The recent statements by the Canadian Prime Minster, Jean Chrétien, indicate that he has no idea what is going on in his own government – and more worryingly, that he does not check what is happening, before making statements about issues.

From:
Globe & Mail

Thursday, May. 29, 2003
Elgin Marbles trip up PM in Greece
By SHAWN McCARTHY and JANE TABER
From Thursday’s Globe and Mail

Athens and Ottawa — Prime Minister Jean Chrétien tripped over the Elgin Marbles issue yesterday, not knowing that both the House of Commons and the Senate have adopted motions calling on Britain to return the ancient works of art to Greece.

No help to the Prime Minister, in Athens at the start of an 11-day European visit, was Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham, who also had no clue that on Tuesday the Senate adopted a motion encour­aging the United Kingdom to return the sculptures to Greece before the 2004 Athens Olympics.
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The British Museum claims to be the best place for looking after the Parthenon Marbles, but new claims suggest, that for the entire time it has been in their collection, they have labeled a piece as a left arm from the sculptures, when it is in fact a right arm. Whether or not this is the case has yet to be determined.

From:
Guardian

Artist says British Museum does not know left from right
Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent
Monday May 26, 2003

There are several ways of looking at the troubled history of the Parthenon marbles. The argument now is over whether the British Museum knows its elbow from its armpit.

As international controversy rumbles on over future of the marbles, the new bones of contention are in a shattered fragment of a 2,441-year-old arm.
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The return of aboriginal remains is a debate that has been ongoing for some time. The government has commissioned a legal report, due to be completed next month, that is expected to be sympathetic to the issue. Many scientists are very upset at the idea that museums may have to return any of these remains however.

From:
The Age (Melbourne)

Science versus sanctity
May 26 2003

Britain is considering whether to return ancient Aboriginal remains to Australia, and UK scientists are up in arms. Peter Fray reports.

Playing the reluctant scientist, Chris Stringer would have you believe he was “pushed”. But the reality is, he jumped, feet first, into one of the hottest scientific and cultural debates on the planet: who owns ancient remains? Is it the world’s museums or the descendants of traditional societies?
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The New Acropolis Museum has taken a long time to get to this stage, but many in Greece seem desperate to stop it from being built at all, despite the fact that the proper procedures have been followed & that the building has been deliberately designed to avoid disturbing the archaeological remains below.

From:
Athens News

FRIDAY , 23 MAY 2003
No. 13015
Acropolis Museum builders unfazed by imminent court ruling
JOHN HADOULIS

PROTESTERS opposed to the construction of Athens’ new Acropolis Museum in an area rife with archaeological remains have reportedly won a legal battle in their campaign to halt the project, but Greek media indicate that a final court decision on the issue could take months.

Reports on May 19 said that the Council of State sided with residents of Makriyianni – the area selected for the new museum at the foot of the Acropolis – who claim that the building’s foundations will damage a valuable housing complex dating from the Classical to the early Christian era.
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Graham Binns, who in recent years was well known as the head of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles has sadly died at the age of seventy-seven.

From:
The Times

May 22, 2003
Graham Binns

Promoter of the arts and of commercial radio, who campaigned for the Elgin Marbles to go back to Greece
From 1997 until 2002 Graham Binns was the chairman of the British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles. He was one of the committee’s first members, and was thrilled by the latest design for the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, where the Greek Government wishes to place the unified Marbles.

When the committee was first established, many thought its aim eccentric, but Binns was never deterred by the hostility which the views of the committee frequently met. He often conducted conversations through the letters columns of the broadsheet papers. In correspondence in The Times last year, he wrote: “If the British Museum ‘transcends national boundaries’, it makes sense to bring all the pieces relating to the Parthenon together in a purpose-built museum next to the monument where, indeed, they can be under the British Museum’s ownership and auspices. Things move on.”
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Greece’s courts have ruled against the legality of the planning permission for the New Acropolis Museum. The government has however vowed to ensure that the project can continue & is attempting to rectify the issues that led to this decision.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Monday May 19, 2003
New blow to Acropolis Museum?
Court reportedly rejects plan

The much-delayed project to build a new Acropolis Museum under the ancient citadel before the 2004 Olympics appears to have suffered a new blow, according to weekend reports that Greece’s highest administrative court has rejected initial plans for the 94-million-euro building.

Sources quoted by the Athens News Agency on Saturday and the Sunday Ethnos said the plenary session of the Council of State unanimously decided that the initial study for construction of the building, on the basis of which the construction permit was issued, illegally allowed the destruction of antiquities on the site that had been set aside for preservation. The ruling, which will not be officially made public for several weeks, also reportedly mentions that the Culture Ministry’s Supreme Archaeological Council has not sanctioned the destruction, as it is legally bound to do.
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