From:
London Daily News

01 July, 2009 12:03 (GMT +01:00)
“Greeks should build a statue to Lord Elgin in Athens”, Telegraph editorial
International News

In what is becoming an increasingly protracted debate, the issue of the reunification of the stolen marbles of the Parthenon took a new dynamic with a highly provocative editorial by Richard Dorment the arts editor of the Daily Telegraph calling for the Greeks to “erect a statue of Lord Elgin near the Parthenon to express their nation’s gratitude to him for saving the marbles”.

Ironically an extensive report published in 1999 by world archeological experts found that the “Elgin marbles” morphology had suffered as a result of the “misguided efforts to make them whiter than white”. The report went onto to say :

“Original carvers’ toolmarks had been removed and scratch marks had been left by the unskilled labourers who had used copper chisels and wire brushes to clean the marbles in the 1930s.”

In the same article Dorment said that “that if anyone thinks the building (Acropolis museum) is ever going to house anything other than the plaster casts that are on display there now, they are hopelessly out of touch with reality. There is virtually no chance that the director of the British Museum now or in the future will comply with this outlandish demand”.

The International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures in a letter to the British Museum said:

“The new Acropolis Museum has been designed specifically to allow for the proper exhibition of all of the surviving two and a half thousand- year – old sculptures of the Parthenon in their original configuration. This cannot be done in the Duveen Gallery of the British Museum, which is too small even for the Elgin collection to be correctly exhibited.”

The comments by Dorment underline the illogical and anachronistic arguments held by the supporters of the “Elgin marbles” which frankly underline a bygone era of British imperialism which is now past memory. So that London is not humiliated publicly in 2012 when the Greeks are threatening to not allow the Olympic flame to be sent to London, a gesture by the British Museum’s trustees should be forthcoming to allow Greece to exhibit the Parthenon sculptures in Athens.

In a poll conducted by the London Daily News 78.59% (2941) agreed that the British Government return the”Elgin Marbles” back to Greece.

From:
Agence France Presse

Return Elgin marbles for London Olympics: campaigners
3 days ago

ATHENS (AFP) — The 2012 London Olympics would represent a symbolic moment perfect for the return of the long-disputed Elgin Marbles from Britain to Greece, campaigners said Friday.

Representatives of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures (IARPS) — which has members in 17 countries — visited Athens Friday ahead of the new Acropolis Museum’s inauguration on Saturday.

“We urge the United Kingdom to begin the process of reunifying the Parthenon sculptures in the (New Acropolis Museum),” said David Hill, the association’s president, during a press conference.

“We believe that the occasion of the 2012 London Olympics would be an appropriate time to return the Parthenon sculptures to Greece.”

Hill said the new museum “provides the ideal venue” as it is “within the sight of the Parthenon.”

He said it was impossible to display the Elgin Marbles, as they are known in Britain after the aristocrat who expropriated them from Greece at the beginning of the 18th century, in their original state in their present setting, the smaller Duveen Gallery of the British Museum in the English capital.

The new museum includes a Parthenon room, specifically designed to accommodate the fifth century BC masterpiece.

From:
ABC (Australia)

Transcript
This is a transcript from Correspondents Report. The program is broadcast around Australia on Sundays at 08:00 on ABC Radio National.
Greek marbles could now have Athenian home
Correspondents Report – Sunday, 21 June , 2009
Reporter: Helena Smith

ELIZABETH JACKSON: After years of delays, the New Acropolis Museum opens in Athens this weekend, with prime ministers and heads of state flying in from around the world to attend the inauguration of the building.

Activists, including David Hill, the former managing director of the ABC who heads the Sydney-based Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, hope the new museum will reinvigorate the campaign to bring back the Elgin marbles – the artworks that have been displayed in the British Museum since Lord Elgin removed them from the Acropolis over 200 years ago.

Helena Smith reports from Athens.

HELENA SMITH: More than 180 years after the declaration of Greek independence and three decades after plans were first put forward, the New Museum of the Acropolis will finally open its doors.

For Greeks at large the $AU220-million museum is a dream come true, and already thousands have rushed to snap up tickets to a building many thought would never get off the ground.

But while the striking glass and cement behemoth is situated at the foot of the Acropolis, is architecturally stupendous and will contain the world’s finest collection of antique Greek sculpture, Greeks say without the classical carvings that adorned the Parthenon – until Lord Elgin removed them – it will remain woefully incomplete.

To this end, the museum’s top floor facing the Acropolis has been has been purpose-built to display the masterpieces.

For a long time the British Museum argued that Athens had nowhere decent enough to exhibit its Golden Age wonders. But with that argument now crushed by the new museum, the fight to win back the marbles is about to be revived as never before.

And the Greeks are not short of supporters world-wide. In the past five years an international Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures has almost doubled in size, with members in 17 countries joining the Sydney based body.

Speaking exclusively to the ABC, the organisation’s president David Hill said he was sure the new museum would play a central role in reviving Greece’s push to retrieve the sculptures from the British Museum.

Singling out Australia for the support it has given Greece on the issue, the Greek Culture Minister Antonis Samaras said he had been heartened that political opponents like Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Frazer had put their differences aside to sign up to the body.

“It is,” he told the ABC, “indicative of the strength of feeling the marbles have aroused. So many people around the world, and even in Britain, now believe that they should now be back in Greece.”

If the Greeks had wanted to make a point that something is missing from their museum, they could not have done it better.

With more than 60 per cent of the ancient sculptor Phidias’ monumental frieze on display in London, thanks to Lord Elgin, Athens has had to make do with giant plaster-cast copies, acquired from the British Museum in the 19th century, to narrate the full tale that the carvings depicted of the great Panathenaic Procession.

The whiter-than-white plaster casts stand out like eyesores and have caused controversy before the museum has even opened.

This is Helena Smith in Athens reporting for Correspondents Report.

From:
International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures

NEWS UPDATE
November 11th 2008

Today it was announced that British based Marbles Reunited campaign has joined the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.

The Chairman of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, David Hill said he welcomed the addition of such an esteemed group to the international campaign.

The Executive of Marbles Reunited includes:

Emeritus President: Eddie O’Hara MP.

Chair: Andrew George MP

Marbles Reunited is a British based campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. The official full name of the committee is: Marbles Reunited – Friends of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. From 2001 until 2006, Marbles Reunited was known as Parthenon 2004.

The aims of Marbles Reunited are: “To promote by any lawful means the case for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece. and to that end, to support The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM) in its lawful activities.” Marbles Reunited runs their own campaign, but works closely with the BCRPM as required – the two organisations complement one another by targeting different aspects of the issue, with each having their own strengths & weaknesses.

Marbles Reunited is governed by a constitution & membership is open for a small annual subscription charge to anyone who supports the aims of the organisation. Marbles Reunited currently has over 60 members.

The addition of Marbles Reunited to the International Association brings the total number of members to fifteen.

Contact details for Marbles Reunited can be found on their member’s page

Bruce was a tireless campaigner for the reunification of the Elgin Marbles to Athens, with his efforts eventually leading to a motion being passed in New Zealand’s parliament urging the British Museum to return the sculptures.

He will be missed greatly both by the campaign within New Zealand, but also by other reunification campaigns around the world.

From:
Dominion Post

Zisis Bruce Evangelos Blades
Tireless community worker
PETER KITCHIN – The Dominion Post | Thursday, 10 July 2008

Zisis Bruce Evangelos Blades, engineer: Born Wellington, September 8, 1937; married 1967 Kathy Papadimitriou 1 son 1 daughter; died Wellington, June 26, 2008, aged 70.
Bruce Blades, of Brooklyn, was a civil engineer whose multiplicity of skills extended to sports field strategies and diplomacy.

He was a cultured dynamo whose enthusiasms were tempered by a great deal of commonsense and a closely held understanding of team and family dynamics. His negotiation skills were first-rate, and he had a disarming capacity for leaping hurdles in order to reach solutions.

His orbit of interests were wider than many people would shoulder, though to his family and his professional colleagues they were par for the course.

For example, in May last year, Parliament decided that the Elgin Marbles, housed in the British Museum, belonged to Greece. The impetus for such recognition was the result of a petition from Mr Blades (wearing the hat of chairman of the New Zealand Parthenon Marbles Committee), and 1020 others.

In 1998, when he retired as managing-director of Tse Group, he had spent more than 30 years with the partnership and its predecessor, C J Tse and Associates.

With the Tse organisation, he left his mark on national and international projects, among them ventures in Australia, China and Vietnam.

In Wellington, the multi-disciplinary group was involved in the design of the National Airways Corporation building in Vivian St (these days it’s Victoria University’s school of architecture), Maidstone Mall at Upper Hutt and Queensgate in Lower Hutt; the Salvation Army’s training college at Upper Hutt and a number of subdivisions, among them Kingston and Kowhai Park. For the second son of hard-working Greek restaurant owners Evangelos and Fotini Blades, of Kilbirnie, success was not accidental.

He was a bright youngster whose nous had been noticed at Lyall Bay Primary School. At Wellington Technical College he was dux in 1955 as well as being head prefect, captain of the first XV and the cricket XI, and college tennis champion to boot.

His sporting abilities were unquestioned. He captained the Poneke Rugby Club’s senior team in 1961 and 1962 as a 60kg first five- eighth, and he was a senior player for the Kilbirnie Cricket Club, beginning when he was just 18..

Mr Blades spent a year at Victoria University doing an engineering intermediate qualification before setting out for Canterbury University, where he graduated in 1960.

He then joined Ian Macallan & Co, consulting engineers, before heading abroad for a year in 1961. On his return, he joined the Ministry of Works, and in 1964 joined Wright Stephenson & Co as a structural engineer, initially to help supervise the construction of Challenge House on The Terrace.

He added a valuation qualification to his portfolio before the company’s engineering and design office, under the leadership of the late Jack Tse, was spun off. C J Tse & Associates, forerunner of the Tse Group, was the result, and Bruce Blades was one of its foundation partners.

It was one thing to be involved in heady engineering projects, and another to carry his skills into community work.

Bruce Blades lead the restoration of the Wellington College cricket pavilion in the late 1980s, and was also responsible for the construction of the cricket nets.

He was made a life member of the Wellington College Cricket Club for his services. He was a member of the Brooklyn School committee in the late 1970s and led the construction of playground facilities which are still there.

He was a key person in the planning and design of the major extensions and up-grades of the Poneke Rugby Club’s premises in 1969 and 1970 and more, a decade later.

As president of the Greek Community of Wellington in the early 1980s he drove through the construction of community rooms in Hania St, which to this day serve as classrooms for the community’s Greek language school.

He was author of Wellington’s Hellenic Mile, detailing the history of Wellington’s Greek-owned eateries. He wrote it as a tribute to his father and elder brother Basil, whose toils, notably at the original Astoria restaurant at the Bowen St corner, had helped pay for the university education of himself and his siblings.

He was awarded a Queens Service Medal in 2004 in recognition of his services to the community.

Bruce Blades died as result of a heart attack while playing golf.

He is survived by his wife, their son and their daughter, and by five grandchildren.

Sources: Blades family, Tse Group and others.

Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Cyprus, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden & USA

If people are aware of other organisations whose main goal is the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, especially national committees who are not already members, could they please let me know (using the contact form – menu at the top right of this page) & the details will be passed on to the relevant people.

Please note that membership of the International Association is only open to organisations – individual membership is not possible.

This is also a good point to remind people that the Marbles Reunited campaign in the UK is looking for a campaign director – see the previous post for more details.

From:
Herald Sun (Australia)

PM Kevin Rudd in hot water over Elgin Marbles joke
Gareth Trickey
April 08, 2008 10:15am

A JOKE told by Kevin Rudd that compared ownership of the Elgin / Parthenon Marbles to the Ashes urn has caused a stir among Australia’s Greek community.

Australia’s Greek Community leaders have questioned Mr Rudd’s comparison of the fight for the repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles with Australia’s desire to win back the Ashes cricket urn.

Mr Rudd, who is in Britain as part of a world tour, told a packed lecture theatre in London’s West End, “The loss of the Ashes is as unjust as the loss of the Elgin Marbles.”

The Prime Minister then acknowledged such a comment would “get you into trouble”.

Greece has long campaigned for the repatriation of the marbles to their original home on the walls of the Parthenon in Athens.

The British Museum refuses to return the marbles, named after British Lord Elgin, who took the sculptures off the walls of the Parthenon in 1801.

Steve Petrou from the National Centre for Hellenic Studies said Mr Rudd’s joke about the sacred Marbles was insensitive.

“I’m sure he will apologise but the damage has been done,” Mr Petrou said.

“If he says something like that in such a light-hearted style obviously he does not appreciate what Australia is all about.”

Mr Petrou said Mr Rudd’s joke indicated a change in the government’s view on multiculturalism.

“If we start making jokes about colour and we start making jokes about values of other nations then we show an insensitivity,” he said

“I’m sure everyone who is involved with the Marbles has a big heart and will forgive the Prime Minister’s slip of the tongue.”

David Hill, chair of the International Association of the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, said the return of the marbles to Greece was the number one world heritage issue.

“I wouldn’t use the analogy myself but I’m not sure his comments are making light of it,” Mr Hill said.

“I don’t mind whatever context he puts it in or whatever humour.

“If Rudd is saying the Parthenon marbles should go back to Greece, that’s a superb thing for him to say.”

From:
ABC News (Australia)

Cambridge debates Elgin Marbles
By Europe correspondent Jane Hutcheon
Posted Sun Feb 24, 2008 1:32pm AEDT

Cambridge University has debated the contentious issue of returning the Parthenon Sculptures, otherwise known as the Elgin Marbles, to Greece.

The statues were removed in the early 1800s by Britain’s ambassador to Athens, Lord Elgin.

Until now, Britain has declined to return the relics, despite public opinion supporting the move.

Chairing the debate at Cambridge was the president of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, David Hill.

He says the Association won the debate 114 to 46.

“Which was a really delightful result, but not altogether that surprising because despite the conservative nature of the university,” he said.

“That sort of outcome’s pretty consistent with all of the evidence of public opinion in Britain about the return of the Parthenon Sculptures.”

The British Museum says keeping the marbles in the UK has afforded them significant protection over the years, but Mr Hill rejects that claim.

“It’s an offensive argument that the British Museum have pushed – that Elgin saved the marbles,” he said.

“It’s utter nonsense. Elgin only took half the collection; the other half remained on the Parthenon. Particularly, the famous west frieze of the Parthenon.

“And if you now compare the condition of the west frieze, which remained in Athens, with the British Museum’s collection that they got from Elgin, the material in Greece is in better condition.”

‘Colonial booty’

Mr Hill says the issue of repatriating the marbles affects relations between the UK and Greece.

“The Greeks are very fractious people,” he said.

“[But] they all agree on this; that the marbles should go back. But at the same time, they have a traditional friendship with Britain and they don’t want to prejudice that friendship.”

He says Australia can understand how the Greeks feel.

“It’s interesting that the level of awareness about the Parthenon Sculptures is probably higher in Australia than any other country in the world except Britain and Greece,” he said.

“The British keeping hold of their colonial booty really offends the Australian sense of fairness.”

Mr Hill says Australia has led the way in campaigning for the return of national artefacts. He says he thinks the British Museum will only return the marbles when the British Government tells the Museum to send them back.

“Something similar has happened involving Australia,” he said.

“Eight years ago, [former Australian prime minister] John Howard and [former British prime minister] Tony Blair issued a statement about the desirability of the British Museum’s returning sacred Aboriginal human remains.

“Now the British Museum was totally opposed to that, but because of the public commitment of the British Government, after several years of bureaucratic process, in 2006 the British Museum returned the first of the human remains to Tasmania.”

The project has also been the basis for two articles in the Sydney University Museums News, one by David Hill, chair of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, The other article arguing for retention of the sculptures is by Dyfri Williams of the British Museum.

From:
Sydney University Museums News

Sydney University Museums News
Issue 13
October 2007
Who owns the marbles?
The debate hits Sydney

The Parthenon in Athens is one of the world’s most famous and instantly recognisable buildings. It is an iconic cultural symbol of the modern Greek state, and a reminder of a shared cultural heritage that reaches back to the 5th century BC; a defining period in the history of democracy, theatre, architecture, philosophy and more.

During the first decade of the 19th century, Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, was granted permission by the Sultan to remove decorative features from what was already a building in ruins. These marble sculptures and friezes are now in the British Museum in London.

In response to the growing demand for the return of these sculptures to Athens, Sydney University Museums has asked two of the leading figures on either side of the debate to comment. Dyfri Williams, the Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum, urges the need for co-operation and collaboration, while David Hill, Chairman of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, is more strident in his demand for “the British to right one of history’s great wrongs and return the wonderful Parthenon sculptures to their home”. Their articles, ‘Sharing your marbles’ and ‘Give us your marbles’ appear inside.

In October, Sydney plays host to Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis, President for the Organization of the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum, where the Parthenon Marbles will be displayed should they ever be loaned or returned by the British Museum. Also visiting are Maria Ioannidou, the Director of the Acropolis Restoration Service and Nikolaos Toganidis, the architect responsible for the Parthenon Restoration Project. Two of the highlights of their visit are a public discussion forum, ‘The Parthenon: Who Owns Cultural Heritage?’ at the Seymour Centre on 28 October, and a public lecture by Professor Pandermalis in the Nicholson Museum on 30 October.

To further highlight issues relating to the Parthenon, an exhibition of images of the restorations and of the New Acropolis Museum will be on display in the Nicholson Museum from mid October until the Christmas break.

Give us your marbles
By David Hill, Chairman of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures

Later this year Athens will see the opening of the magnificent new Acropolis Museum, arguably one of the most significant buildings to be built in the city for the past two thousand years. The Museum, which is located below the south east corner of the Acropolis, will house all the surviving ancient artifacts from the Acropolis – including the sculptures of the Parthenon.

It has been designed to house the sculptures on the top floor and these sculptures will be presented in exactly the same configuration and position as they sat on the Parthenon. The Temple itself can be seen from the Museum, through vast glass windows, across the Acropolis.

About half the surviving 200-odd pieces of marble sculptures from the Parthenon are in the British Museum, having been stripped from the temple by the staff of Lord Elgin, who was the British Ambassador to the region around 1800. Elgin had intended the sculptures to adorn his family estate in Scotland but in 1816, when facing severe financial problems, he sold the collection to the British Government. The Government passed them on to the British Museum.

Most of the other surviving sculptures are still in Athens, although a few smaller pieces and fragments are held in a variety of European museums, including those in Paris, Copenhagen, Vienna, Palermo, Munich, Strasburg and the Vatican. A small fragment from the Parthenon frieze was returned to Athens by the Heidelberg Museum last year.

Elgin took the sculptures that were in the best condition, leaving those that had been ravaged by time and events. He also left the entire sculptured west frieze, because the Temple’s heavy marble superstructure was still intact at this end of the building and too difficult to move. To remove much of the marble frieze, Elgin used special saws to cut them from the building and in doing so permanently destroyed much of the building’s structure.

In some cases Elgin took part of a statue piece, leaving the other half in Athens. The shoulders and breast of the magnificent, twice-life-size statue of the god Poseidon from the west pediment of the Parthenon is in the British Museum; the lower part of the torso remains in Athens.

The Parthenon sculptures are among the world’s finest surviving ancient art works. Built in the middle of the 5th century BC, the Parthenon is unique in a number of respects and represents a pinnacle of human achievement. It is also symbolic of the great cultural achievements of the time; in art, architecture, science, mathematics, theatre, philosophy and democracy.

It was the most decorated of all ancient Greek temples. Around the outside and on all four sides there were a total of 92 sculptured panels, or metopes, depicting a number of scenes reflecting the struggle of good over evil. It was the only ancient Greek temple with sculptured metopes on all four sides of the building. On the architrave inside the building sat the magnificent frieze that ran for 160 metres around all four walls, depicting a procession that culminates with the twelve Olympian gods seated on the sacred east end of the building.

In the triangular pediments at each end of the building were about 40 statues-in-the- round. At the centre of the east end was depicted the birth of Athena springing from the head of Zeus. At the western end the centre depicted a struggle between Athena and Poseidon for control of Attica.

The Greek Government and many supporters around the world have been calling for Britain to return the Elgin Collection so that the entire surviving work can be reunited in its original setting to allow the original narrative to be appreciated.

By not agreeing to return the sculptures Britain is increasingly out of step with modern museum practice around the world. No one would argue that all the objects in museums should be returned to their country of origin but there is now almost universal acceptance of the principle that items of special significance should be repatriated. In 1997 a survey of the British Museums Association revealed that 97 per cent of their members supported the principle of repatriating cultural property in certain circumstances.

The British Museum has no reasonable grounds for retaining the collection. On their website they say that the British Museum is a ‘universal’ museum and that in London more people are able to see the collection. However, less than one million people a year now visit the Duveen Gallery of the British Museum to see the Parthenon sculptures, less than half the number that visit the Acropolis in Athens. With the opening of the new Acropolis museum we can expect the number of visitors to further increase.

Throughout Britain and around the world there has been growing support for the return of the Parthenon sculptures. Surveys of public opinion in Britain in recent times have consistently demonstrated overwhelming support for their return and the parliaments and political leaders of many nations, including USA, Russia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China, Turkey and a number of European countries have joined the call for Britain to return the marbles.

The British Government should be commended for having initiated the return of the Nazi’s stolen artwork to their original owners, and more recently the return of aboriginal human remains to their original communities. We now look to the British to right one of history’s great wrongs and return the wonderful Parthenon sculptures to their home.

Sharing your marbles
By Dyfri Williams, Keeper of Antiquities at the British Museum

Museums may be divided into two types: those that attempt to serve one particular location and those that attempt to serve the world by including all places and all people. Both types are vital to our understanding of the material remains of the various cultures of the world.

The fact that history has shared the Parthenon sculptures between more than one location and more than one nation (in fact, seven in all) is particularly significant. It allows for a plurality of approaches and an extraordinary diversity of visitor response. The sculptures can speak in their Athenian context, among other things wrought, one might say, for an ancient imperialist city supported by slave-labour (rightly in the case of ancient Athens). In other museums that do their best to introduce people from all over the world to the cultures of others, although they are sometimes accused of being full of imperial loot (wrongly in the case of the British Museum), the sculptures help to reveal interconnections and differences, and to allow perhaps for a new understanding in a spirit of tolerance.

What is needed now is a greater sharing of knowledge and understanding of the Parthenon and its sculptures in order to help everyone to see them better. This is best done through collaboration not confrontation. It is hardly a solution to display in a spectacular new museum “veiled” (and thus illegible) casts of sculptures currently elsewhere in a not so veiled attempt at blackmail. Nor does it seem suitable to destroy a listed Art Deco building just so that the view from the café (not the gallery) of that museum can be unimpeded. But such are the stories that journalists love. Our aim should be to make all the pieces everywhere, those in the various museums round the world, those many sadly still on the building and, as best we can, those sculptures and parts of sculptures that are tragically lost forever (some 50 percent), available to all, in a modern fashion and for free.

Much important work has been done in Athens in recent decades by scholars in piecing together the fragments of the sculptures found scattered all over the Acropolis rock, most especially by the current Ephoros of the Acropolis, Dr Alexandros Mantis, on the metopes from the south side of the Parthenon. This astonishing research needs to be better known by all.

With the possibility of inspiring a future collaborative project, the British Museum began an assessment of the quality of three dimensional scanning, the basic tool for reconstructing and manipulating the sculptures virtually. It was decided to concentrate on one metope (South IV), which is divided between the British Museum and the National Museum in Copenhagen, and, at the same time, make sure there was an endproduct that could be delivered to the public as a short computer-generated film. In this way, we could both reveal the potential of the technology and, while telling the metope’s “modern” history, recreate its original condition, complete with metal attachments and painted colour.

A still shot from this new computer-generated film now on display in London (and shortly also in the museum gallery in Copenhagen; and at Harvard in the special exhibition Painted Gods) shows the heads in Copenhagen set in place, the pieces of the figures that were drawn in 1674 by Jacques Carré but destroyed in the terrible explosion of 1687 restored, and the obvious other missing elements reconstructed on the basis of better preserved examples among the metopes.

The lost metal wreath on the youth’s head and the sword in his hand have also been restored. As for colour, the only actual remains of pigment that have been precisely located, independently confirmed and subjected to scientific analysis were found in recent years on the triglyphs and on the raised band on the upper side of a metope. Both were dark blue.

Other visual sources, however, including sculptures, terracottas and vase-paintings, have been used to provide some sort of a coloured reconstruction. One specific issue of colour may perhaps be resolvable – the colour of the architectural background to the sculpture of the metope. A number of nineteenthcentury architects and artists, in trying to restore the Parthenon’s original polychromy, gave the colour of the metope ground as either blue or red, the latter being the favoured choice. For example, a red metope ground was chosen for the otherwise uncoloured exterior of the extraordinary replica of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee. Nevertheless, a white or entirely unpainted background now seems the most likely solution, especially on the analogy of the wonderful, painted Macedonian tombs at Vergina and elsewhere, all fairly recent discoveries, which reveal blue triglyphs, white metopes with a blue band at the top, and red bands below and above. This solution has been used in the film to briefly explore how colour affected the viewer’s ability to understand the sculptures from a distance.

The creation of such a didactic film has led us to question and test many traditional assumptions about the metopes. The creation of a larger project would enable further collaborative research and certainly new and important results. Such an endeavour, combining scholars from all over the world, could be expanded to cover the whole Parthenon and form the core of an exciting multi-level educational tool. But this requires collaboration and support. Let us leave behind all the posturing and sniping, as discussed and do something of real benefit for all.

From:
International Herald Tribune

Campaigner urges Greece to fight for Marbles for new Acropolis museum
The Associated Press
Published: October 5, 2007

ATHENS, Greece: Greece should use the opening of its new Acropolis museum to ratchet up the pressure on Britain for the permanent return of the Parthenon Marbles to their homeland, the head of an international campaign said Friday.

The 2,500-year-old sculptures and friezes were removed from Greece in the early 19th century by British diplomat Lord Elgin and successive British governments have refused to return them despite a campaign launched by Greece in the early 1980s.

“What we would like to see is the Greek government to elevate this as an issue in bilateral relations between Britain and Greece,” said David Hill of the International Organization for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles after meeting Greece’s new Culture Minister Michalis Liapis.

The €129 million (US$181.5 million) museum, originally slated for completion before the 2004 Olympics in Athens, was delayed for legal reasons and by new archaeological discoveries on the site at the foot of the famed Acropolis hill.

With 20,000 square meters (215,000 square feet) of space, the facility is expected to display about 4,000 works, 10 times the number than the old hilltop museum it replaces.

A top-level, glassed-in gallery has been designed to hold the Marbles — if and when they are returned — while offering an unobstructed view of the Acropolis.

Curators will start transferring hundreds of antiquities to the new museum by crane on Oct. 14, although the new museum is not due to start opening until next year, with the completed galleries open by 2009.

Liapis told reporters that “the reunification of the Marbles is an historical necessity … with the return of antiquities to the museum in a few days, it gives us new optimism and perspective.”

Athens now proposes that the Marbles, currently kept at the British Museum in London, are returned through a long-term loan.

Hill said he hoped that Prime Minister Gordon Brown would prove more accommodating than his predecessor Tony Blair.

Blair left the matter to the British Museum trustees, who declined to return them saying the Museum owns them and that the sculptures, as part of the world’s cultural heritage, are best kept in London where visitors can view them for free.

But Hill said the new museum would allow the Marbles to be presented much better than in London.

“It (the museum) is the best argument for the return of the Marbles, and is arguably one of the most significant new buildings in Greece for 2,000 years. It is of enormous significance, not only to Greece but to the world.”

From:
Athens News Agency

11/07/2007
Liapis meets chairman of ‘Parthenon Int’l’

Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis on Friday morning met the chairman of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures David Hill, who told reporters he had been impressed by the new Acropolis Museum that is now nearing completion and the high priority given by Liapis to the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.

According to Liapis, the transfer of the sculptures currently held in the old museum on the Acropolis citadel to the new Acropolis Museum created a new hopeful, prospect regarding the return of the sculptures now held by the British Museum in London, while stressing that this was “a lasting historic debt”.

From:
International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures

Meeting with the British Government – July 17th 2006
Issued globally on Tue, 2006-07-18 18:04

At a meeting with the British Government in London on July 17, the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures requested that the British Government commit to a process that would result in the Parthenon Sculptures held in the British Museum being returned to Athens.

A deputation from the International Association, including its Chairman David Hill (Australia), Diogenis Valavanedis (Serbia and Montenegro), Krister Kumlin (Sweden), and John Voorhees (U.S.A), met with the British Minister for Culture David Lammy MP at the House of Commons on July 17 2006.

The International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures includes member orgnisations committed to the return of the Parthenon Marbles from 13 countries; Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Cyprus, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Spain, Sweden and the U.S.A. (www.parthenoninternational.org)

The Chairman of the International Association David Hill, said there was now overwhelming and growing support around the world for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures.

Mr Hill said the International Association had presented the Minister with a request that the British Government should establish an equitable framework that would allow for the Parthenon Sculptures that are currently in the British Museum to be reunited with the other surviving sculptures in Athens.

Mr Hill said there would be a very positive reaction around the world to a British Government initiative to return the Parthenon Sculptures.

For further information contact David Hill using the details on the contact page