Diary page of The Spectator, 11 March 2023, George Osborne wrotes: 

The Elgin Marbles have always been controversial. Some, like that great Romantic poet Lord Byron, thought they should never have left Greece; but at the British Museum they have been admired by tens of millions of people and I believe they play a vital role in telling the complete story of our common humanity. We trustees are exploring with the Greeks whether there’s a way to solve this 200-year-old dispute so that the sculptures can be seen both in London and Athens, while treasures currently in Greece could be seen by new audiences here. We may succeed, or we may not, but it’s worth trying. I read this week that that other great romantic, Boris Johnson, is worried about it. Surely that can’t be the same Boris who once wrote a column saying that ‘the reasons for taking the Marbles were good. The reasons for handing them back are better still. The Elgin Marbles should leave this northern whisky-drinking guilt culture, and be displayed where they belong: in a country of bright sunlight and the landscape of Achilles, “the shadowy mountains and the echoing sea”’? There must be two Borises.

Read this in The Spectator, 11 March 2023, Diary, page 9.

We would add, that tens of millions of visitors can also see the surviving Parthenon Marbles in the superlative Acropolis Museum, in Athens. A purpose-built state of the art museum which opened on 20 June 2009. The top floor, glass walled Parthenon Gallery, displays the surviving sculptures not removed by Lord Elgin's men at the start of the 19th century when Greece had no voice, and offers direct views to the Parthenon, which still stands.

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.

In Rome, yesterday, Tuesday 07 March 2023, the Vatican and Greece signed the papers for the return of three sculpture fragments from the Parthenon that have been in the collection of the Vatican Museums for two centuries.

This marks, the latest case of a Western museum returning artefacts to their country of origin, the third return for Greece's quest to reunite the Parthenon Marbles. The first was from Heidelberg, the second from Palermo and yesterday, the Vatican.

The Vatican has called the return an ecumenical “donation” to the Orthodox Christian archbishop of Athens and all Greece, not necessarily a state-to-state transfer. Will this add pressure on the British Museum to find a way forward with Greece over the fate of its much bigger collection of Parthenon sculptures? George Osborne has been quoted by a number of media outlets saying that the British Museum's wish is to 'share the sculptures' and call it a 'Parthenon Partnership'. For many, this British Museum stance continues to disregard the meaning of the sculptures in relation to the Parthenon, which still stands.  

The head of the Vatican city-state, Cardinal Fernando Vergez, signed the agreement to implement the “donation” during a private Vatican Museums ceremony, which took place yesterday with Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, and a representative of the Orthodox Christian archbishop of Athens and all Greece, His Beatitude Ieronymos II.

The envoy, Father Emmanuel Papamikroulis, told The Associated Press that the Greek Orthodox Church and archbishop were grateful to Pope Francis for this donation.

“It has taken place at a difficult time for our country, and it will hopefully provide some sense of pride and happiness. I hope this initiative is followed by others,” he said after the signing ceremony.

A celebration, and view towards a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that's diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together and collectively we celebrate all women today, on International Women's Day, and in 2023, #EmbraceEquity.

Today, we can all celebrate and raise awareness of all that  women have achieved and continue to do so.

Professor Judith Herrin, has this message: 

"On International Women's Day we remember and celebrate Melina Mercouri and Eleni Cubitt, who initiated and inspired the campaign to reunite the Parthenon Marbles. The British Committee continues their efforts led by the redoubtable Janet Suzman."

Duff Cooper Pol Roger Prize 2020 for 'Ravenna. Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe', Heineken Prize for History 2016, Constantine Leventis Senior Research Fellow, Department of Classics,King's College London and a BCRPM member for nearly 4 decades.

On 02 March, Times2 arts publish a double page article by Chloë Ashby about the 130 women that make up an outstanding collage for the National Portrait Gallery's re-opening.

"When the National Portrait Gallery reopens (22 June) after a three-year revamp, its walls will feature the creations of many more female artists, and even more female faces. Among them are 130 stencilled portraits that have been cut and painted by members of the public and brought together by the British-American pop artist Jann Haworth and her daughter, the abstract collagist Liberty Blake." 

Baroness Chakrabarti is featured on Panel 5.   

And a reminder of what Baroness Chakrabarti said last year, as valid today as it was then:

“There could not be a better moment for the Parthenon Marbles to be reunited in their Athenian home. Let us put international treasures on carefully chartered aeroplanes instead of desperate refugees,” Baroness Chakrabarti, member of BCRPM.

The British Empire has a notable history including a mastery of plundering treasures from around the world.

The most notable of which are the Parthenon Marbles, also known as the ‘Elgin Marbles’, and the others? Well, just go and have a walk around the British Museum and you will get the picture, where thousands of ‘acquired artefacts’ are on display.

The three most prominent are the marbles, Hoa Hakananai’a, and the Benin Bronzes which are wanted back by Greece, Easter Island and Nigeria respectively.

But there are also numerous Egyptian treasures on display including the fabled Rosetta Stone.

It could be argued that the august institution, the British Museum, could have its collar felt for receiving stolen goods.

Should the Old Bill be investigating a series of high-value heists, over a period of centuries, given they are not having a great time of it at the moment? While it could be difficult to track down the initial thieves, let’s face it they would be dead, there is still a lot of receiving stolen goods going on.

What are they?

The Parthenon Marbles are a series of sculptures that were originally part of the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Greece, each displaying events and legends of Greek history.

The burning question is should they be returned to their rightful homes.

Yes, says Greece in the case of the marbles, which should be housed in the Acropolis Museum in Athens. No, says the British Museum and the UK Government.

The Parthenon in Athens and the Acropolis Museum

It “would open the gateway to the question of the entire contents of our museums”, Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan said in a BBC interview in January.

She added that it would be, “a very slippery slope to go down”. She described the sculptures as “assets of our country”. Losing the ‘Elgin marbles’, according to this kind of formulation, would lead to a kind of asset-stripping of the British soul.

Yeh, right. So pilfered, plundered or stolen goods from other cultures should become part of the British soul?

Dame Jane Suzman

There are many groups and authors who believe the marbles should be repatriated, including the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM), whose chair is Dame Janet Suzman.

She was not impressed with Donelan’s comments and said: “How embarrassing that the Culture Secretary referred to them as ‘Elgin Marbles’ after the man that forcibly removed them from a building that has withstood two and half millennia of history including many wars.

“Mercifully the British Museum refers to them as the Parthenon Sculptures but George Osborne has also called them ‘Elgin Marbles’ even Mary Beard, does that and her excuse? To differentiate them from those in Athens.”

Returning to the dubious British soul quote.

Did not the attraction of the American dollar lead to the iconic, if not the most iconic, bridge over the River Thames sold?

The original London Bridge now spans a river in Arizona. It was sold 50-odd years ago and now sits in Lake Havasu City in Arizona. Selling our heritage more like.

What would Donelan be saying if some European aristocrat was able to spirit away, let’s say the Crown Jewels. After a period of time, they reappeared in a foreign museum? Let’s say the Louvre in Paris.

 
What would we say then?

Would it be: “If we bring the Crown Jewels home, it would be a slippery slope to go down and that particular country would be stripped of what had become their assets?” I doubt it.

According to the British Museum by the early 19th century, the Ottoman Empire had been the governing authority in Athens for 350 years.

Lord Elgin was the British Ambassador to the Ottomans and was granted permission to be able to draw, measure and remove some figures that might be lying on the ground.

Between 1801 and 1805 Elgin removed the best sculptures, about half of the remaining surviving sculptures from the ruins of the Parthenon.

All of Elgin’s collection of antiquities was then transported to Britain. His actions were investigated by a Parliamentary Select Committee in 1816 and found to be legal, prior to the sculptures entering the collection of the British Museum by Act of Parliament.

The museum maintains that its acquisition was a legal act of preservation.

The sad thing is, the museum is unable to display them all. It is reported that the museum has around eight million objects in its collection, of which around 80,000 are on display at any given time.

These antiquities should be returned to their rightful homes and as a gesture of goodwill, we could donate some British treasures to take up permanent residence in those countries.

How about the likes of Nigel Farage, John Cleese, Prince Andrew and Katie Hopkins?

They could, perhaps, be joined by the likes of interview genius Richard Madeley or Jeremy Clarkson, Piers Morgan, Laurence Fox, Noel Edmonds or Jeremy Corbyn. Perhaps that would be too much to inflict on anyone. Too much of a cultural shock if you like.

But returning these antiquities would right so many wrongs. Having visited Athens, the Parthenon and the Acropolis Museum there seems no better home for them

Dame Janet added: “In Athens stands a fine building especially built to house them, and this year, on 20 June, the Acropolis Museum will celebrate its 14th anniversary.

“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. What a fabulous birthday present that would be.”

Bill McCarthy article was published in the Express & Star, alongside other regional titles

Bringing together extraordinary antiquities, Islanders: The Making of the Mediterranean takes visitors on a 4,000-year journey from life in the ancient Mediterranean to today. This new exhibition opens on 24 February 2023 at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

More than 200 objects from three of the largest Mediterranean islands, Cyprus, Crete and Sardinia will be exhibited in the UK for the first time. These objects will help visitors understand the ways these island cultures reflected, and even shaped the larger Mediterranean world with the migrations and movement of peoples. And they reveal how islanders lived every day, their communities, memories, myths, art and creativity.

Highlights include striking bronze votive figurines made around 4,000 years ago by the Nuragic people of Sardinia; exquisite pottery, jewellery and bronze figures from the palaces, sanctuaries and caves of Minoan Crete; and from the sanctuary of Agia Eirini, a selection of clay-modelled humans, deities, sphinxes and horse-drawn chariots that reveal the complexities of Cypriot society in the 6th and 7th century BCE.

The exhibition, curated by Dr Anastasia Christophilopoulou in partnership with the Embassy of Greece to the United Kingdom and the High Commission of Cyprus in the United Kingdom, is part of the 'Being an Islander: Art and Identity of the Large Mediterranean Islands' project, 2019 - 2023.

The exhibition is organised in partnership with the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Greece; the Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works, Cyprus; and the National Archaeological Museum, Cagliari, Sardinia.

Yannis Andritsopoulos, UK correspondent for Ta Nea reported on the exhibition on the 12th of February with an exclusive interview, and wrote: "from Elytis, who "instilled all his ideas"  according to Byron, in the "blessed islands of Greece", to the pelagic rock that Sikelianos documented, "is covered by the flood", "and as long as life is deep and above it closes it in its unspoiled depths", the islands have always played a leading role in poetry, art, but also in the formation of our culture. This newc exhibition in Britain brings together rare ancient treasures of the Mediterranean, and attempts to highlight the pivotal role of islandism, decoding its "secrets". The exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, will be open from 24 February to 04 June 2023.

"The exhibition, which is the result of a research project we launched in 2019, aims to highlight the elements that define island identities in the Mediterranean. We explored how insularity affected everyday life, art and creation, community building and population movements. At the same time, we created a platform for the study of cultural evolution on the islands," Anastasia Christofilopoulou, curator of the exhibition and lead researcher of the "Being an Islander" programme of Cambridge University, explained to Ta Nea.

Raw materials, utensils, tools, ritual objects and symbols tell the true story of islandism in the depths of the centuries.

"They also reveal how creative, adaptive and inventive the islanders are. The two hundred unique objects "speak" about the, sudden or gradual, intense or imperceptible, changes that contributed to the creation and preservation of the identity of the islanders. On this journey, we invite visitors to discover their own identity," explains Dr Christofilopoulou, who is also curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum's Greek, Roman and Cypriot Collection and teaches Archaeology at Cambridge.

To book, visit: https://tickets.museums.cam.ac.uk/overview/6080