That Greek temples and sculptures were coloured, both with 'applied' polychromy (paint) and 'natural' polychromy (the use of naturally coloured materials such as gold and ivory), has been known for centuries. So it was surprising to see a flurry of articles last week (11 October) praising the British Museum for new research that makes this discovery exciting.

Paul Cartledge, Vice-Chair of BCRPM was disappointed that the articles had not credited the Acropolis Museum also.

The articles were published in The Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian and The Daily Mail.

Professor Anthony Snodgrass, Honorary President of BCRPM, had released this statement in 2009, the press release issued then, can also be read here. 

Anthony Snodgrass, in 2009, said : "The original presence of colour on the Parthenon Marbles has been a matter of common knowledge for years. What is more, ordinary viewers can still see, with their own eyes, traces of it (in this case, dark green) surviving on the drapery in at least one of the original slabs, from the West Frieze of the Parthenon, which is in the new museum in Athens. It hardly needs "a new imaging technique" to tell us what we can see for ourselves.”

In 2023, Anthony added:

'It was, I think, a Daily Telegraph journalist who described the new Acropolis Museum, before it was actually built, as 'a hideous visitor centre in Athens'. Perhaps it's asking too much for that newspaper to reconsider this judgment; but there might at least be some acknowledgment that this story of this 'huge breakthrough' by the British Museum, was first launched, in similar form, in 2009; and that even then it could be pointed out that the same Acropolis Museum holds at least one slab, from the Parthenon West Frieze, where you can still see the traces of coloured pigment, on one draped figure', with the naked eye.'

Is this news story published on the 11th of October 2023 more British Museum propaganda or just a diversionary story?

From Athens' Acropolis Museum, and the Director General of the museum Professor Sampolidis, a letterto BCRPM when we asked him about the polychromy of the sculptures.

We also reflect on Tom Flynn's writing, published fifteen years ago:

For generations it has been common knowledge among art historians and archaeologists that the Parthenon and its sculptures would originally have been decorated. Lawrence Alma-Tadema's painting of 1868 — Pheidias and the Parthenon Frieze— depicts the sculptor showing Athenian citizens around his team's handiwork high up on the scaffold.

By the mid-nineteenth century, a lively debate was raging in British scholarly circles over the question of polychromy, the colouring of sculpture.

Today, even virtual reality reconstructions of the Parthenon use nineteenth-century sources such as Benoit Loviot's Cross-Section of the Parthenon of 1879-81 (Ecole des Beaux-Arts Paris) as their guide to the use of colour on the Parthenon. These late nineteenth-century sources were themselves drawing on much earlier research by architects such as Jacques-Ignace Hittorff (1792-1867) and Quatremère de Quincy (1755-1849) which had established beyond doubt that Greek temples and sculptures were coloured, both with 'applied' polychromy (paint) and 'natural' polychromy (the use of naturally coloured materials such as gold and ivory).

Today, Thursday 19 October, Yannis Andritsopoulos, London correspondent for Greek newspaper Ta Nea has published his article, and you can read the original online here or the translation into English. 

23 May 2020, Athens, Greece

Greece's  Minister of Culture and Sport,  Lina Mendoni restated the long-standing request for the British Museum to return the Parthenon Marbles, ahead of the 11th anniversary of the Acropolis Museum.

The British Museum in London continues to refuse to return the Parthenon Marbles. The 2,500-year-old sculptures were forcibly removed from the Parthenon, by British diplomat Lord Elgin in the early 19th century when Greece was under Ottoman Turkish rule.

Prior to the opening of the Acropolis Museum on 20 June 2009,  the British Museum had argued that Greece had 'no where to display' the Parthenn Marbles. Now nearly 11 years since the purpose-built Acropolis Museum was opened  to house the antiquities from the Acropolis, the British Museum continues to argue that the sculptures in London are best viewed in London as they can be seen in the context of world cultures.

On 24 January 2019, Ioannis Andritsopoulos, Ta Nea's UK correspondent , interviewed British Mumseum Director, Hartwig Fischer who said: "since the beginning of the 19th century, the monument’s history is enriched by the fact that some (parts of it) are in Athens and some are in London where six million people see them every year. In each of these two locations they highlight different aspects of an incredibly rich, layered and complex history."

"People go to some places to encounter cultural heritage that was created for that site. They go to other places to see cultural heritage which has been moved and offers a different way to engage with that heritage. The British Museum is such a place, it offers opportunities to engage with the objects differently and ask different questions because they are placed in a new context.We should cherish that opportunity." Concluded Dr Fischer.

On Sunday 23 February 2020,  the then Deputy Editor of the Sunday Times, Sarah Baxter wrote her modest proposal for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, aptly entitled: "The sane move is to give Greece back its Elgin marbles".

The first 'modet proposal' was written by Christopher Hitchens (pages 104 to 106) in the third edition of 'The Parthenon, The Case for Reunification'published by Verso in May 2008 and launched at Chatham House, London by the BCRPM. The second was written by Stephen Fry in 2011, you can read that heretoo.

Dr Fischer responded to Sarah Baxter's article with a letter to the Sunday Times, which was publish Sunday 01 March 2020:

Greeks should be glad we have the marbles

Sarah Baxter’s column on the Parthenon sculptures asks us to imagine how we would feel if Big Ben had been transplanted to Athens (“The sane move is to give Greece back its marbles”, Comment, last week). This is to ignore the many buildings and artworks that have been reused, reshaped and often moved across borders, such as Duccio’s altarpiece the Maesta, elements of which have been removed from Siena cathedral and are held in museums across Europe and America.

The Parthenon sculptures are fragments of a lost whole that cannot be put back together. Only about 50% of the original sculptures survive from antiquity. The Parthenon has become a European monument precisely because its sculptures can be seen not only in Athens but in London and other European cities. The public benefit of this distribution and what it means for our shared cultural inheritance is self-evident, and something to celebrate.

Minister of Culture for Greece, Dr Lina Mendoni  responded by saying that Dr Fischer's letter was as “unfortunate, if not outright unacceptable.” To read one of the article's quoting Dr Mendoni, follow the link here.

As expected, this was not well received by most, not just in the UK but elsewhere too. Yannis Andritsopoulos, London Correspondent for Ta Nea, Greece's daily newspaper, wrote an article following on from Dr Fischer's letter to the Sunday Times, quoting a number of BCRPM members including Janet Suzman, Alex Benakis, Dr Peter Thonemann and Professor John Tasioulas.

Dr Mendoni insists that “it is time for the British Museum to reconsider its stance ahead of the Acropolis Museum’s next birthday, which is on 20 June 2020. Does it want to be a museum that meets and will continue to meet modern requirements and speak to the soul of the people, or will it remain a colonial museum which intends to hold treasures of world cultural heritage that do not belong to it?” Smilar words were used by Dame Janet Suzman during her participation in the Cambridge Union debate on 25 April 2019. You can read Janet's speech here.

Minister Mendoni urged the International Committees (IARPS) to continue to support this long standing request as they also continue to support the Greek government in their quest for the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

Congratulations to Chris Froome on winning this year's Tour de France. 

Chris also won the 2013 and 2015 races and is the first to successfully defend his title in more than 20 years. He finished this years epic race, arm-in-arm with his team-mates behind the peloton after Andre Greipel won the final sprint finish.

Cycling has also featured in the campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. Three very different and very dedicated individuals, share their passion for cycling with a deep desire to see this peerless work of art reunited in the Acropolis Museum, in Athens, Greece.

Currently the surviving Parthenon marbles are mainly (and almost equally) divided between two great museums - the British Museum in London, where their collection has been displayed for 200 years and the Acropolis Museum in Athens, which recently celebrated it's seventh year. It is in Athens, that the sculptures can be seen in the context of the Parthenon itself.  

Decades of campaigning and centuries of requests to do the 'right' thing and return these fragmented sculptures has resulted in the main reason stopping the British Museum  from doing the right thing. In the BM, these sculptures form part of world history. Over six millions visitors  to the British Museum are  shown how they should 'see' history in the context of other objects and their stories.

Back to cycling. Healthy past time for many (of all ages) and a leading sport for many more. But how did three individuals bring cycling into the campaign for the reunification?

We have to start with the outstanding Dr Christopher Stockdale, a long serving BCRPM member, inspired by Anne Mustoe. He bravely cycled from the courtyard of the British Museum on 15 April 2005 to the foot of the Acropolis in Athens and made his way with his bike all the way to the Parthenon. It took Chris 3 weeks, 3 days, 5 hours and 26.6 minutes to complete this cycle. More on this story here.

On Tuesday 01 July 2014, Dr Luca Lo Siccoembarked on his first bicycle trip from the British Museum, across Europe to Greece and the Acropolis Museum, where he donated his bicycle to the museum. Professor Pandermalis, President of the Acropolis Museum sent him this letter. 

Luca continued his cycling the following year to Copenhagen, Denmark. It is here, in the National Museum of Denmark, there are two heads missing from a metope, which is in  the British Museum in London.

On 02 July 2014, the edition of the Yorkshire Post Life & Style Magazine, carried an article on formidable octagenerian, Michelle Patrax Evans. Also a keen cyclist, Michelle lives in Leeds and was looking forward to the tour de France of 2014 but she has been passionate about the sculptures from the Parthenon for decades.

Before her interview with journalist Sarah Freeman, Michelle frantically made contact to ask, was cycling a part of the campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles! And was delighted to find out that its is.

Cannot describe Michelle's response when we did exlain that Dr Chris Stockdale had made an amazing trip in 2005 before the Acropolis Museum had opened and that Luca, a University lecturer living in Britain was embarking on the same journey on the 1st of July 2014.

The Yorkshire Post Life & Stylemagazine can be viewed on line and a small selected part of the article can be viewed here

And with cycling playing a significant role for campaigners of the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, we would like to add our heartfelt congratulations to Chris Froomeon winning the Tour de France yesterday and for the third time. A great achievement.

25 November 2021, Guardian Saturday magazine

Edith Pritchett, Cartoonist on Millennial Life and visiting a Museum

An exclusive by UK Correspondent Yannis Andritsopoulos in Ta Nea.

Experts believe that the British Museum has made a “massive shift” in its policy regarding the loaning of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, possibly opening the way for the first constructive discussions on the artefacts’ return after decades of dead-ends.

In what appears to be a softening of its earlier stance, a museum spokesperson told Greek daily newspaper Ta Nea that borrowers “normally” acknowledge that the lender has title to the objects they want to borrow.

This is significant because until now, the museum has insisted that the acceptance of the lending institution’s ownership is a “precondition” for any loan.

However, when questioned by Ta Nea, the museum’s spokesperson stopped short of reiterating the word “precondition”, used by the museum for many years, repeatedly nixing the concerted campaign for the Marbles’ return Greece has been carrying out since the 1980s. Instead, the spokesperson replaced “precondition” with the word “normally”.

Experts in art and museum law and cultural heritage, British campaigners and Greek officials said that the new language marks an “important shift” and indicates that the museum is taking a step back by demonstrating a “greater openness” towards negotiating a possible loan with Greece.

Successive Greek governments have rejected offers from the British Museum to discuss the possibility of returning the 2,500-year-old sculptures on loan, arguing that it would mean renouncing any Greek claim to Phidias’s masterpieces, which have been in London for more than two centuries.

The British Museum claims to have legal title to the fifth-century B.C. antiquities. Greece, however, insists that the museum possesses the sculptures illegally and has been demanding their permanent reunification with the rest of the Parthenon frieze.

The apparent softening of the museum’s wording made some experts and lawyers think that the UK might be open for discussion about a loan without the once non-negotiable precondition of acknowledging ownership.

The museum has always said in written statements that “a pre-condition for any loan is the acceptance of the lending institution’s ownership”.

Last week, however, a British Museum spokesperson told Ta Nea that the borrowing institution “normally” acknowledges the museum’s ownership of the object they wish to borrow.

Asked three times whether it still stands by its previous statement, the spokesperson declined to answer.

“All loan requests are considered in exactly the same way. Of primary importance is the conservation of historical significant and delicate objects and whether travel would impact on their condition,” the museum said in a written statement.

“Borrowers also normally acknowledge that the lender has title to the objects they want to borrow. The Greek government doesn’t agree that the British Museum has title to the Sculptures which makes discussion of loans very difficult,” the spokesperson added.

‘Major shift’

“This is a major shift – and an admission in part – in the carefully calibrated language of diplomacy,” leading cultural property lawyer Mark Stephens told Ta Nea.

“This marks a changing of the guard at the British Museum and a softening of their stance, indicating a desire to do the ‘right thing’: return the marbles,” he added.

Stephens, an expert on museum, art, and cultural heritage law, explained that “previously, the museum had been very clear about not allowing the Marbles to go; it was always a complete blockage. But now it appears that that's no longer the case. I think they're drawing the distinction between their own previous position and the current one”.

He said: “they’re saying that loan requests are considered in light of three subjects: Historical significance, delicacy and whether they would be damaged in transit. Obviously, the Acropolis Museum in Athens meets those three criteria.”

“Previously, there was a certainty; that a precondition for a loan was that the Greek government had to acknowledge the British Museum's ownership. Now, they're saying that borrowers also ‘normally’ acknowledge ownership, so they’re saying ‘we don't always require this’. They're not saying that it is a precondition anymore. So, what you are seeing is a massive shift. They're opening the door,” said Stephens, who has been twice listed among the “100 most influential people in London” by the Evening Standard newspaper.

“They also say that the Greek government doesn't agree that the British Museum is the legal owner, which makes discussions of loans ‘very difficult’, but not impossible”, he added.

“I think there is a difference here, and I think it's a very marked difference. And so I think now is the time to begin the discussion and see if they're as good as their word,” Stephens said.

A Greek official noted that the new wording "potentially gives some leeway as to how the two parties could negotiate the reunification of the Sculptures through a Palermo-style solution".

Last month, a marble fragment that once adorned the Parthenon was returned to the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Stone VI on the eastern frieze of the Parthenon was previously held by the Antonino Salinas Regional Archeological Museum in Palermo, Italy. According to the Greek government, the fragment was returned as a “long-term deposit (‘deposito’)”, which means that ownership was not mentioned in the agreement.

‘Greater openness’

“I think (the new language) marks a slight but very important shift in the British Museum's position,” Alexander Herman, Director of the UK-based Institute of Art and Law and author of the recent book Restitution - The Return of Cultural Artefacts told Ta Nea.

“For a long time, the British Museum referred to the 'pre-condition' that Greece accept the Trustees’ title before a loan could be considered. This pre-condition was always unusual, since nowhere else was it required by the British Museum: it isn't referred to in the British Museum's Loans Policy, meaning that it would not have been a requirement for borrowers other than Greece,” he said.

According to Herman, “the new language is more in keeping with how loans usually work at the British Museum and elsewhere. It might be assumed that borrowers will accept a lender's title (otherwise why would they borrow?), but one never sees this expressly worded in a loan agreement.”

“In fact, in most cases one sees the opposite: lenders warrant that they have title to borrowers, since borrowers usually need assurances to avoid the risk of third-party claims during the course of an exhibition.”

He said: “So the new wording is certainly less categorical and appears to indicate a greater openness on the part of the British Museum to negotiate around the possibility of a loan. This is sensible. In Chapter 2 of my book, I show an example of a long-term loan secured by a Canadian First Nations group from the British Museum in 2005 that is still in place today. So there is precedent, even though it might only relate to a single object.”

“I realise that in Greece the idea of recognising the British Museum's title and of accepting a loan are unwelcome, but as I wrote in The Art Newspaper in 2019 there are ways of putting title aside, so as to avoid any political fallout. And a loan was acceptable in the case of the Artemis foot from Palermo, so there appears to at least be some tolerance for the L-word in Greece,” Herman concluded.

“‘Normally’ is always put into such statements in cases where there's a (no matter how remote) possibility of the 'norm' being violated, i.e. an exception to it being made. Therefore, the Greek Government could seek to take advantage of the possibility of an exception. But I would guess that the British Museum’s Trustees would not be willing to make an exception in such a case as the Marbles and moreover in favour of another state's Government,” Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture emeritus at the University of Cambridge and Vice-Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM), told Ta Nea.

Growing pressure

Several recent repatriations of artefacts whose ownership has been in question has led to pressure being ratcheted up on the British Museum to follow suit.

The Parthenon Sculptures are regarded as some of the finest ever works of art and a symbol of the birth of Western civilisation. The campaign for their return was boosted by the recent about-turn by The Times, which argued for the ancient treasures to be returned to Greece. The newspaper had maintained for more than 50 years that the marbles should remain in the UK.

Ed Vaizey, who served as Culture minister under David Cameron, has also said that the Marbles should go back to Greece. In repeated polls, Britons have voiced support for the repatriation of the carvings.

Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, has been accused of hypocrisy after Ta Nea unearthed a 1986 article in which he accused Lord Elgin of “wholesale pillage” of the Parthenon and urged the British government to return the artefacts to Greece in a complete reversal of the position he now holds.

In an exclusive interview with Ta Nea published in March 2021, Johnson claimed that the Parthenon Marbles “were legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the appropriate laws of the time and have been legally owned by the British Museum’s Trustees since their acquisition.”

Asked if it would consider returning the Parthenon Marbles to Athens permanently and displaying identical copies in London (as was recently suggested by the Oxford-based Institute for Digital Archaeology and by two members of the House of Lords), the British Museum’s spokesperson told Ta Nea:

“The Parthenon Sculptures play a pivotal role in telling a world story at the British Museum. Together with the wider collection, they help modern-day audiences see how the world they know is shaped by the past. Millions of people visit each year to learn the stories of people and cultures from the earliest moments of human history to the present day”.

“There are replicas of the British Museum’s Sculptures in the Acropolis Museum, where they are displayed alongside the remaining sculptures removed from the Parthenon during the past few decades,” the spokesperson added.

“The British Museum’s purpose is to prompt debate, thought, understanding and learning. Only 50% of the Parthenon sculptures survive today, with much lost to history. Now two great museums share custodianship of the majority of the surviving sculptures. The British Museum is confident that these two institutions have well-defined roles.”

Asked about the possibility of a loan, the museum’s spokesperson said: “We have never been asked for a loan of the Parthenon sculptures by Greece or the Acropolis Museum. We have a strong relationship with colleagues at the Acropolis Museum and are very willing to explore any requests for a loan with them.

“We lend objects from the collection to countries all over the world. We believe in the importance of lending our collection, it strengthens the stories the collection tells and when displayed alongside other objects, they create new stories and conversations. In 2014 the museum lent one of the Parthenon sculptures to the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia, on the anniversary of that museum's foundation.”

However, the museum did not respond when asked whether an ‘indefinite’ loan could be agreed upon.

Instead, it said that “the British Museum will lend only in circumstances when the borrower guarantees that the object will be returned to the museum at the end of the loan period (the Trustees will normally expect the borrower to provide assurance of immunity from judicial seizure or comparable assurance from a government body or representative of appropriate authority).”

“The British Museum is not changing its tune as it still persists in the myth that a full story is being told by keeping half the figures taken from the Parthenon in London while the other half is shown in Athens which is so obviously a concocted story. Try telling it to a child whose natural logic will instantly spy the hole in the argument; they know perfectly well that half and half makes a whole,” Dame Janet Suzman, Chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, told Ta Nea.

“The Marbles were made to be together and one day they will be where they belong. The same goes for all the disfigured reliefs, with half a horse here and the other half galloping over there, it’s crazy! The Fat Lady of Bloomsbury is still singing her old song, silly old thing, but the world is already tiring of it,” she added.

“The change in the wording from the British Museum has been noted. We sincerely hope this means a change of heart. Greece has been doing an exemplary job of conserving its ancient monuments on the Acropolis and in the Acropolis Museum. The primary historically significant story of the sculptures is that which they tell as one and in reference to the Parthenon, which still stands,” commented BCRPM's Marlen Godwin.

“The British Museum’s insistence that the narratives it creates with the fragmented sculptures it holds is of greater importance, is out of step with the changes that are already happening. Respect for such a peerless collection should trump any selfish need or greed to keep the sculptures so brutally (and criminally) divided. These sculptures belong to the Parthenon and that is still, firmly on Greek soil. Today’s inequalities of the past, such as the continued division of the sculptures isn’t going to erase the sublime display they command in Athens nor the understanding they provide to visitors. Here’s to the bright, best practice museum curators that are getting it right,” she added.

This news report was published in the Greek daily newspaper Ta Nea on 12 February 2022. To read it in Greek follow the link here or follow the link for the English version.

Over two hundred years ago Lord Elgin wrenched a number of exquisitely carved figures and friezes from the Parthenon, wreaking severe destruction to the already damaged monument. He shipped this portion of the Parthenon Marbles to the UK aiming to use them to decorate his ancestral house in Scotland. However, he soon became bankrupt and was obliged to sell the Marbles to the British Parliament, who at the time paid £35,000 to save them, and place them in the care of the British Museum.

Since Greece’s declaration of independence in 1821 the Greek state has called for the return of the Parthenon Marbles, so they can be reunified with their other halves and experienced as one connected work of art. The case has been further strengthened since the opening of the modern Acropolis museum, built specially in viewing distance of the  building from which the Marbles were taken.

The Marbles have done their job here in the UK and now, for the very first time, the British Museum are engaged in talks with the Greek government about an agreement regarding their future. The Museum's Chair George Osborne, is open to finding an agreement, but for this to happen we need the support of the present Secretary of State for Culture, Lucy Frazer MP KC.

Just as the Greek authorities have committed for the past 23 years to fill the British Museum with yet more marvellous Greek antiquities should the Marbles finally be reunified, so this initiative aims to show Ms Frazer that we value the role played by the British Parliament in preserving these peerless works of art.

That's why the Greek community and the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles is seeking to raise this £35,000. We want the British government to support the British Museum to do the right thing. Symbolically repaying an old debt to the British Parliament is an important step to securing this support.

Once we've hit our target we will offer the sum, and publicly, to the Secretary of State for Culture. Should the Secretary of State to refuse this generosity, all donors will have the option of a full refund or to donate their pledge to the continuing campaign.

Details of the fundraising campaign here, and for the press release, follow the link here.

Stop dithering, British Museum – give the 'Elgin Marbles' back.
Why trustees need to act now.

Article by Andrew Marr in The New Statesman, 10 Januay 2023.

And it starts with Andrew writing: 'Give them back. For goodness’ sake, just give them back.'

The point is they are not ours – they are a central part of Greek heritage. Osborne knows this. In June he told me there was “a deal to be done where we can tell both stories in Athens and in London”. When I asked if they could be moved to Greece, at least for a while, he replied “this kind of arrangement” might be suitable. The argument over their repatriation has been heating up ever since. We shouldn’t fool ourselves that when the marbles go home to Greece, they’ll regularly pop back again via Heathrow. But it doesn’t mean our museums will empty of everything not made in Shropshire or Essex. Each case is different. The Parthenon is to Greece what Stonehenge is to England; if Stonehenge was moved to Texas, we’d feel the same. Sending them home, open-heartedly and without conditions, would right an old wrong and do a lot for Britain’s shaky reputation as a reliable European partner. The museum, in short, must get on with it. Give. Them. Back.

Read the full article in The New Statesman. 

A New Statesman reader also sent a letter in response to Andrew Marr's article. The letter was published. We would like to thank John Boaler, of Calne, Wiltshire for the support too :

What’s Moore
While agreeing with Andrew Marr that the Elgin Marbles should be given back to Greece (Culture Notes, 13 January) I question the claim that had they not been accessible in London “there would have been no Henry Moore”. Moore’s work drew on many sources including medieval church carvings and modernist sculptures, and he had a lifelong fascination with the shapes and textures of pebbles and bones. Had the marbles stayed in Greece, Moore would surely still have become a great artist.

John Boaler, Calne, Wiltshire

I was asked to be the Chair of the BCRPM because of my long-standing sympathy with the magnificent fury of Melina Mercouri, who came whirling into Britain many years ago like a mighty wind, to stir up the clouds of dead leaves that often litter the venerable institutions of this land. She demanded the return of the marbles. She is long gone, but the wind still blows, sometimes stronger, sometimes just a breeze to disturb the quiet. Those winds have started up again as the arguments about Brexit swirl this way and that, and they have started up in France as it recognises certain acquisitions in its own collections need justifying, and the windy debates continue in other far countries once colonised by Great Britain in its Empire heyday.

One of the most mightiest of those Institutions, The British Museum, is the keeper of so many of the world’s treasures they are almost beyond counting, because Empire-builders brought back wondrous artefacts from across the world when Britain ruled the waves. As we know the star attractions of the British Museum's astonishing collection are the Parthenon marbles, those breath-taking fractions of a breath-taking whole. The Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Lord Elgin, brought them to England and for two hundred years they have awed the millions of visitors who shuffle across the floors of the mighty Museum. They are seen in a severely walled gallery, sitting with great respect and decorum on harsh concrete plinths, with greyish light partly revealing their astonishing beauty.

Last year some of these pieces of sculpture were brought down to another larger gallery to show Rodin’s work alongside them, and how inspired he was by them. A breath of fresh air rushed round the figures and we saw anew how wonderful they are, in fact unmatchable. Emotionally charged, muscled Rodin figures paled beside the stillness of their haunting super-reality. The curators had presented the figures as solo works of art separated from their original function of being parts of a larger whole, wrenched from an integral part of an ancient belief-system.

Melina was an actress, I am an actress; that probably means we are basically open-minded. Acting requires you to be non-judgemental about a character and thus to depict its point of view, often very far from your own in real life, as truthfully as possible. I am no scholar, no academic. My position on the BCRPM Committee is one of a perfectly ordinary museum visitor and as such I can see so clearly that the marbles are in the wrong room. They need the sweet Attic sunlight shining on them and a blue sky beyond; they ask to be re-connected to their other half in the New Acropolis Museum where a space for them awaits. They need to be seen in sight of the Parthenon itself, which still astonishingly stands, in full view of that space, so that I, the visitor could turn my head and exclaim “Now I see - that’s where they came from!” No more gloomy light, no more orphaned statuary. They need to be re-joined to their other pedimental half which sits in this fine museum so that I, the visitor, can understand the whole silent conversation between them.

I simply do not trust the jargon of art historians or artistic directors however eminent who enlarge rather pompously on ‘creative acts’ - meaning the marble figures take on another equally important resonance by having been violently parted from their siblings. Chopped off in fact; the wounds are visible. I have no reason to disrespect the director of the British Museum but if I were playing him I would have to understand his motivation in speaking such transparently suspect words. It’s clear that it would be more than his job is worth if he allowed his natural intelligence to win over his enforced hypocrisy; he is required to speak diplomatically. So it is not he who is at fault; it is the Trustees of the British Museum who must surely be rather smug closet colonialists that they still don't choose to entertain what is only right and just. After more than two centuries, it is high time those marbles were returned to their rightful place.

I end by quoting from an eminent member of BCRPM, Alexi Kaye Campbell, who wrote most eloquently in The Guardianrecently: “Asking for something back of huge significance which has been taken from you when you were under foreign occupation is a demand for simple justice”. Europe has felt the dread hand of occupation far too often, and it behoves Britain and its premier institutions to start to accommodate the other point of view.

Greece’s ask is wholly justified. It must keep blowing zephyrous winds towards England.

Janet Suzman

The above article was published in Greek , Saturday 9 February 2019, in Ta Nea, Greece's daily newspaper.  It was also re-printed in Parikiaki.

Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni has pledged to ‘fill the void’ at the British Museum should the Parthenon sculptures be reunited with their counterparts in Athens. It’s a brilliant idea.

The Kritios Boy, a masterpiece of ancient Greek marble sculpture, currently stands atop a pedestal in the Acropolis Museum in Athens. For historians he speaks quietly of the transition from the Archaic to the Classical periods in Greek sculpture (as well as having one of the most beautiful derrières in the history of art). He could potentially be among the many extraordinary treasures never previously exhibited in the United Kingdom but which could be seen in London if the British Museum’s trustees were enlightened enough to accommodate Ms Mendoni’s workable solution to the current impasse over the Parthenon Marbles.

Were the British Museum to agree to reunite the sculptures with their counterparts in Athens, Ms Mendoni has promised that Greece would reciprocate by sending rotating loan exhibitions of ancient masterpieces like the Kritios Boy never previously seen by many UK museum-goers. To realise the many cultural and diplomatic benefits of Ms Mendoni’s initiative would require the trustees of the British Museum to expand their vision beyond considerations of ownership and begin a more cooperative relationship with Athens over the future of the Marbles.

The first stage in that process requires the amendment of the British Museum Act of 1963 which currently prohibits the deaccessioning of objects from the Museum’s collections. The British Government’s refusal to even consider such an amendment has two negative consequences. In the first instance, the way the Marbles are currently displayed in Bloomsbury perpetuates a misleading understanding of their historical importance, denying their original significance as part of the Parthenon’s architectural programme. In the Parthenon Galleries of the Acropolis Museum their connection to the monument is clear and deeply moving.

It is the duty of every museum to promote a fact-based understanding of material culture, historical and contemporary. Where the Marbles are concerned, the British Museum is currently failing in that regard.

Secondly, the refusal to amend the 1963 Act deprives the UK’s museum-going public (as well as visiting tourists) of an opportunity to learn more about the art of ancient Greece through new educational displays.

As a scholar of ancient Greek polychrome sculpture, I have visited the Acropolis Museum on numerous occasions, both in its previous romantically ramshackle location on the monument itself, and on many subsequent occasions following the opening of Bernard Tschumi’s superb new Museum at the foot of the Acropolis in 2009. Few other museums in the world are able to offer as coherent an account of the coloured nature of ancient Greek sculpture as the Acropolis Museum.

The superb ‘Colour Revolution’ exhibition currently own show at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford testifies to the enduring public fascination with colour and its impact on art and design in the Victorian era. It also touches briefly on one of the central aesthetic controversies of the nineteenth century — the true coloured nature of ancient sculpture.

The British Museum has been guilty in the past of scrubbing the Parthenon Marbles with wire brushes in a misguided attempt to whiten them. It now has an opportunity to absolve itself of those errors by reopening the conversation with Athens.

The immediate and long-term benefits are obvious for all to see. George Osborne has an opportunity to cement his legacy by persuading his Eton and Oxbridge colleagues in government to revisit the British Museum Act. Mark Jones might also go down in history as more than merely an “interim” director of the Museum but rather the man whose brief custodianship opened a new chapter in museum diplomacy.

Dr Tom Flynn

Reaching an agreement for the permanent return of the Parthenon Sculptures from the British Museum to Greece  “is difficult, but not impossible,” said Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni in Parliament on Monday, 23 January 2023. Dr Mendoni reiterated the government’s stance that this specific cultural request “remains national, unanimous, consistent and clear.”

Greece does not recognize the British Museum's claim of ownership with regards to the Parthenon Scultptures currently exibited in Room 18, as they comprise a product of theft. Dr Mendoni added that “the government has been working from the start systematically, responsibly, and effectively to achieve the national goal – the return and reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures to the Acropolis Museum in Athens.”

ANA-MPA news

The headline of Niko Efstathiou's article in Kathimerini, 05 February 2023, post his visit to London took our breath away: 'In London, the return of the Parthenon Sculptures seems all but inevitable'.

For most of us, and not just in Greece and the UK but globally too, this has been a hope that has burned passionately for what seems like forever.

That Niko encountered visitors in the British Museum's Room 18  admiring the fragmented and divided Parthenon Marbles, also saying how they hoped to see them reunited, was nothing new. This has been happening for sometime. More so however since the opening of the superlative Acropolis Museum in June 2009.

"No major news has surfaced in the past few months, since British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s last-minute cancellation of a meeting with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis in late November reinvigorated a decade-old cultural debate. But today, the sentiment in London is that the return of the 2,500-year-old marble sculptures and reliefs is all but inevitable." Writes Niko as he goes on to outline the strong public support, which has also been there for sometime.

The British sense of far-play to the fore: if these sculptures were removed when the country of origin had no voice, we ought to do the right thing, and return them to the country of origin. A sentiment echoed at UNESCO's ICPRCP and translated into recommendations and conclusions to highlight the ever pressing need to find a solution to this, long running, cultural heritage dispute. A dispute that has kept the media writing, and voicing their observations. There has been no end to the coverage for this just cause.  

"In an exercise where legal formulation meets branding, significant efforts are being made by both parties to keep the agreement’s messaging positive, and the wording around ownership vague enough so that both Greece – which regards ownership over the artifacts as key in any potential agreement – and the British Museum – which is restricted by laws, such as the British Museum Act of 1963, that ban the removal of artifacts from its collection – can come to a consensus." Continues Nikos in his article and indeed we reflect on how many times BCRPM's Chairs and Vice-Chairs have urged the UK to consider amending the law. An amendment that was not given the consideration it deserved  because of fear. The fear of  'what else' would be requested and spurious 'floodgates' arguments stopping any sensible progress. Fear by the UK's PMs, and MPs. 

And Nikos goes on to add: "In the meantime, if there is one thing pushing the deal closer towards fruition it is the British Museum’s leadership".  Totally on point, as the British Museum and the UK Government were never keen to engage in dialogue.  Now under the leadership of George Osborne, the British Museum is looking for a 'win-win' long term partnership where cultural artefacts are given maximun mobility, and these peerless sculptures are allowed to travel back to Attica.

We will never forget when one of the sculptures, Ilissos, travelled to St Petersburg, nor can we forget the equally unsupportive reaction of those that hold the British Museum in the highest esteem. It was not, that Director's finest hour, made worse by what hasn't made relations between the West and Russia any better. The annexing of Crimea it seemed was just the begining of a grander scheme to gain more land, and Russia invaded Ukraine on the 24 February 2022. Ilissos' move from London to St Petersburg sparked more support for the reunification of these sculptures, than it did for the relations betweeb Russia and the West.

And so to 2024 and two friendly nations looking to a museum “partnership that requires no one to relinquish their claims.”

"Paradoxically, though the explosive diplomatic spat that took place in November suggested that the current UK government will not back a potential deal, Downing Street’s impulsive reaction may have also triggered a change in British politics. Sunak’s panicked decision to cancel the meeting with Mitsotakis ended up being widely criticized by all sides of the political spectrum, among others by Osborne himself, a former chancellor of the exchequer for a Tory government, who suggested it was a “hissy fit.” Continues to write Niko. Indeed what was PM Sunak thinking?

“I jumped up and down with joy when it happened, because obviously it was a mistake,” recalls Dame Janet Suzman, actress and chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, while detailing to Kathimerini her reaction to Sunak’s controversial snub. “I honestly think it is not something he thought about very deeply, it was a surface reaction in reply to an analogy used by the Greek PM on British TV. But it created a tidal wave of publicity for the return of the sculptures, so we were naturally quite thrilled in our organization.”

British politicians making mistakes, errors in diplomacy and international relations? Did this snub help the request for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles? Our Chair, Janet says yes.

"As much as Greece would like to keep British politics out of any potential agreement, guaranteeing governmental support would make the deal with the British Museum far easier to implement. Herein lies the last factor most probably aligning with Greece’s case – at least very soon. Brits are heading to the polls in less than a year for national elections, and with polls unanimously showing the Tories trailing the Labour Party by unprecedented margins, a change in government seems almost certain. By all accounts, Sunak’s most likely successor, current opposition leader Keir Starmer, will be far more cooperative in the case of the Parthenon Marbles’ reunification." Writes Nikos. And indeed this sentiment was also echoed by Victoria Hislop during her interviews, whilst in Athens for the launch of her latest fictional novel, which was published also in Greek. A book launch that took place at the Acropolis Museum, on Thursday, 25 January.

And PM Mitsotakis' endevour, his mission to reunite the sculptures, a mission he has continued to push on with for nearly two years. “Let me be clear, we will insist on their reunification,” he said in New York.

"And though it is now waiting time, and the exact details of the deal are far from set and still kept away from public scrutiny, it is hard not to see that his vision – once a huge point of contention with Britain – is more likely to materialize than ever before." Concludes Niko Efstathiou.

To read Niko's toughtful article in full, follow the link here.

Telegraph 29 January 2022

Technology that allows archaeologists to make a millimetre-perfect replica paves way for a deal with British Museum, says Greek ambassador. The plan to copy the section of the Parthenon frieze in the British Museum comes from the Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA), which created a full-size replica of Syria’s Palmyra Arch which was blown up by Isis in October 2015.

To read this article in full, visit The Telegraph.

Ta Nea 31 January 2022

Yannis Andritsopoulos, UK correspondent for Ta Nea published an aricle on Monday:'New proposal for 3D copies of the Sculptures. The international Institute of Digital Archaeology is willing to make exact replicas with the ultimate goal of exhibiting them in the British Museum, as reported in ‘Ta Nea’ by the IDA’s director Roger Michel and the Greek Ambassador in London, Ioannis Raptakis.'

Speaking to ‘Ta Nea’ the head of the scientists who inspired the project explained that the innovative method developed by his team could create copies of the sculptures, which may convince the British Museum to return the fragment sculptures  in Room 18 to Greece. A move that is "justifiable and will be of benefit to both countries."

 "I want to see Boris Johnson and Kyriakos Mitsotakis shaking hands and smiling. There is a long history of cooperation between the two countries, which must continue. That's why we offered to make these copies. I think the British will realise that it is time for the Parthenon sculptures to return home. Nothing would make me happier than seeing them reunited in Athens," notes Roger Michel.

Initially, the Institute's scientists intend to "clone" a metope from the south side of the Parthenon located in the British Museum, which represents the struggle between a Lapithe and a centaur. "We're going to show people what this technology can do," Michel explains. This will take about three months and cost £50,000-70,000, a cost that the Institute itself will cover. "Then, we aspire to reproduce the entire parthenon frieze."

The Oxford-based institute has pioneered a technique known as 3D Machining. First a digital image is created using photogrammetry, then a robot-operated machine uses chisels in the same way as a human sculptor to carve a copy of the original.

"We will procure marble identical to the one used by Phidias," explains the director of the Oxford-based Institute, who will ask the British Museum to allow his team to scan the Sculptures on display in London.* 

The aim of the Institute is to exhibit the entire Parthenon frieze at the United Nations headquarters in New York and other cities of the world, until they are "installed" in London, if the British Museum allows it. "We hope the Museum will embrace our initiative and exhibit the copies, to facilitate the reunification of the surviving pieces in Room 18 with those in the Acropolis Museum.

"I am optimistic that the reproduction of the frieze will act as a symbol of Greek-British friendship and will lead to a gesture of goodwill that will correct a mistake that was made two centuries ago."

The Director of the Institute calls on the British Prime Minister to support his initiative. "Mr Johnson has been a great supporter of our work. Thanks to him, the copy of the Arch of Palmyra in Trafalgar Square was exhibited. I believe he can support us now. People change their minds and I think there's a chance it will help this call for the reunification also."

Speaking to ‘Ta Nea’, Greece's Ambassador to London Ioannis Raptakiswelcomed the Institute's initiative, which was inspired by his own intervention during an event in the British capital last Friday. "It is one step closer to meeting the respectful request for the return of the Sculptures to Greece. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakishas put a number of proposals on the table. It would be amazing, if the British government were to take the initiative to correct this injustice."

"The new technology allows the manufacture of exact copies. I believe that the British Museum should present these copies in its collection. It is time to allow the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures. It would be a magnanimous act of the British people and would be a recognition of our historic debt to Greece," Michael Wood, professor of history at the University of Manchester and member of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures (BCRPM), told ‘Ta Nea’.

To read the original article in Greek, follow the link to Ta Nea.

* In 2012, the BM gave Niall McLaughlin Architects permission to scan the frieze in Room 18  

The Sunday Post's Ross Crae wrote an article on the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, to read the article published on Sunday 12 December, kindly follow the link here. 

Isabel Ruffell, professor of Greek drama and culture at Glasgow University, reflects on the Parthenon Marbles. She is quoted as saying: “It is morally indefensible for them to be in London. It’s bizarre that you’ve got all these bits from the same building all over Europe.

These are iconic images of profound significance to the people of Greece. Their removal belongs to the smash-and-grab period of classical archaeology, which is intertwined with our colonial past, and we need to face up to that.

You’ve got these really high stakes pieces of sculpture that matter a great deal to one of our fellow European countries and it seems slightly peculiar that we’re not giving them back. It’s really quite childish in a way.”

She, too, believes the Acropolis Museum in Athens would be the best place to show the marbles in all of their glory. “From an educational point of view, the British Museum display is really unhelpful,” she said.

“The Panathenaic frieze is inside-out, and the other frieze elements dislocated in other ways. The display in Athens, which is waiting for their return, will display the surviving material in a way that is as close as possible to the original layout.

“It is a fabulous museum. It has really good displays of some of the other stuff that was on the site so you get a much better sense of what it was like – it was incredibly crowded. It’s not just the edited highlights, you see the whole lot. A lot of museums have big aesthetic treasures completely divorced from context.

“Having them in this austere white room in the British Museum is a very strange, misleading way of looking at it.

“As someone who has benefited from the school trip to London in my time, it is very educational and useful but you could do that with plaster cast or loans of material. I think museums are quite co-operative on the whole these days, so these kinds of things are not unprecedented, loan deals and plaster casts and so forth.

“If the goal here is to provide a resource to people to learn, which is what it should be, then there are ways of doing it without having to do the ‘it’s mine, you can’t have it back’ kind of thing.”

Professor Isabel Ruffell has now joined BCRPM as a member and we're delighted to welcome her.

Two letters in the Guardian's letter's page, Wednesday 01 June 2022. Could we prefix the headline with #WednesdayWisdom?

It is dishonourable for the British Museum to keep the Parthenon marbles.

It should make no difference whether the Parthenon marbles were “removed from the rubble” or not. They must be given back. If our neighbours’ house is on fire while on holiday, and we rescue their valuables, we should surely give them back when they return. To keep them would be dishonourable.
David Simmonds
Woking, Surrey

As a secondhand bookseller, I arrived at the home of Harold Plenderleith shortly before he died in 1997 to buy books. He had been chief conservator with the British Museum, and I made the mistake of asking him for his views on repatriation of the Parthenon marbles (Greece rebuts British Museum claim Parthenon marbles were ‘removed from rubble’, 23 May). “Never!” he replied, “Never! We looked after the marbles when they would have been destroyed [by pollution?] had they stayed in Athens.” His vehemence tired him so much that he had to go back to bed. I assumed that this was the line taken by all staff at the time, and daren’t ask about the notorious scrubbing incident that took place while he was a junior in the early 1930s.

Shortly after, Glasgow Museums returned a ghost dance shirt to the Sioux community and my friend, the poet Anna Crowe, wrote a poem on it including the words: “We still believe some form of words, / or ritual will come between / us and another’s anger. Not seeing / that our invisibility’s what’s required.” Those at the British Museum still struggling to retain the Parthenon marbles should take heed.
Margaret Squires
St Andrews, Fife

Janet Suzman, our Chair was on ERT TV's 9 o'clock news on Saturday 06 March 2021. The interview took place following on from the article that was published in Ta Nea by UK Correspondent Yannis Andritsopoulos that morning. Janet emphasised that all like minded, profound people, hope to see the sculptures removed by Lord Elgin and currently housed in the British Museum's Room 18, re-joining their surviving halves in the Parthenon Gallery of the superlative Acropolis Museum.

Janet added in her press statement to Yannis Andritsopoulos of TA NEA that: "the fact that George Clooney, and an increasing number of thoughtful people in the public eye, would wish to see the Parthenon Marbles reunited with their other halves in the Acropolis Museum is a measure of how aware they are of the justice of such an event. Were it to be achieved it will be the pressure in the public sphere both of respected individuals with high profiles, and a groundswell from the museum-going populace at large that will eventually persuade a great institution like the British Museum to shift its stance. These sculptures belong uniquely to an edifice that still dominates the skyline of Athens and all of Western thinking. They stand at the very heart of Greece’s cultural patrimony. Claiming a spurious ownership is not something such a respected treasure house can continue without feeling a bit foolish, above all because there exists no absolute proof of that ownership. The Museum has more than enough fascinating objects to survive the gesture with its universalist head still held high."

Professor Paul Cartledge as Vice-Chair of the BCRPM and the IARPS added:"We warmly welcome George Clooney's continued supportfor the reunion of the Parthenon Marbles. What is needed now is a supreme generosity of internationalist spirit and moral courage. Our campaign has recently been accompanied by a large wave of international support from various anti-colonial movements calling for the repatriation of cultural treasures. For centuries, colonial powers and their merchants have plundered or individualised, officially or informally, these treasures, either for purely personal gratification or as a means of national self-evolution - or both."

To read the Ta Nea article (in Greek), please follow the link here. 

Many other outlets picked up on this story including The Art Newspaper that also carried Janet Suzman's letter in their March 2021 edition.

It’s a bit disappointing that such a factually doubtful argument is sketched in by Jonathan Sumption about the Parthenon marbles, in complete contrast to his nice assessment of the travails of English National Opera, where a grossly unfair and skinflinty case has been put by ACE in wrenching this marvellous opera organisation limb from limb.

These scupltures were removed without express permission from the occupying power by Lord Elgin, Britain’s ambassador to the Ottoman court, who wanted them to adorn his Scottish pile. The museum in Athens which Sumption airily dismisses was expressly built to house them, is gloriously modern, and is directly opposite the Parthenon so the visitor will at long last be able to make visual sense of where the figures stood before being hacked off the building by Elgin’s clumsy workers.

UNESCOhas voted as one to have them returned to their home turf. The Hellenic Republic itself has committed to have them returned the moment it gained its independence from Ottoman rule. Nor can the British Museum claim to have cared for them with curatorial exactitude; in Duveen’s day they had them scrubbed with wire cleaners to restore ‘whiteness’ to the Pentelic marble thereby removing the precious patina that had protected them.

Besides that destructive gaffe, Room 18 leaks and had been closed for a year and it has no air conditioning so cold and heat are always wafting through these rooms. And by the bye, there are far more than just 'three sadly deteriorated panels' in that Acropolis Museum, there is also the other half of the matchless pedimental figures and they deserve to be seen as a whole. Not to mention the frieze and the metopes. 

As to the hysterical slippery slope scenario that Jonathan Sumption fears, the Greeks are not asking for a single piece bar the British Museum’s ill-gotten Parthenon marbles. I don’t know what special hot-line he might have to lament the loss of all the world treasures he cites, but apart from the Benin Bronzes, Rosetta Stone, Hoa Hakananai'a,  we have not heard of any decimatory demands from elsewhere. Those museums that have opted to return seminal cultural objects taken in colonial days will have shown an openness of mind that the BM might well emulate in this instance.

I suggest former Judge Jonathan Sumption sticks to opera as his pet subject, and leaves Greek sculpture to its own battles.

+ PS: London: the British Museum displays around half of the surviving works: 56 blocks of frieze (247ft), 15 metopes (panels) and 17 pediment figures.
Athens: the Acropolis Museum displays 40 blocks of frieze, 48 metopes and 9 pediment figures. Fragments from the same pieces are in London and Athens. One can’t help wondering if Jonathan Sumption would perhaps enjoy his Rheingold more if he watched the first half in London and flew to Bayreuth during the long interval for the second bit?

Jonathan Sumptions article ( 'The cringing self-abasement of Britain’s museums') was published in The Spectator on 25 February 2023. Janet Suzman's response was sent into the publication to both the letters section and editorial. No part of Janet's response was published.

From Janet Suzman
Chair: British Committee for the Reunification
of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM)
1st January 2024

It really is very dispiriting that eminences like Lord Sumption (Sunday Times Dec 31st 2023) still make so many wrong assumptions. (Sorry). Here are some of them:

He fails to find a difference between a bas relief (the frieze, running round the perimeter of the building) and the 3D sculptures (metopes and pedimental figures). He can’t see why those pedimental figures make a stunning triangular pedimental shape when placed together, quite lost by enforced separation. The half of the extant frieze not in Bloomsbury is in Athens.

He avers that Lord Elgin obtained a ‘decree from the sultan authorising him to remove the sculptures.’ No such document has ever been found, only a permit (a ‘firman’) from a high official in Constantinople allowing him to retrieve ‘qualche pezzi di pietra’ already fallen down (it is an Italian copy) and to make drawings of pieces out of reach. Elgin, who kept a careful record of his expenses, bribed functionaries at every level to turn a blind eye to his crude attack on an already fragile building. Tourists reported shocking falls of precious metopes and such smashing to pieces, and a disdar – a guard at the time – was described as weeping at the mayhem inflicted on the building.

Elgin commandeered a ship of the line to transport his booty to Britain – so, taxpayers’ money – and had every intention of displaying the pieces at Broomhill, his Scottish seat, and none of sharing them with the public. Only when bankrupted after his rich wife left him did he turn to the British Government for a hasty sale.

Yet what’s done cannot be undone, and what matters now is a solution to a modern moral maze and not an old blame-game. And yet, Lord Sumption widens his argument to justify how artifacts have always voyaged to distant lands for our enlightenment. But this avoids the point; these Parthenon Marbles are sui generis. Elgin took far more than those cut off the Parthenon, but Greece is not asking for the caryatid he stole from the Erechtheum, nor is it asking for the Winged Victory of Samothrace from the Louvre.

In 2019 at a conference in Athens, I was invited into the then President’s rooms in his official residence where he took care to explain to me that Greece is proud that Hellenic pieces are in the Louvre (apart from Parthenon pieces…) and proud that around the world Greece’s treasures are displayed. “Let me be clear: we want only those pieces that Elgin took off the Parthenon itself”, he told me. The Greeks first claimed those Marbles when it was freed of Ottoman rule and became the Hellenic Republic in the 1830s. Melina Mercouri cast a spotlight on that claim in the 1980’s. Boris Johnson, when he was still an honest scholar, wrote a spirited article for the Oxford Union paper pleading for their return to the land of Achilles. The world is today more aware of cultural plunder than during colonial times. The British Museum is the only major museum in the world staying silent about its often ill-gotten contents. All of UNESCO is aware of this silence and is finding it embarrassing.

Sumption seems unmoved that panels from Duccio’s altarpiece are divided between nine museums, as if it might be diminished in some way were the whole to be displayed as Duccio intended. That altarpiece is a separate inspiration, whereas the Parthenon marbles are part of the very fabric of the building; it is one thing, conceived and carved as one thing. Alexander Herman (‘The Parthenon Marbles Dispute; Heritage, Law, Politics’ – Hart, Bloomsbury, 2023) makes this point: ‘Because we live in democratic times, we tend to have a predilection for remnants that connect us to the Athenian prototype. For this reason the Parthenon as a symbol continues to dominate’.

After two hundred years in London and badly displayed in a grey gallery in Bloomsbury since the 1960s, the Marbles have done their work of enlightening Europe to the glories of the ancient world. The United Kingdom is second to none in classical scholarship; the British Museum has millions of other ancient artifacts in its collections, and wonderful objects are promised for exhibition by the Greeks themselves to compensate for the (inevitable) return. George Osborne, Chairman of the BM Trustees, is embarking on an important act of international co-operation.

As to numbers, only one sixth of the 6 million annual visitors that enter its portals visit the Duveen Galleries. Approximately that same number passes through the Acropolis Museum in Athens, and why, one wonders, should not a Greek child be as astounded as a British one at the god-like figures caught in a high wind off Mount Olympus, and be as proud as Punch that his distant ancestors were so utterly brilliant with white stone? Why should the Greek people not thrill to such visions? They might be as far down the line as the Druids are to the English, but just listen to the fuss if half of Stonehenge had been nicked and plonked in Potsdamerplatz.

To read Lord Sumption's article, 'The Elgin Marbles weren’t stolen — Greece is just exploiting our weakness' follow the link to The Times.

A trustee of the British Museum has confirmed the institution is in talks with the Greek government about the disposition of the Parthenon Marbles, but has told Al Jazeera that a deal may be elusive.

“There is certainly movement, but it is being overhyped,” said Mary Beard, professor of classics at Cambridge University and a trustee since 2020.

“I think something is really happening … There have been discussions between [board of trustees chair] George Osborne and [Greek premier] Kyriakos Mitsotakis,” she told Al Jazeera.

“There is real desire to do something. After 200 years, surely we can get somewhere better than where we are,” Beard said. “Is the problem going to be resolved? I’m not sure.”

Read the artucle aptly entitled: "Rumours of Parthenon Marbles’ return ‘overhyped’, experts say"

The British Museum claims Elgin “was granted a permit” to “draw, measure and remove figures”. But critics say he stretched that to remove far more than was intended.

“Among the bribes Elgin is known to have given is 100 pounds to the Kaimacam [district governor] in Constantinople to release the second shipment [of Marbles], and an amount to the Disdar [fortress commander] in Athens equal to 35 times his annual salary. Elgin documented all expenditures because he was financed by his in-laws,” said Elena Korka.

 An Economist survey in 2000 found that two-thirds of British MPs would vote for the Marbles’ return if a motion were tabled.

A Sunday Times survey in August 2022 found that 78 percent of Britons would return the Marbles, and a poll this month by the Evening Standard found a clear majority of 53 percent of Britons favouring their return – more than the majority that voted for Brexit.

“There’s a very important change in the UK in public opinion and individuals who have an opinion on the matter, from the entire political spectrum, who now openly argue in favour of the marbles’ reunification, recognising their uniqueness,” said Mitsotakis.

We would add that public opinion has always favoured the reunification, especially amongst those that were told the whole story about the Parthenon Marbles removal at the start of the 19th century, by Lord Elgin. What has changed is museums around the world entering into talks between on the matter of returns and restitution of artefacts to their countries of origin. Museums are listening to what their publics want to see, and are looking to the future. 

Josh Murfitt is a photographer based in Edinburgh, specialising in fine art and cultural heritage photography and digitisation. In 2019 for his MA in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism at the University of Westminster, Josh created a photomontage aptly entitled 'A Creative Act'. At that time, Josh had been working in a museum part-time for around 4 years, and had become interested in the discourse surrounding historic museum collections, including the restitution of some cultural artefacts held in British museums. The case of the Parthenon marbles was (and still is), one of the most publicised of these.

Josh's photomontage works are based around the Parthenon sculptures in their current display setting at the British Museum, considering the history of their removal from Athens and the political and moral issues surrounding this. To make these works, Josh combined vintage tourist postcards showing scenes from the Acropolis with his own photographs made inside the Duveen Gallery, Room 18, at the British Museum. Whilst it directly references the case of the Parthenon sculptures, the series can be related to wider debates around museum collections, restitution, and legacies of the British Empire in that context.

North Frieze

Hermes

Selene

Explore more of Josh's exceptional work by visiting https://www.joshmurfitt.co.uk/ 

The ultra-endurance cycling challenge "London-Athens on 2 wheels - Bring them back" in its second year, began at 5 am on Saturday 05 August, outside the British Museum gates. 

Cycling heroes: Vasilki Voutzali (Greece), Steffen Streich (Germany & Greece), Christopher Ross Bennett (New Zealand), Paul Alderson (UK), and Dionisis Kartsambas (Greece), set off to cycle 3,500 kms to reach the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

Catch up on their daily challenges, the highs and lows by visiting their facebook page .

Before leaving, the BCRPM's Christopher Stockdale, Marlen and Tony Godwin, met with the cyclists in Room 18. Christopher presented a copy of his book 'Simming with Hero' to Vasiliki. 

In Room 18 meeting Christopher Stockdale, the first person to cycle from the British Museum to the Acropolis Museum in 2005. 

Fans in each corner of Room 18, trying to circulate the warm air. 

A flag that has been used in Room 18 sine the opening of the Acropolis Museum in 2005, shows the tip floor Parthenon Gallery of the Acropolis Museum , where the surviving halves of the sculptures not removed by Lord Elgin are displayed the right way round and with views to the Parthenon.

Vasiliki with a little help adds a few stickers outside the BM.

August, 05 at 5 am outside the British Museum gates, five cyclists begin a journey , an endurance journey in the hope that their efforts will add more pressure to the British Museum to reunite the Parthenon Marbles. The cyclists: Vasilki Voutzali (Greece), Steffen Streich (Germany & Greece), Christopher Ross Bennett (New Zealand), Paul Alderson (UK), and Dionisis Kartsambas (Greece) are making history too.

Christopher Stockdale, a retired GP from Solihull, and member of BCRPM swam for the marbles (2000 from Delos to Paros) and cycled in 2005. He admits cyclist was out of his comfort zone but the campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles is very much in Christopher's heart, although he was devastated not to be able to join the cyclists on this day.

This year the cyclists selected a number of segments along the route, stopping in Lille, France on their first night as the UK weather was a heady mixture of strong winds and heavy rains. Their first stop on day 2 was their intended first segment stop, Mons in Belgium.

Steffen and Vasiliki in Mons and.... at the Melina Mercouri St.

As Paul heads back to UK, Christopher carries on with Vasiliki, Steffen and Dionisis to Germany

Fom Belgium to Munich in Germany, and to Budapest in Hungary, segments 2 & 3

Bici Bavarese | Vintage & Moderne Rennräder in München

A warm welcome in Budapest!

From Hungary to Serbia and North Macedonia, arriving in Kastoria and Trikala.

Athens, today 17 August,  just 12 days from that cold, wet and windy 5th of August outside the British Museum. Christopher's time was 12 days, 3 hours and 18  minutes. We await the arrival of Dionisis tomorrow with a welcome from the Melina Mercouri Foundation, and a visit to the Acropolis Museum.