The annual lecture of the Irish Museums Association is this year being presented by Dimitrios Pantermalis, director of the New Acropolis Museum, on the topic: Collections present and absent at the New Acropolis Museum.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday 18th November – further details below.

From:
Irish Museums Association

MUSEUM NEWS – IMA EVENTS
[...]

2009 (November) – IMA Annual Lecture: Held in memory of Dr James White. Collections present and absent at the New Acropolis Museum, Athens will be presented by Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis Director, New Acropolis Museum in the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology, Kildare Street, Dublin 2 on Wednesday 18 November 2009 at 6.30pm. See our poster for details, admission is free but booking is essential. To book a place contact Ms Carla Marrinan, IMA Administrator at +353-1-4120939 or office@irishmuseums.org

[...]

You can view the poster for the lecture here.

Next week’s episode of The Agenda, a programme presented by Yvonne Ridley on Press TV is on the subject of Treasure: Who really owns stolen and looted artefacts?. I am appearing on the show, along with three other guests, to discuss various aspects of this issue. The programme isn’t specifically about the Parthenon Sculptures, but covers them along with many other similar cases.

The programme is on Friday 13th at 19:05 GMT for 55 minutes. If you are in the UK, Press TV is available on Sky Channel 515. It should also be available on satellite or cable in most other English speaking countries.

You can watch the channel live online here. You can also watch it after the show has been broadcast on this archive page for the programme.

Submissions are invited for abstracts for a conference on Museums & Restitution to be held at the University of Manchester on 8th & 9th July 2010. Any abstracts should be submitted by 11th December 2009.

From:
Kostas Arvanitis (by email)

Call for papers
Museums and Restitution
International Conference
8-9 July 2010, University of Manchester

http://www.manchester.ac.uk/museumsandrestitution/

Museums and Restitution is a two-day international conference organised by the Centre for Museology and The Manchester Museum at the University of Manchester. The conference examines the issue of restitution in relation to the changing role and authority of the museum, focussing on new ways in which these institutions are addressing the subject.
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This week, the University of Tennessee is using a regular discussion programme to talk about the Parthenon Sculptures and other restitution claims.

From:
The Daily Beacon (University of Tennessee)

Beacon Bits
Staff Reports
Thursday, September 17, 2009 issue

Global Hour evaluates antiquities trade

This week’s Global Hour, a weekly discussion of current events, will address how nations are dealing with antiquities such as the Elgin Marbles. Removed from Greece to be displayed in the British Museum, the collection of marble sculptures are one example of a nation’s heritage that has been displaced. Global Hour will be held Thursday at the I-House from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

[...]

During the summer of 2009, the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square has been occupied by various people as part of a project organised by the sculpture Antony Gormley.

This Saturday, Sofka Smales, a student from Calderdale will be using her sixty minutes on the plinth to raise awareness for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Athens. Here time on the plinth will start at 11:00pm.

From:
Halifax Courier

Wednesday, 9th September 2009
‘Send them back’ call: Elgin Marbles plea of our plinth ‘goddess’
By Colin Drury

AN art student will dress as a Greek goddess when she becomes the latest Calderdale person to take to the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, London
Sofka Smales, 19, will use her hour on the stone stand to campaign for the Elgin Marbles to be returned from London to Athens.

She was selected at random from more than 30,000 applicants to appear on the plinth as part of Antony Gormley’s One & Other project which sees a different person take to the plinth every 60 minutes for 100 days.
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Submissions are invited for a special edition of Critical Interventions on Africa’s cultural heritage in the museums of the West.

From:
Kwame Opoku (by email)

Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture – Fall 2010
By Kwame Opoku
WHO OWNS AFRICA’S CULTURAL PATRIMONY?

Critical Interventions invites submissions for a special issue on the question of Africa’s cultural patrimony in Western museums, especially in the context of recent international debates about repatriation of historical artworks relocated from one culture to another through conquest, colonization or looting. In the first decade of the 21st Century, demands by various countries for repatriations of significant artworks and cultural objects have shaken up established ideas about the ownership and location of historical cultural objects. While many Western museums have been willing to reach agreements about repatriating or compensating for culturally important artworks in their collections claimed by other Western countries, there has been no acknowledgement of the right of Africans to ownership of African artworks looted from Africa during colonialism, which are now held in the so-called “Universal Museums” of the West. Read the rest of this entry »

Bernard Tschumi, the architect who designed the New Acropolis Museum will be a keynote speaker at the annual Latsis University Prizes Ceremony at the University of Geneva.

He is giving this talk at 18:00 on Monday 5th October.

BBC1′s current affairs programme; The Big Question will be discussing the ethical debate surrounding the return of disputed artefacts in next Sunday’s episode (tying in with the opening of the New Acropolis Museum the previous day).

More details about the programe can be found on the BBC’s website.

Finally after many years of speculation, disputes & delays, an official date has been given for the opening of the New Acropolis Museum. Parts of the building have been open for some time, but no public access has not yet been allowed to any of the museum’s main permanent exhibition spaces. The date set is 20th June 2009.

From:
International Herald Tribune

Greece to open new Acropolis museum in June
The Associated Press
Published: February 13, 2009

ATHENS, Greece: Greek officials say a new museum showcasing masterpieces from the Acropolis will be inaugurated this summer after long delays.

Culture Minister Antonis Samaras said Friday the opening ceremony will be on June 20. Initially, Greece had planned to open the museum ahead of the 2004 Athens Olympics.
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Author Sharon Waxman is giving a talk at the University of North Florida about who owns ancient treasures.

Waxman has recently generated a lot of interest in the issue with her book: Loot.

Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World
Author: Sharon Waxman
Publisher: Times Books
ISBN: 0805086536

From:
The Florida Times-Union

Ownership of ancient treasures focus of talk
Western museums are facing a fight for many centuries-old objects.
* By Jessie-Lynne Kerr
* Story updated at 6:13 AM on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009

The battle over who owns ancient treasures will be the subject of a lecture by author and award-winning journalist Sharon Waxman at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the University of North Florida’s University Center.

The event is sponsored by UNF and the World Affairs Council of Jacksonville.
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This interview with Sharon Waxman indicates that the Getty’s reaction to her recent book on looted artefacts has not been particularly positive, due to her coverage of some of the institution’s practises.

Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World
Author: Sharon Waxman
Publisher: Times Books
ISBN: 0805086536

From:
Boston Globe

Sharon Waxman: On the trail of ‘Loot’
Posted by David Beard, Boston.com Staff December 2, 2008 07:22 AM

Sharon Waxman, a former Washington Post and New York Times culture reporter, appears in Cambridge on Wednesday to speak about “Loot” (Times Books), her account of the US and European plunder of Third World antiquities — and the return home for some of the art. She spoke from her home in Los Angeles.

Q: Your last book, “Rebels on the Backlot,” was about six Hollywood bad boy film directors of the 1990s. Could “Loot” be any more different?
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Bernard Tschumi, one of the two designers of the New Acropolis Museum (along with Michael Photiadis) is to give a talk this coming Tuesday at the RIBA in London on the New Acropolis Museum. Tickets must be booked in advance as space is limited. There is also a second talk for students on the morning of the day after.

From:
Hellenic Foundation for Culture

New Acropolis Museum: The London Preview
Events organized by the HFC in UK and
the Royal Institute of British Architects
2 & 3 December 2008, Jarvis Hall – RIBA,
London

The Hellenic Foundation for Culture and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) present the London preview of the New Acropolis Museum, scheduled to open in Spring 2009, on 2 & 3 December 2008, at RIBA’s Jarvis Hall in London. The events are organized under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture with the support of the Organisation for Construction of the New Acropolis Museum.
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