Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles: breaking the deadlock?

Dr Tom Flynn of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles is giving a talk at the University of Geneva on 15th September. The talk is titled: The reunification of the Parthenon marbles and the role of cultural diplomacy in breaking the deadlock – Will we have to wait another 200 years?.

Find out more at the Facebook page for the event here.

Flyer for talk at University of Geneva by Tom Flynn

From:
Event Facebook page (google translated)

Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles: breaking the deadlock?
15 September at 19:00–21:00
Université de Genève – Uni Bastions

As part of the British Parliament’s vote bicentennial deciding to entrust the Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum, the Swiss Committee for the Return of the Parthenon Marbles is pleased to invite you to the conference at the Law Centre of the art of the University of Geneva and the European Centre culture:

“The reunification of the Parthenon marbles and the role of cultural diplomacy in breaking the deadlock – Will we have to wait another 200 years?”
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The next in a series of Parthenon Marbles related annual events will take place on 7th June 2016

A conference on the Parthenon Marbles will be taking place tomorrow at the Senate House of the University of London.

The event is jointly organised by the BCRPM, The South African Committee (SACRPM) & one of the Australian Committees (IOC-A-RPM).

To find out more, view the programme for the event here.

The theme of this year’s event is that it is to commemorate the bicentenary of the Act of Parliament that enabled the purchase of the sculptures from Lord Elgin.

The one time chairman of Marbles Reunited & long time reunification supporter has died aged 78

I first met Eddie O’Hara in 2001. Since then, I have got to know him well through out common interest of the return of the Parthenon Marbles, and he later chaired the Marbles Reunited Committee of which I am a member. On standing down from Parliament in 2010, he became Chair of the BCRPM,

He was tireless in his support for the issue, regularly raising it in Parliament, as well as speaking at conferences around the world in support of restitution.

During recent years, he had respiratory problems, but he never let this stop his campaigning, despite the fact that it clearly made travel far more difficult thatn it had once been.

Eddie passed away on Saturday 28th May 2016. His wisdom and vigour will be missed by all who knew him.

Eddie O’Hara MP and Parthenon Marbles campaigner

From:
Guardian

Eddie O’Hara obituary
Labour MP with a passion for the reunification of the Parthenon marbles
Julia Langdon
Tuesday 31 May 2016 17.22 BST

Eddie O’Hara, the former Labour MP for Knowsley South, who has died aged 78, had a lifelong passion for Greek scholarship and culture and was a fervent enthusiast for the long-running campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon marbles.

An irony of his years of dedication he gave to this cause was his good fortune to be alive to pursue it, as he had been personally identified as a military target when doing national service with the British Army in Cyprus in the late 1950s. A keen sportsman and athlete, he took a daily run outside the army camp, always along the same route in the Cypriot countryside, a routine that was observed by the Eoka terrorists who were fighting to free their island from what was termed “the British yoke” and who mined his path. Had the booby-trap not been discovered in time, the Greek Cypriots would have been denied the subsequent support O’Hara demonstrated as one of the most tireless and articulate advocates of their political interests.
The stories you need to read, in one handy email
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I was sorry to hear earlier this week that Chris Price had passed away at the age of 83.

For those who didn’t know him, Chris was a former Labour politician, who worked tirelessly for many years in support of the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece. He studied classics at Oxford and expressed his views on the Elgin Marbles (as they were then known) to colleagues as early as 1958. This is interesting, as many retentionists like to believe that any movements for return only originated when Melina Mercouri became Culture Minister in Greece in the 1980s, whereas the reality is that the return movement has always existed.

Chris was one of the original members of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, and its Deputy Chairman for many years. He was also a member of Marbles Reunited, liaising between the two committees. He was also a great philhellene and critic of the Turkish invasion of Northern Cyprus. Unlike many of today’s politicians, he was a man of substance and conviction – somebody who would do what he believed to be right, rather than perpetually worrying about whether this would damage his chances of being re-elected.

After leaving parliament following electoral defeat in 1983, he went on to become the vice-chancellor of Leeds Polytechnic during its transition to becoming a university, part of his lifelong commitment for a fairer and more equal society and the importance of educational opportunity. Once he retired had more time available to devote to the restitution of the Parthenon Sculptures, regularly using his parliamentary contacts and in-depth knowledge of government procedures to secure meetings, discover about new bills that were going to be debated and otherwise intervene, to make sure that the opinion of those supporting reunification of the sculptures was heard.

He enriched the lives of all of us who were lucky enough to have known him, and his expertise will be missed by all who campaign for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures. While others might have pre-conceived ideas of how the campaign should be managed, Chris was always open to adapting strategies and incorporating new approaches, in order to accommodate changing conditions. When I last met with him in 2010, he was enthusiastically talking to me about the idea of cultural decolonisation – the idea that Britain had decolonised physically, but never bothered to send back the cultural artefacts when she granted independence & that this was a widespread movement that needed to happen.

Chris died last Saturday 20th February 2015, after a period of poor health following a stroke.

Christopher Price, Deputy Chairman of the BCRPM

From:
Independent

Christopher Price: Energetic MP who despite his combative nature was liked and admired both by colleagues and opponents
Tam Dalyell
Tuesday 24 February 2015

It was Christopher Price’s misfortune – and in my informed opinion the nation’s – that he never held a safe Labour seat. In 1966 he took Birmingham Perry Barr from the Conservative incumbent Dr Wyndham Davies but perished when Edward Heath came to power in 1970. In February 1974 he was elected to Lewisham West, and held the seat in 1979, but to the huge sadness of his many Labour friends – he had the rare gift in politics of being candid and outspoken without making enemies – he lost by a sliver in the 1983 election at which Gerald Kaufman described Labour’s manifesto as “the longest suicide note in history”.

Had Price survived he would certainly have been elected to the Shadow Cabinet, and might well have been elected leader rather than Neil Kinnock; he would have garnered votes from a number of colleagues. His eventual successor in Perry Barr, Jeff Rooker, then a young engineering manager, told me Price had been well-regarded by the Birmingham Labour councillors and local union leaders. Jill Knight (Edgbaston) remembered him as a first class colleague on City of Birmingham supra-party issues. Brian Walden, elected in 1964 for Birmingham all Saints, told me, “Chris Price was a very, very good constituency MP. He genuinely cared about people, not least those from ethnic minorities. I have nothing adverse to say about him.” Coming from the most acerbic TV inquisitor of our age, that last sentence is an accolade.
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The book & now the film of Monuments Men have been covered a number of times already on this website.

Now that the film is out in the cinemas, others have also made the connection between the stories it describes & that of the Parthenon Sculptures.

At a recent press conference, George Clooney was asked by a journalist about whether he thought that Britain should return Greek artefacts (a clear reference to the Parthenon Sculptures). He stated that he felt that Greece had a very good case to make, and that is would be a very fair thing to happen if they were returned.

George Clooney, Star of Monuments Men

In response to this, the the chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, John Whittingdale, suggested that Clooney didn’t know what he was talking about & that “There’s a very strong view in this country that they should stay in the UK”. Clearly, he has not seen the results of the previous polls organised by the BCRPM & Marbles Reunited a few years ago, which indicated an overwhelming level of support amongst people who were well informed about the issue.

You can see a video of the actual question here:

From:
Independent

George Clooney believes Britain should lose its Marbles
Ian Johnston
Sunday 09 February 2014

Hollywood actor George Clooney has called for the UK to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, saying it is “the right thing to do”.

Clooney was speaking at the Berlin Film Festival yesterday during a press conference for his film The Monuments Men, which tells the story of a team sent by the Allies to try to save artefacts from being stolen by the Nazis.
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Regular readers of this website will already be familiar with James Beresford from an earlier piece that he wrote for the Museums Association Journal about the declining visitor numbers at the New Acropolis Museum.

Here, he follows on from the Round Table event held at the European Parliament in Brussels last month. As with his previous article, he raises some interesting points, although I don’t agree with many of the conclusions that he reaches. I met him a few weeks ago & found he had an amazing knowledge of restitution issues, spreading far wider that that of the Parthenon Marbles. At the same time, he likes to provoke – to get readers agitated & to confront people’s preconceptions (which is probably what a lot of the magazine editors want too).

Both the BCRPM & the Swiss Committee for the Reunification of the Marbles have written responses to his piece, which I have included at the end, as theses go some way to answering many of the points that he raises.

From:
The Parliament

EU funding for new Acropolis museum branded ‘inappropriate’
By James Beresford – 7th November 2013

James Beresford says European funding for Athens’ new Acropolis museum runs counter to the treaty of the EU’s requirement for such support to promote ‘solidarity among the member states’.

This article is in response to Rodi Kratsa’s article of 22 October.

The roundtable discussion held in the European parliament building on October 15 debating the return of the Parthenon/Elgin marbles, should be of great interest to European parliamentarians.
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The British Prime Minster’s comments last week on the return of the Koh-i-noor diamond & the Parthenon Marbles have been criticised by Eddie O’Hara, the chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.

From:
Museums Journal

PM’s concept is simplistic and indadequate, say critics
Prime minister David Cameron has been condemned for a lack of understanding following his statement last week about restitution of cultural objects.

Cameron was answering questions on a state visit to the site of the Amritsar Massacre, where British troops killed 379 Indians, when he was asked if he thought that the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which is part of the Crown Jewels, should be returned as goodwill gesture. The prime minister said he didn’t believe in “returnism” and that wasn’t the right approach.

He added: “It’s the same question with the Elgin Marbles and all these other things. I think the right answer is for the British Museum and other cultural institutions in Britain is to do exactly what they do, which is link up with museums all over the world to make our collections – to make sure that the things that we have and look after so well – are properly shared with people around the world.”
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As part of the colloquy on the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, Tom Flynn is going to look at what the Universal Museum really claims to be – and the many problems with the reasoning behind it.

From:
PR Newswire

Universal Museum Concept & Debate at the Global London Colloquy June 19, 2012
LONDON, June 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ —

The concept of the Universal Museum is at the heart of current debates about cultural property and nowhere more so than in the case of the Parthenon Marbles being held by the British Museum – arguably the definitive example of a ‘Universal Museum’. It is a subject that will be examined at the an international colloquy on “The Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles” to be held in London 19 & 20 June, to register please visit http://www.parthenonuk.com

As the start of the London Olympics approaches, pressure is mounting on the British Museum to reunify the Parthenon Marbles in what is universally acknowledged as their rightful home – the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, which opened in 2009. Greece’s acute economic plight has merely amplified the need for a cultural gesture that many believe would have an immeasurable impact in kindling a sense of optimism and hope among the Greek people.
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Greek culture minister, Pavlos Geroulanos, has met with the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles while on a visit to London.

From:
Greek Reporter

Greek Culture Minister Meets with British Committee for Restitution of Parthenon Marbles
Posted on 08 November 2011

A meeting was held among representatives of the British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles and the Greek Minister of Culture and Tourism Pavlos Geroulanos, who travelled to the United Kingdom in order to attend the London Tourism Exhibition.

The meeting’s attendees included the British Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament, Andrew George, who promotes the restitution of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.
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The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles is organising (with the help of two other committees), a symposium in London to discuss the repatriation of the Elgin Marbles to Greece.

ADVANCE NOTICE – INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUY ON THE REUNIFICATION OF THE PARTHENON MARBLES
LONDON HELLENIC CENTRE, 19-20 JUNE 2012

This conference will be presented jointly by:

• The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles
• The American Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures and
• The International Organising Committee – Australia – for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles (inc).

It is timed to coincide with the anniversary of the opening of the Acropolis Museum (www.theacropolismuseum.gr) and the occasion of the London Olympics which will start one month later.
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The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles have published a tribute to the journalist & author Christopher Hitchens, who was a long standing supporter of the campaign to return the Elgin Marbles to Athens.

From:
Sourcewire

Tribute to the late Christopher Hitchens from the BCRPM
Friday, 16 December 2011

The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM) today paid tribute to the late Christopher Hitchens who died earlier this week, for his keen support for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.

Eleni Cubitt, Honorary Secretary for the Committee said: “We are all deeply saddened by the news of Christopher’s death and we send our sincere condolences to his family at this time. Christopher’s contribution and belief in our cause was a great strength to me personally and he will be sorely missed as one of our key supporters.”
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Following taking over as the Chairman of the BCRPM, Eddie O’Hara talks to the BBC about why he believes that the Parthenon Marbles should be returned to Athens. Eddie O’Hara is also the Honorary President of the Marbles Reunited campaign.

From:
BBC News

5 January 2011 Last updated at 13:59
Parthenon Marbles: Taking up the fight
By Trevor Timpson BBC News

Greek calls for the UK to return the Parthenon Marbles, nearly 200 years after they were removed from the Acropolis and shipped to London, have a new advocate leading the battle in the UK.

Former MP Eddie O’Hara, the new chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM), has told the BBC News website he is optimistic the campaign for the British Museum to return the sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, will succeed.
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