Prompted by the attention on Greece & Athens brought about by the Olympics, many papers have carried articles about the Elgin Marbles & Greece’s campaign to have them returned.

From:
The State.com (South Carolina, USA)

Posted on Fri, Aug. 27, 2004

The Greeks still want their Elgin marbles back

By MATTHEW SCHOFIELD

Knight Ridder Newspapers

ATHENS – Aggelos Papandropoulos points to the east pediment of the Parthenon ruins, one of the man-made wonders of the world, and by far the most enduring symbol of his country.

“There is much that is missing from here that is very beautiful,” the historical preservationist explains. “It is the politicians who have to bring back what is missing. I merely work here. But there is much missing, and it is very beautiful.”
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Spiked, the online magazine, has an article (not their first) about the Elgin Marbles & why they believe that they should remain in Britain. The article repeats the same points that are often made by the retentionists however.
Firstly, they comment that the marbles are better displayed in the context of the other artefacts in the British Museum – but this ignores the fact that they were designed to be seen in a different very specific context, one which the British Museum makes no attempt to try & replicate. Surely in the New Acropolis Museum, you could also see the marbles in the context of other sculptures, but it would be a context much closer aligned to the story of the marbles, with other sculptures from the same period, along with other sculptures of different periods from the same site. One would be able to see the evolution that led to the marbles. Surely this is at least as important, & arguably far more important, than seeing the marbles in the context of other artefacts from far corners of the world with which they had no geographical or historical connection. Do you learn something more from seeing the Elgin Marbles followed by a native American totem pole or 16th century Chinese jade jewellery?
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The Marbles might not be back for the Olympics, but the event has created a lot of additional publicity worldwide for the case for their return.

From:
USA Today

Posted 8/25/2004 3:22 PM
Ancient art at center of dispute
By Patrick O’Driscoll, USA TODAY
ATHENS — At the foot of the Acropolis, a construction hole bigger than the Parthenon has come to symbolize empty diplomatic dreams, as broken as the hilltop ruins.
With the opening of the Athens Olympics, Greece hoped to open a new Acropolis Museum as well. Its crowning feature: A top-floor gallery of glass to display the reunited “Parthenon Marbles,” the priceless friezes and sculptures that once adorned the walls of the 2,500-year-old temple of Athena.
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One of the promises from the Greek government in their requests for the return of the Parthenon Marbles, was that in return, museums around the UK would be lent other Greek exhibits. A point that was picked up by many of the regional museums in England, although the British Museum has thus far not acknowledged the potential benefits this would have.

From:
icWales

Minister refuses to play marbles game
Aug 16 2004
Martin Shipton, The Western Mail

AS THE Olympic Games get under way in Athens, Greek campaigners for the return of the Elgin Marbles can take comfort from the knowledge that one Welsh council is on their side.

Monmouthshire County Council backed the campaign after being told there was a possibility other artistic treasures from Ancient Greece could be sent as a quid pro quo to local museums.
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Melina Mercouri might be gone, but her husband, the French film director Jules Dassin & the Melina Mercouri Foundation still strive for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures that she spent the later years of her life fighting so hard for.

From:
Reuters

Greece says give marbles back
Sun 15 August, 2004 10:55
By Paul Majendie

ATHENS (Reuters) – Film director Jules Dassin has made an impassioned plea for Britain to give Greece back the Elgin Marbles — their return to the Parthenon would be the perfect memorial to his late wife, Melina Mercouri.

“It is so wrong. It doesn’t make sense anymore,” said the frail 92-year-old, recovering at his Athens home from a bout of double pneumonia but determined to keep fighting to the end for the cause that so fired his wife.
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Another article prompted by the Olympics, this also covers the construction of the New Acropolis Museum.

From:
Toronto Star

Aug. 15, 2004. 09:08 AM
Going for all the Marbles
While Greece heralds the return of the Olympics, there is one more homecoming it would like to see

MITCH POTTER

ATHENS—It was synchronicity of the highest order: an ancestral homecoming for the Olympics, coinciding with the repatriation of the famously controversial Parthenon Marbles, the most precious missing pieces of Greek antiquity.

Such was the scale of cultural ambitions as Greece mused through the various ways it might elevate art to stand alongside sport in its planning for Athens 2004.
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Yet again, no one is available to comment at the British Museum when the press contact them about the Elgin Marbles.

From:
Reuters

Greece urges gesture on Elgin Marbles
Wed 11 August, 2004 21:42
By Dina Kyriakidou

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece has called on Britain to use the occasion of the Athens Olympics to promise to return the Elgin Marbles.

“The Olympics are starting now and we would very much like a commitment for their return,” said Culture Ministry official Elena Korka.

In London, no British officials were available for comment, but Britain’s line has always been it has no plans to hand back the 5th century BC masterpieces that were taken from the Parthenon temple by Thomas Bruce, the Earl of Elgin, in 1803.
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Quite a lengthy article, looking at some of the issues surrounding the case in detail.

From:
San Diego Union-Tribune

All the marbles
With the historic return of the Olympic Games to their birthplace, Greece hoped to showcase elaborate sculptures from the Parthenon. Britain won’t return them, igniting a spat for
By Mark Zeigler
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 10, 2004

ATHENS, Greece – In the residential neighborhood below the Parthenon is a nondescript building that houses the Center for Studies of the Acropolis. Inside is a long hallway lined with plaster copies and a few originals of the famous marble sculptures that once adorned the top of the Parthenon.

The building was closed to the public after a 1999 earthquake made the walls unstable. It was reopened last week.

And with it reopened one of the deepest scars in the Greek psyche.
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If nothing else, many more people around the world will know about the story of the Elgin Marbles as a result of the Olympics in Athens.

From:
Manila Times

Sunday, August 08, 2004
ANALYSIS
By JCM Romero 3rd
Cultural rift behind 2004 Olympics

The Olympics of old goes back to where it started in antiquity with the architectural splendor of Athens glittering as host of the 2004 Games. But the symbolic torch-lighting for the inaugural rites next week isn’t enough to thaw a cold Greco-British cultural relations focused on prize sculptures the London government refused to return to Greece in time for the global sports festival.
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At the same time as there is renewed interest in the Parthenon Marbles due to the Olympics, a book on the life of Mary Elgin, the wife of Lord Elgin is soon to be published.

From:
Houston Chronicle

July 31, 2004, 9:30PM
Playing for all Elgin Marbles
Dispute between Greece, England resumes with Olympics Games
SUSAN NAGEL
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle News Service

With the Olympic Games soon to open in Athens, one of the more bitter rivalries in history is set to resume, and it doesn’t involve parallel bars or water polo. The Greek government is spending tens of millions of dollars on a museum atop the Acropolis in hopes that Britain will choose this occasion to return the Elgin Marbles, the elaborate sets of sculptures pried off the Parthenon and shipped to London two centuries ago. The British, unsurprisingly, have not complied.
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