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International Workshop on the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures

April 16, 2019 No comments

  
“Let the British Museum come here and make the comparison
between this museum of light
and the murky, if I may say, prison of the British Museum
where the Parthenon Marbles are held as trophies”
President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopios Pavlopoulos

On Monday, April 15th, the International Conference and Workshop titled “Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures” is bringing up front the reunification. The activity is being held in the auditorium of the Acropolis Museum and is co-organised by the Presidency of the Republic, the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Acropolis Museum, and the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.

President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopios Pavlopoulos declaring the opening, said:
“With feelings of sincere emotion and great honour, I declare the beginning of this so important international conference, which has as its theme the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures. My feelings are justified by the fact that the international seminar is part of a great and just struggle with a global dimension, namely the struggle for the restoration of what is undoubtedly a most emblematic World Heritage Monument, the Parthenon. And this struggle concerns not only Greece and its historical and cultural heritage, but also culture in general, given that its result will be a real confirmation of the notion of culture as a supreme achievement of human intellect.”

“First and foremost, it is extremely symbolic and essential that the current International Conference is being held in this Museum, which was inaugurated almost exactly 10 years ago on June 20, 2009… A museum that, as the international community knows, has been mainly constructed in order to host the Parthenon Sculptures after their “repatriation” and invalidate the arguments of those who claimed that Greece does not have a suitable place to host them.”

“It is universally acknowledged that these Sculptures belong rightfully and culturally to the Parthenon and its Monuments. This is because without these Sculptures of the Parthenon, deeply hurt by an act of vandalism and concealed for over of two centuries under a guise of supposed ‘love of antiquity’, which directly harms World Cultural Heritage, cannot symbolise and, at the same time, emanate to humankind its eternal and unique cultural.”

Pavlopoulos underlined that
“the struggle for the Return of the Parthenon Sculptures has been long and uninterrupted.”

The conclusions of the Conference and Workshop will be announced at the end of the event by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Maria Andreadaki-Vlazaki.

Related: There was NO firman

Source: Αθηναϊκό – Μακεδονικό Πρακτορείο Ειδήσεων

 

British Museum, Discussions, History, Meetings none

Parthenon marbles need Attica’s sun

April 7, 2019 No comments

Gloomy setting at British Museum

Greek (use toolbar to return to English original)
Dame Janet Suzman, chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon marbles and actress in an article on Saturday to Nea newspaper answers to the director of the British Museum.

“I am neither an intellect nor an academic. My position in the committee is of a simple visitor of the museum and as a visitor I can see clearly that the Marbles are in the wrong place. They need Attica’s sun to shine on them with background the blue sky. They ask to be reunited with their other half at the New Acropolis Museum where a place is always waiting for them” said Suzman in her article.

“They must be displayed in front of the Parthenon which continues to stand up. They must see this place in order I, the visitor to be able to turn my head and cry “Now I can see it, that’s from where they come from! Not any more dim light, no more orphan sculptures. They must be reunited with the other half of the pediment that is in this magnificent museum in order I, the visitor, to be able to understand the silent discussion that is held between them” she added.

Referring to British Museum director Hartwig Fischer statements that the “museum will not return the marbles permanently to Greece” she commented “I do not trust the terminology of the art historian and of the art directors when they arrogantly refer to ‘creative actions’ implying that the Marbles acquire another, equally important, nature when they are violently deprived from their siblings”.

However, she acknowledged that the director “is forced to speak diplomatically” and attacked the Museum’s custodians that “obviously as complacent-crypto-imperialists do not examine something that is fair and right”.

Concluding, Suzman quoted another member of the Committee (Alexi Kaye Campbell) “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”.

Source: Athens News Agency – Macedonian Press Agency (ANA-MPA) [Αθηναϊκό Μακεδονικό Πρακτορείο Ειδήσεων]
Photo credit: Wikipedia

Artifacts, British Museum, Discussions, History, Vandalism , , ,

No-Go to a 9-story building near Acropolis

March 14, 2019 No comments

The Central Archaeological Council (CAC) has recalled the permit for the 9-story building that hides the view of the Acropolis, after the outbursts of the citizens.
Initially, the CAC had given permission for the erection of the building back in September 2018. However, according to the suggestion of the Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities Directorate, it was found that the building (about 32 m high) would cause visual obstruction to the Acropolis monuments, and would affects the surrounding environment.

The CAC decision is somewhat delayed since the skeleton of the building has already been erected! Now we will see what measures will be taken for the  demolition of  the building.

———

To Κεντρικό Αρχαιολογικό Συμβούλιο (ΚΑΣ) ανακάλεσε την άδεια του 9ώροφου κτιρίου που κρύβει την Ακρόπολη, μετά από τις κατακραυγές του κόσμου.
Αρχικώς, το ΚΑΣ είχε δώσει την άδεια ανέγερσης τον Σεπτέμβριο του 2018, αλλά σύμφωνα με την εισήγηση της διεύθυνσης των Προϊστορικών και Κλασικών Αρχαιοτήτων, διαπιστώθηκε ότι το κτίριο (ύψους περίπου 32 μ.), θα προκαλέσει οπτική βλάβη στα μνημεία της Ακρόπολης, και θα θίγει το γύρω περιβάλλον.

Η απόφαση του ΚΑΣ είναι κάπως καθυστερημένη αφού ο σκελετός του κτιρίου έχει ήδη ανεγερθεί! Τώρα θα δούμε τι μέτρα θα παρθούν για το γκρέμισμα του του κτιρίου.

Artifacts, Discussions, Media , ,

UK follows US withdrawal from UNESCO

November 14, 2018 No comments

 “The UK withdrawal from Unesco would be historical and cultural vandalism. The international development secretary Penny Mordaunt is shamefully following the US down a road to isolationism” [The Guardian]

 About the US withdrawal, Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova said: “At the time when conflicts continue to tear apart societies across the world, it is deeply regrettable for the United States to withdraw from the United Nations agency promoting education for peace and protecting culture under attack. This is a loss to the United Nations family. This is a loss for multilateralism.” [ full statement. ]

Why the US withdrawal from UNESCO is a step backwards for global cultural cooperation – [The Conversation]

This UK action is of great significance as “it was British politicians such as Rab Butler who helped develop the concept of Unesco, a conference in London in 1945 that framed its constitution, a British scientist who became its first director-general, and a Labour prime minister – Clement Attlee – who came up with the words that summed up its mission. “Since wars begin in the minds of men,” he wrote in the preamble to the new agency’s constitution, “it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.” That was the thinking of a generation shattered by the second world war, desperate to create the global institutions that would not just prevent any repeat but for ever stop the nationalist forces of hatred, division and prejudice from rising again.” [ Emily Thornberry – The Guardian]
It should be noted, The Acropolis and its masterpieces including the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheum, the Temple of Athena Nike, etc. is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussions, History, Media none

Assyrian artifact sold $30mil

November 8, 2018 No comments

These actions are nothing less but Looting of artifacts, and the ones who removing them from their place of origins are thieves.

 “It’s a matter of principle, similar to the Elgin Marbles,” Fareed Yasseen, Iraq’s ambassador to the United States, tells NPR.

“The (Parthenon) Elgin Marbles are marble sculptures that stood in the Acropolis of Athens in ancient Greece. They were removed and shipped to Britain in the early 1800s, while Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire.”

And the “excuse” of the thieves is:

“The provenance of the Assyrian relief provides a glimpse into the freewheeling world of archaeology in the 19th century, when English archaeologist Austen Henry Layard was given permission by the Ottoman sultan to excavate Nimrud and ship off whatever he found to patrons and friends.”

All these sound very familiar!

See full article published by the National Public Radio (NPR) Record-Setting Sale Of An Ancient Assyrian Stone Relief Sparks Looting Fears In Iraq

 

Artifacts, Discussions, History, Media, Vandalism none
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