Showing 12 results for the month of November, 2002.

November 18, 2002

Greece wants the originals of the Elgin Marbles – they already have plenty of copies

Posted at 1:36 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles, New Acropolis Museum

There are many copies of the Parthenon Sculptures about – some are better reproductions than others, depending on whether they were a first or later generation cast. But there is only one original set, which Greece hopes to be able to house in the New Acropolis Museum once it opens.

From:
Norwich Bulletin

Sunday, November 17, 2002
Slater’s Parthenon replicas impress — despite Greek snub
By DAVID PENCEK
Norwich Bulletin

NORWICH — Copies? We don’t want your copies. We have plenty of copies. We want the originals.

That’s how a spokesman from the U.S. Greek Embassy responded when asked by a reporter if Greece had any interest in borrowing the Slater Museum’s plaster-cast replicas of the disputed Parthenon marbles.

Greece wants the original marbles returned in time for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. The originals have been housed in the British Museum in London since it acquired them from Lord Elgin in 1811.
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November 17, 2002

Will the New Acropolis Museum in Athens open without the main attraction?

Posted at 1:31 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles, New Acropolis Museum

Greece is building a new museum specifically to house all the surviving Parthenon sculptures in one place. Unless the British Museum changes their mind though, it looks as though it will open without this main exhibit in place.

From:
Guardian

No, you can’t play with our marbles
A new museum in Athens looks doomed, not least because it won’t have its major exhibits
Deyan Sudjic
Sunday November 17, 2002
The Observer

Never mind for a moment what Bernard Tschumi’s new Acropolis Museum might look like. From the Greek government’s point of view, he is the ideal architect to design a home for the Parthenon marbles in the unlikely event that Neil McGregor ever changes his mind and lets them out of the British Museum.

Not only is Tschumi not Greek, and can therefore be presumed to be neutral in the struggle for the marbles, but he is also fashionable. So his appointment can be presented as a confident, open- minded gesture of cultural maturity rather than the more predictable selection of a favoured local son. With an international reputation based on his years teaching at the Architectural Association in London and now as the Dean at Columbia University in New York, the Swiss-born Tschumi’s credentials are impeccable.
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November 16, 2002

The true origins of the Elgin Marbles

Posted at 1:41 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles

The Elgin Marbles were carved by a Welsh sculpture called Phil Davies – allegedly…

The problem is that the story sounds more plausible that some of the other mis-information that is used to justify the continued retention of these sculptures in the British Museum.

From:
Artnose

Elgin Marbles were made by Englishman, claims Oxford don
By Percy Flarge
Artnose Cultural Heritage correspondent

THE ELGIN MARBLES were made by an English sculptor and are therefore definitively English and should stay in Britain, according to new research by the renowned Oxford archaeologist Dr Rex Tooms.

Dr Tooms’s research has uncovered fresh evidence that Pheidias, the Greek sculptor of the Parthenon Marbles (one shown above left) was not in fact Greek at all, but an itinerant worker of British extraction named Philip Davies who settled in Athens around 453 and who changed his name to Pheidias in order to insinuate himself into Athenian social and artistic circles.
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November 13, 2002

Greece offers Britain artefact loans in return for Elgin Marbles

Posted at 8:18 am in British Museum, Elgin Marbles

Greece has outlined a new deal to the British Museum, whereby a series of temporary loans of artefacts – some of them never before publicly displayed – would be made available if the Elgin Marbles were returned to Athens.

From:
The Age (Melbourne)

Greece offers art loan in exchange for Marbles
November 13 2002
London

Greece has offered to lend antiquities to the British Museum in exchange for the Elgin Marbles that once decorated the Parthenon but are now a star London attraction.

Museum director Neil MacGregor, however, said the frieze sculptures would not leave the country.
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Decision on Parthenon Marbles should be based on the will of the British People

Posted at 7:34 am in British Museum, Elgin Marbles

Greek Culture Minister, Evangelos Venizelos, says that the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece is the will of the British People. He is in the UK on a mission to promote the case for the return of the statues, currently housed in the British Museum.

BBC News

Tuesday, 12 November, 2002, 17:14 GMT
Minister puts case for Marbles return

The Greek culture minister has said the British people want the Elgin marbles to be returned to Greece.

Evangelos Venizelos is in London to introduce Greece’s first official proposal to return the marbles to their home and will meet the UK’s Culture Minister Tessa Jowell.
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British Museum claims return of Parthenon Marbles would rip the heart out of their collection

Posted at 7:27 am in British Museum, Elgin Marbles

The British Museum has responded to the recent calls from Greece for the return of the Elgin Marbles, suggesting that they have no intention on altering their position on the issue.

From:
Reuters

British Museum Resists Greece on Elgin Marbles
November 13, 2002 12:07 PM ET
By Christian Oliver

LONDON (Reuters) – Returning the Elgin marbles to Greece would rip the heart out of a collection that tells the story of human civilization, the British Museum said on Wednesday.

In a riposte to the latest efforts by Greece to repatriate the classical sculptures, the museum rejected proposals to send them back on a long-term loan basis.
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November 12, 2002

Return of the Elgin Marbles as a semi-permanent loan?

Posted at 8:39 am in British Museum, Elgin Marbles

The British Museum has long suggested that the return of the Elgin Marbles is not possible, because setting aside all other arguments, their governing charter, the British Museum Act, prohibits the deaccessioning of artefacts from their collections.

New proposals from Greece, of a long term loan of the sculptures, would be one possible way around this sticking point.

If this loan was reciprocated by temporary loans from Athens, this cold do a lot to help the British Museum’s finances, as the temporary exhibitions are a major source of additional income to the museum over & above the grant in aid funding that it receives from the government.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Monday November 11, 2002
Ray of light for Marbles?

After years of refusing to consider returning the Parthenon Marbles to Athens, the British Museum may be considering a radical plan to exchange them for a series of rotating exhibitions of ancient Greek artifacts that could help increase its revenues, Britain’s Independent newspaper reported yesterday.

The news came on the eve of Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos’s visit to London. Today he is to meet with his British counterpart, Tessa Jowell, and the British Museum’s new director, Neil MacGregor. The sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, will be at the top of Venizelos’s agenda. He will also be presenting plans of the new Acropolis Museum, which is to be ready by the 2004 Olympics and has been designed to house the marbles now in London.
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November 9, 2002

The skeletons in the cupboards of Britain’s Museums – literally

Posted at 8:48 am in British Museum, Similar cases

In colonial times, many human body parts were collected from burial sites across the British Empire. Now, the descendants of the people who ended up in museum archives across the UK want their ancestral remains returned. Scientists argue that more study needs to be done, before this valuable resource is lost – but this seems to overwhelm the overwhelming moral obligation for return, which exists in many of these cases.

From:
Independent

09 November 2002 22:23 BDT
The skeletons of colonialism may get a decent burial at last

Body parts trundled back from all corners of the globe and displayed like mere ornaments are among the exhibits most popular with visitors to British collections. James Morrison reports on moves to give other cultures’ ancestors a more dignified end
10 November 2002

To the Victorians, they were invaluable specimens crucial to the study of human evolution. Today, they are viewed by many as little more than grisly reminders of the worst excesses of colonialism. But sweeping changes to the policies governing museum collections may pave the way for the mass repatriation of human remains to their countries of origin.
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November 7, 2002

Beyond the Icon – The Parthenon and Its Sculptured Frieze

Posted at 12:53 pm in Elgin Marbles

A lot of what we hear about the Parthenon frieze, is in relation to it being split between two countries – so much so, that we often forget about the actual significance of the sculpture itself. It is something that is famous for being famous, its aesthetic dimension overshadowed by its political context. But in many ways, the significance of the sculptures politically – is down to the fact that they are so significant as a historical work of art – the arguments about them rise to the forefront, because they are a unique piece of cultural property.

From:
The Phoenix

November 7, 2002
Lecturer dissects meanings behind Parthenon’s frieze
BY KRISNA DUONG-LY

“It is understandable why, in the absence of a myth recognizable to us, we have chosen to interpret the [Parthenon] frieze in terms of what we know best,” Joan Breton Connelly said to 100 students, faculty and staff on Monday afternoon.

An associate professor of fine arts at the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University (NYU), Connelly gave her lecture “Beyond the Icon: The Parthenon and Its Sculptured Frieze” in the LPAC cinema.
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November 6, 2002

Newly discovered letter indicates that Elgin had no right to remove the Parthenon Sculptures

Posted at 1:03 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles

A letter dating to 1811, suggesting that the Seventh Earl of Elgin had no right to remove the Parthenon Sculptures has sold for £7,000 at auction. I’m very interested to see the full contents of the letter, to find out exactly what it reveals.

From:
BBC News

Wednesday, 6 November, 2002, 18:16 GMT
Elgin Marbles letter fetches £7,000

A letter which could help to resolve the row between Britain and Greece over the Elgin Marbles has been sold to a Greek buyer at auction for £7,000.

The handwritten 19th-Century letter, bought by an anonymous bidder from Athens, fetched seven times its reserve price after frantic bidding.
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November 2, 2002

British man returns amulet taken after the siege of Magdala

Posted at 1:54 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles, Similar cases

The British Museum likes people to believe that there is no purpose in returning artefacts that left their original context long ago (for arguments sake, lets say, prior to the begining of the Nazi era (1933), as we know that artefacts since then have been considered as valid for return). If public opinion (& actions) go against this point of view though, they may be forced to reconsider.

From:
Independent

02 November 2002 12:59 BDT
Return of amulet puts pressure on British Museum
By Andrew Heavens in Addis Ababa
02 November 2002

A sacred amulet is due to be returned to Ethiopia today, 135 years after a British soldier ripped it from the neck of the country’s Emperor during a battle.

An anonymous British man has agreed to hand over the artefact which was taken at the siege of Magdala in 1868. The return will step up pressure on the British Museum and other institutions which still hold hundreds of illuminated manuscripts, crowns and religious objects seized at the same time. It is also the latest in a line of controversies over the repatriation of foreign treasures from Britain, including Nigeria’s Benin Bronzes and the Elgin Marbles.
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Greek Prime Minister talks to Tony Blair about return of Elgin Marbles

Posted at 1:13 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles

Greek Prime Minister, Costas Simitis, is going to raise the issue of the Parthenon Sculptures with Tony Blair whilst on an official visit to Britain.

From:
Macedonian Press Agency

GREECE ASKS FOR RETURN OF MARBLES
London, 29 October 2002 (12:06 UTC+2)

Greece officially asked for the return of the Parthenon Marbles during Prime Minister Kostas Simitis’ meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London, concerning EU enlargement and Cyprus’ accession. Mr. Simitis stressed that discussions must begin, so that the marbles can be placed in the new Acropolis Museum for the 2004 Olympics.

As Mr. Simitis mentioned, all issues concerning bilateral relations and the EU were discussed sincerely.
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