Showing 10 results for the month of January, 2003.

January 28, 2003

The public’s view on reuniting the Parthenon Marbles

Posted at 1:08 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles

The Times has published some of the responses that it received in response to its piece on the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.

From:
The Times

January 28, 2003

Return of the Elgin Marbles

With the 2004 Olympics approaching, is it time for Britain to settle this long-running dispute?
BRITAIN should return the Elgin Marbles to Greece. They form no part of our heritage and are rarely viewed by visitors to the British Museum. They should be reunited with their other halves in Athens.

David Brown, Colchester, Essex

Table talk

A SIMPLE solution struck me while reading Saturday’s article on the Elgin Marbles. Let the Greek and British powers that be sit around the table and trade pieces of sculpture. That way both countries would benefit, and visitors to the museums would be able to see the sculptures in a more complete form. I wonder if an agreement could be reached. Perhaps this would be asking too much of human nature.
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January 27, 2003

Virtually reuniting the Parthenon Marbles

Posted at 12:57 pm in Elgin Marbles, Parthenon 2004

A new exhibition, titled Marbles Reunited aims to demonstrate how much is gained if the surviving Parthenon Sculptures are reunited in one place, rather than fragmented between different museums.

From:
BBC News

Monday, 27 January, 2003, 14:11 GMT
Science reunites Elgin Marbles

A virtual reality exhibition showing how the Elgin Marbles would look if they were reunited goes on display at the Houses of Parliament on Monday.

The latest technology is being used to simulate how the 5th Century BC sculptures will appear if they are reunited with the rest of the Parthenon Marbles in Athens.
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January 25, 2003

Olympic medalists back the return of the Elgin Marbles to Athens

Posted at 1:16 pm in Elgin Marbles, Parthenon 2004

Various former Olympic medal winners from Britain have expressed their support for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece.

From:
Guardian

Medallists back return of marbles to Parthenon
David Hencke
Saturday January 25, 2003

Ten British Olympic medal winners are backing the return of the Parthenon marbles to Greece for next year’s Olympic Games, it will be announced on Monday.

The move – which will be a big fillip for the campaign to base the sculptures removed by Lord Elgin in a new purpose-built museum at the Parthenon – comes after the British Museum insisted that they must remain as major attraction in Britain.
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Comic book about the Parthenon Sculptures

Posted at 1:12 pm in Elgin Marbles

A new comic book aims to re-tell the story of the Parthenon Marbles in graphic format.

From:
The Times

January 25, 2003
Lord Elgin pilloried in comic frieze
By Dalya Alberge

A BRITISH-IRANIAN businessman has seen the funny side of the Elgin Marbles dispute, publishing an Asterix-style comic strip about the Briton who helped himself to the Parthenon sculptures.

Amir Sobati, 32, who moved to Athens two years ago to set up an internet company for the hotel industry, has written and published The Parthenon Marbles & Lord Elgin, the Earl’s life story from cradle to grave with 400 pictures.
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January 22, 2003

Problems with the declaration of Universal Museums

Posted at 1:24 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles, Similar cases

Many countries (generally most of those whose institutions weren’t involved in signing the declaration) have issues with the “Declaration on the Importance and Value of Universal Museums”, that was issued a few months ago. The declaration favours only seeing one version of history, while ignoring other verions and the original owners.

From:
People’s Daily

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 22, 2003
Foreign Museums Refuse to Return Cultural relics, Chinese Experts in Action

On 10 December, 2002, eighteen major museums and research institutes of Europe and America, including the British Museum and the Louvre Museum, jointly signed a Declaration on the Importance and Value of Universal Museums (hereinafter referred to as “Declaration”), which opposes returning art works, especially ancient ones, to their original owners.

On 10 December, 2002, eighteen major museums and research institutes of Europe and America, including the British Museum and the Louvre Museum, jointly signed a Declaration on the Importance and Value of Universal Museums (hereinafter referred to as “Declaration”), which opposes returning art works, especially ancient ones, to their original owners.
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January 18, 2003

Athens resident thanked for Parthenon Marbles petition

Posted at 1:20 pm in Elgin Marbles

Greece’s culture minister has thanked a Plaka resident who collected over 27,000 signatures from foreign visitors who wanted the Parthenon Sculptures to be returned to Athens.

From::
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Saturday January 18, 2003 – Archive
Lost Marbles

Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos yesterday thanked Plaka resident Anna Sidiropoulou for gathering the signatures of 27,000 foreign visitors to Athens over the past five years on a petition for the return to Greece of the British Museum’s Elgin Collection of Marbles from the Parthenon.

January 12, 2003

Greece organises artefact exchange with Italy

Posted at 7:39 am in British Museum, Elgin Marbles, Similar cases

Greece is arranging an artefact swap with Italy, whereby they give Italy a fifth-century bronze Etruscan helmet, in exchange for a fragment of the Parthenon Sculptures.

From:
The Times

January 11, 2003
Grecian return puts Marbles in spotlight
From Richard Owen in Rome

GREECE is to return one of its greatest historical treasures to Italy in return for a small fragment of the Parthenon frieze.

The fifth-century bronze Etruscan helmet is one of two donated to the Temple of Zeus on Mount Olympus by Hieron, the “Tyrant of Syracuse” in Sicily. Hieron was giving thanks to the gods for his military victories over the Etruscans and Carthaginians.
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January 11, 2003

A tale of three Parthenons

Posted at 8:01 am in Acropolis

Mention the Parthenon to someone in Tennessee & it is likely that they will think you are referring to the copy in Nasahville, rather than the original in Athens. The Nashville copy is the most complete replica of the building, but it entirely lacks the imposing context of the original, being located in a flat park. There is another less known copy – the Walhalla in Germany, that whilst not being an exact copy of the building, enjoys a far more similar location, & as a result manages to recapture some of the magic of the Athenian Acropolis.

From:
Guardian

Welcome to Nashville, home of rhinestone, cowboys…
…and the Parthenon. Jonathan Glancey on the Athens of the south
Jonathan Glancey
Monday June 11, 2001
The Guardian

Subtract Elgin marbles from Parthenon and what do you get? Trouble, on a suitably epic scale. The battle for the return of the Parthenon frieze to its original home in Athens has been, to say the least, protracted. This summer it enters a fresh phase as 14 firms of architects around the world, but mostly in Greece, prepare designs for the new Acropolis museum – a cluster of three modern pavilions, one of which will be reserved for the Elgin marbles. How long it will stay empty remains to be seen. The position of the British government is that the marbles will stay in London.

Some 20bn drachmas (£36m) have been promised for the winning design team. The result will be announced later this year, and work is due to begin on the building at the start of 2002. One answer might be to reproduce the marbles. Well, maybe not. Everyone wants the real thing, and, in this case, the real thing is of undimmed magnificence – unlike the tourist-besieged Parthenon itself, which continues its long, slow decline, ravaged by pollution.
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Do global museums really serve everyone?

Posted at 7:57 am in British Museum, Elgin Marbles, Similar cases

The so called “Universal Museums” claim to represent the whole world, but it must be borne in mind, that this is an entirely self-appointed role, which comes at the expense of many specialist local museums. Proclaiming that they are in a different category of institution, to which the rules don;t apply in the same way as they do to others, raises far more problems than it solves.

From:
The Art Newspaper

We serve all cultures, say the big, global museums
Leading institutions seek to shift focus of debate on restitution
By Martin Bailey

LONDON. The world’s leading museums have for the first time united to issue a declaration. Their statement on “the importance and value of universal museums” follows increasing concern about the politicisation of Greek claims against the British Museum (BM) over the Parthenon Marbles.

Although the declaration released in December does not specifically mention the marbles, it points out that the acquisition of classical antiquities from Greece by European and North American museums “marked the significance of Greek sculpture for mankind as a whole and its enduring value for the contemporary world.”
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January 2, 2003

Marbles Reunited – a new exhibition about the Parthenon Marbles

Posted at 8:07 am in British Museum, Elgin Marbles, New Acropolis Museum, Parthenon 2004

Nowadays, the surviving Parthenon Sculptures are split between different museums. A new exhibition aims to give an idea what some of the pieces would look like if they were united together once more.

From:
BBC News

Thursday, 2 January, 2003, 17:38 GMT
Elgin Marbles make ‘virtual’ return

The return of the Elgin Marbles to Greece has been simulated in a virtual reality exhibition, showing how the Parthenon treasures would look if they went back to Athens.

The virtual exhibition was first presented to the UK during a recent visit by Greek culture minister Evangelos Venizelos.
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