the Scottish peer exploited the “near anarchy” of the Ottoman Empire to remove the carvings.

The letters were found in an Oxford library. Their authenticity has been confirmed by an Oxford source and someone who served as a Greek state official at the time.

Their unearthing comes six months after Ta Nea found a forgotten article written by Johnson in April 1986, in which he urged the British government to return the artefacts to Greece, arguing that they had been unlawfully removed from the ancient temple in Athens.

British government sources tried to downplay the extent of Johnson’s U-turn, arguing that the 21-year-old classics student wrote the now-famous article in a momentary outburst of youthful enthusiasm, but he later changed his mind.

However, the revelation of two letters with similar content indicates that this was not a "momentary" event; the future head of the British government seemed to be devoted to the repatriation cause, knowing - and providing evidence to support it - that the sculptures were removed from the Parthenon without permission.

Athens has campaigned to have the 2,500-year-old artefacts returned from the British Museum since they were removed by Lord Elgin when he was Britain’s ambassador to the Sublime Porte. At the time, Greece was under Ottoman rule.

Johnson invited Mercouri, who became culture minister after an illustrious acting career, to speak in a debate at the Oxford Union on 12 June 1986, entitled: “[This house believes] that the Elgin Marbles Must be Returned to Athens.” He said it would be “a marvellous evening for the cause”. The chamber voted 167 to 85 in favour of the Marbles’ restitution.

In his first letter, dated March 10, 1986, the future Prime Minister and Conservative leader informed Mercouri that “it is my firm intention to hold a debate on an issue that is scandalously handled by the British government, and which I believe to be of great importance.”

He went on to say that “I think the majority of students agree with me when I say that there is absolutely no reason why the Elgin Marbles, superlatively the most important and beautiful treasures left to us by the ancient world, should not be returned immediately from the British Museum to their rightful home in Athens.”

He added that he believed Mercouri would win the vote, something that would send a clear message to Whitehall: “If the motion was successful, and I am sure that it would be, it would be a clear message to the British government that their policy is unacceptable to cultured people. I believe that it would be an important step in your campaign.”

On April 16, 1986, Johnson sent a second letter to the Greek culture minister, insisting that “the issue of the Elgin Marbles (…) has been handled with sophistry and intransigence by the British government”.

“Since the discovery of Elgin’s letter of 1811, the Government’s position has grown even shakier,” he stressed.

The said letter was written on July 31st, 1811, by Lord Elgin and addressed to the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval. “My successors in the Embassy could not obtain permission for the removal of what I had not myself taken away. And on Mr Adair's being officially instructed to apply in my favour, he understood, ‘The Porte denied that the persons who had sold those marbles to me had any right to dispose of them’,” Elgin wrote.

Lord Elgin had previously received a letter from the former British Ambassador to Constantinople, Robert Adair, which suggested that Elgin had not acquired the marbles legitimately. A 2002 BBC News report noted that Adair’s letter “could help to resolve the row between Britain and Greece over the Elgin Marbles.”

Johnson ended his letter by reassuring Mercouri that the result of the debate “will be a foregone conclusion”. He added: “This will be a great event and a marvellous evening for the cause.”

“On March 21, 1986, under the instructions of Greek ambassador Stefanos Stathatos, I, along with embassy press officer Peter Thompson, and three members of the BCRPM, met with Johnson in Oxford to discuss the debate’s details. He was very receptive and sympathetic to our cause. He later fully adopted the points we sent him on the reunification of the sculptures," Dr Victoria Solomonidis, who was Cultural Counsellor at the Greek Embassy in London for 30 years, told Ta Nea.

“Years later, when he was mayor of London, I met him in his office accompanying ambassador Konstantinos Bikas. I reminded him of the 1986 debate and gave him a framed picture of him next to Mercouri. He smiled, and changed the subject,” added Solomonidis, member of the Melina Mercouri Foundation’s Board of Directors.

In search of ‘cheap ouzo and retsina’

On April 15, 1986, Johnson wrote to Peter Thompson, a press officer at the Greek embassy in London, asking for his help to find “cheap ouzo and retsina”, two of the most famous Greek alcoholic drinks.

“On the day before the debate we will be having a large and splendid party. To make the thing go with a swing, we are in search of cheap ouzo and retsina. I was informed that it might be feasible to obtain it through the Embassy. Could you possibly advise?” Johnson wrote.

The event, titled “The glory that was Greece”, took place on Wednesday 11 June. According to the Oxford Union’s term card, it was a toga party held in the union’s garden.

The term card read: “Come trip it nymphs and dryad maids withal. We bring lashings of the gift of Dionysus, ouzo, lamb souvlaki, and a cornucopia of Greek delicacies to the lyrical strains of a Greek band.”

Article written by Yannis Andritsopoulos for Ta Nea, published on Saturday, 02 July 2022 

On Sunday, June 26, 2022, the Director General of the Acropolis Museum, Prof. Nikos Stampolidis, welcomed and toured with great pleasure in the exhibition spaces of the Museum Desmond Child, Alice Cooper, Rita Wilson, The Rasmus, Kip Winger, Chris Willis, Andreas Carlsson, Tabitha Fair, Phoebus, Sakis Rouvas and Giorgos Lempesis, in the framework of the DESMOND CHILD ROCKS THE PARTHENON, a concert due to take place tonight, Monday 27 June 2022 at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, to support the #ReuniteParthenon, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Athens.

On the introductory page for the session on Who Really Owns Art,  Art for Tomorrow's site states:

As the world undergoes unprecedented change, people are searching for meaning. By grappling with core societal issues, the arts can help define that meaning, frame it and inspire change.

Moderated by senior New York Times journalists, the world-class AFT program will bring together practitioners, experts and activists to explore the social impact of the arts. In addition, attendees will explore Athens’s eclectic artistic landscape, venturing into the city’s museums, galleries, performance spaces and artist studios to see the arts in action. Delegates can then move to the island of Hydra, and the opening of Jeff Koons’s project at the DESTE Foundation’s Slaughterhouse.

Sessions included: The Athens Effect; The Art of Diplomacy; The NFT Revolution; Art and Sustainability: Friends and Foes; Who Really Owns Art and More.

To view the programme and speakers, please visit: https://www.artfortomorrow.org/event-information/past-events/2022. You will also find the recodings of the sessions on the same site or on youtube.

The Panel debating 'Who Really Owns Art?' a complex question surrounding restitution issues faced by many museums, was Tristram Hunt, Tiffany Jenkins, Victor Ehikhamenor, moderated by Farah Nayeri. Sadly Director General of the Acropolis Museum, Nikos Stampolidis was unable to deliver his address, which was read out by Kim Connif Taber, Eitorial Director, Democracy and Culture Foundation.To watch the video, follow the link here.

Farah Nayeri, Culture Writer, The New York Times, has written a book which was published at the end of February this year, entitled,'Takedown: Art and Power in the Digital Age'.

The year that passed (June 2021 - June 2022) has proved to be a significantly important one for the Acropolis Museum, as the Museum continued its operation uninterruptedly throughout the year, taking into account,  the constraints created by the relevant health protocols. Despite the challenges, the number of its visitors, internationally and from Greece, reached almost 1 million, reflecting the love and dedication of the general public towards the Museum. The election, by an International Committee of Professor Nikolaos Stampolidis as the first General Director of the Museum in early June 2021 was also timely. Professor Stampolidis took over his duties in September of the same year. A person with knowledge, spirit and vision, who continues the highly successful work of the Museum and expands its activities.

Regarding the reunification of the architectural sculptures of the Parthenon, the great success came on 29 September 2021 at the 22nd session of the Intergovernmental Committee of UNESCO for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin. For the first time in 37 years of continuous recommendations by the Committee, a Decision was taken which, in addition to the legal, right and ethical aspect of the Greek request, also recognizes its transnational/ intergovernmental character. This decision, which was accompanied direct dialogue of the Greek Prime Minister to his British counterpart, proceeded to the United Nations in December of the same year.

In January 2022, the renowned “Fagan fragment” from the A. Salinas Museum in Palermo returns in the form of a deposit to the Acropolis Museum and is placed in a special showcase.In less than five months, on 29 May 2022, the “Fagan fragment” is returned to the Acropolis Museum by Decree of the Sicilian Authorities and its export certification by the Italian Ministry of Culture, and on 04 June 2022 it is repositioning in the east frieze of the Parthenon, as a permanent return. The Fagan fragment is the first fragment of a Parthenon sculpture that returns from state to state in the Acropolis Museum and is reunited, setting the example that both the British Museum and the British Parliament could follow, if there is the will to reunify the Parthenon sculptures.

The Acropolis Museum also published an upgraded version of the online application www.parthenonfrieze.gr, with photographs and descriptions of all the frieze blocks preserved today in the Acropolis Museum and  elsewhere. The upgrade of the application was developed thanks to the collaboration of the Museum, the Acropolis Restoration Service and the National Center for Documentation & Electronic Content.

Other than the events taking place every year, the Museum opened up to younger generations with a series of activities, such as the gallery talks “Hidden stories of diaspora”, “Saturday in the Museum with 20+1 masterpieces” and “Marathon-Salamis. In traces of myth and history”. The Museum also opened its doors to special groups with the programme for refugees “A museum open to all”, while it created the new family pamphlet “The Parthenon Sculptures. 6 short stories of separation”.  At the same time, the Museum renewed its educational programmes, offering schools nine thematic options and an online tour.      

The Museum offered different experiences to its visitors, with dance performances in the exhibition areas in collaboration with the Greek National Opera and its participation in the 1st Sacred Music Festival, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the Museum organized in collaboration with the Marianna V. Vardinoyannis Foundation the unique event in the Parthenon Gallery “The expatriate goddesses of the Parthenon”, with a presentation of ancient poetry and music, composed by Lena Platonos and performed by Maria Farantouri, (and BCRPM would add, a keynote speech by Tom Flynn). Finally, the Museum started a new collaboration with the Municipality of the City of Athens, with its participation in the “This is Athens City Festival”, where it organized two great evenings of wine tasting and jazz at the restaurant terrace, and also a gallery talk about the Museum exhibits related to the ancient diet.

On the day of its birthday, 20 June 2022, the Acropolis Museum inaugurated the new exhibition program “Των Αθήνηθεν άθλων. Panathenaic amphorae from Toronto, Canada back to their birthplace”, with two exquisite vessels from the Royal Ontario Museum. This is a cultural exchange taking place simultaneously with the presentation “From Athens to Toronto: A Greek Masterpiece Revealed” at the Royal Ontario Museum where the Acropolis Kore 670 is on display from March 2022.

The presentation of the two amphorae took place in a ceremony in the emblematic Parthenon Gallery, presence of the Minister of Culture and Sports, Mrs. Lina Mendoni, the Secretary General of Culture, Mr. George Didaskalou, the Ambassador of Canada, Mr. Marc Allen, the Acropolis Museum President of the Board of Directors, Prof. Dimitris Pandermalis, the General Director of the Acropolis Museum, Prof. Nikos Stampolidis and the Curator of Greek, Etruscan, Roman & Byzantine Collections of the Royal Ontario Museum, Mr. Paul Denis.