May 18, 2015

The Daily Express and the Parthenon Marbles

Posted at 7:52 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles

I get the impression that of all the UK newspapers, the Daily Express is perhaps the one that is most incandescent with rage at the very thought that the Parthenon Marbles might one day return to Greece. Why this should be the case is unclear, because their articles are sometimes relatively factual, despite what the crazed headlines would suggest.

Here, we learn that Amal Clooney has a “lawyer nose” whatever that might be, and that she has been told to “butt out” (presumably in a different press release to the one covered by all the other newspapers, which did not use this language.

Perhaps Mr Desmond is feeling the pressure now that internal divisions within UKIP are jeopardising his latest stab at offering cash to political parties in the hop of getting a peerage. For the man who made his fortune from Asian Babes magazine, it is unclear why he has taken quite such a dislike to Amal.

George Clooney & Amal Alamuddin

George Clooney & Amal Alamuddin

From:
Daily Express

Amal Clooney sent packing after she sticks her lawyer nose into Elgin Marbles row
GEORGE Clooney’s barrister wife Amal has been told to butt out of a legal row between Greece and Britain over ancient Greek marble sculptures.
By Helen Barnett
PUBLISHED: 14:20, Thu, May 14, 2015

The international human rights lawyer had told the Greek government to take Britain to the International Criminal Court to reclaim the Elgin Marbles.

The sculptures date back to the 5th century BC and were acquired by Lord Elgin in Athens in the early 1800s when he was a British ambassador in Ottoman… and never returned.

They are currently housed in the British Museum but Greece is embarking on a battle to bring the Parthenon sculptures back to their homeland.

Amal Clooney, who is working on behalf of the Greek government, said earlier this week it was “now or never” to bring the scultpures, inscriptions and architectural features back.

But despite her advice, Nikos Xydakis, Greece’s the culture minister, said: “One cannot go to court over whichever issue and besides, in international courts the outcome is uncertain.”

The public don’t want the Greek Government paying expensive legal fees when the country is on its knees economically.

Instead, Athens would follow a ‘”diplomatic and political” approach.

A 150-page report penned by Mrs Clooney said taking the British Museum to an international court would be cheaper than pursuing other routes like London or the European Union.

It also said there was only a 15 per cent chance of winning a legal battle in London.

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Possibly related articles

Tags: , , , , , ,

5 Comments »

  1. mat8iou said,

    05.18.15 at 8:20 pm

    RT @elginism: Blog post: Richard Desmond’s Daily Express and the Parthenon Marbles http://t.co/tJVzQ8QG3x

  2. curranart said,

    05.18.15 at 9:25 pm

    RT @elginism: Blog post: Richard Desmond’s Daily Express and the Parthenon Marbles http://t.co/tJVzQ8QG3x

  3. gekitsos said,

    05.19.15 at 6:15 am

    @elginism No solution to take Britain to the ICC to reclaim the Marbles.It’s a matter of the Queen of Britain.The Queen schoud decide to…

  4. gekitsos said,

    05.19.15 at 6:17 am

    @elginism …return the Marbles with offsets like free visit to the Acropolis Museum for all the British forever in addition to discounts…

  5. gekitsos said,

    05.19.15 at 6:21 am

    @elginism …on airfare when traveling in a group with greek airline and have pre-booked guided tours.Just a personal suggestion.

RSS feed for comments on this post

Leave a Comment

We want to hear your views. Be as critical or controversial as you like, but please don't get personal or offensive. Remember this is for feedback and constructive discussion!
Comments may be edited or removed if they do not meet these guidelines. Repeat offenders will be blocked from posting further comments. Any comment deemed libellous by Elginism's editors will be removed.
The commenting system uses some automatic spam detection and occasionally comments do not appear instantly - please do not repost comments if they do not show up straight away