A few years ago, the commonly accepted theory was that the Parthenon Frieze depicted the Panathenaic Procesion. Recently though, various alternative theories have been put forward that possibly it is illustrating some completely different event.

Joan Breton Connelly’s book, the Parthenon Enigma bases a fictional story around another possible meaning of the frieze.

From:
Weekly Standard

Deep Frieze Meaning
What is the Parthenon telling us?
Sep 8, 2014, Vol. 19, No. 48 • By A. E. STALLINGS

The Parthenon represents, for many, a golden age in human achievement: the 5th-century b.c. Greek flowering of democracy, sciences, and the arts. But what if its chief ornament, the Parthenon frieze, turned out to be not an embodiment of reason and proportion—of stillness at the heart of motion, quiet piety, and enlightened civic responsibility—but (or, rather, also) something darker, more primitive: a representation of the critical moment in an ancient story of a king at war, a human sacrifice, and a goddess’s demand for virgin blood?

That’s the argument at the heart of The Parthenon Engima. The plot involves not only ritual murder and burial, but fragments of a lost play of Euripides found on mummy wrappings. Even the title suggests a Dan Brown thriller.
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I have to admit, that I’m fairly unconvinced by the plan presented in this book – but perhaps it is still better than having no plan. In my opinion, this particular proposal, draws on too many sources & makes too many slightly tenuous jumps to be seen as completely credible. At the end of the day, it does not come across to me as a clear concise argument that can be used to bring about restitution of the sculptures.

An interesting read nonetheless though.

From:
Neos Kosmos

How the Greeks can get their marbles back
The legal argument for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece
18 Oct 2012
Kathryn-Magnolia Feeley

The Parthenon Marbles will never be handed back to Greece on cultural grounds. That would upset the status quo of museums and collectors worldwide. But any reference of artefacts to present day religious significance sends tremors down the spine of curators of museums, as it would, undoubtedly encroach upon issues of Human Rights.

This must be the basis of the argument for Greece to regain the Parthenon Marbles. In 1801, Greece was under the occupation of the Turks. The Earl of Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time, bribed the Turks in order to get permission to hack away at the sculptures of the Parthenon. Elgin filled over 100 large packing cases with friezes, metopes and figures from the pediments and shipped them to England where they were sold to the British Museum in 1816 for £35,000 to pay his debts.
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Dennis Menos, secretary of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures & also a member of Americans for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures has published a new book. Purview:Her View tells the story of the removal of the Parthenon Marbles by Lord Elgin – but, as seen from the perspective of the one Caryatid, which is housed in the British Museum, 1000 miles away from her five sisters in Athens.

From:
Amazon

Purview:Her View
[Paperback]
Dennis Menos

This highly informative and entertaining work of historical fiction focuses on the life and times of the Karyatis (Caryatid) statue, presently in the British Museum and of her longing to return home to the Acropolis. Presented in a series of vignettes spanning 2,400 years of Hellenic history, the story of the Karyatis makes for fascinating reading, beginning with the age when twelve Gods ruled the world from on top of Mount Olympus, to the day in 1802 when the statue was removed from her temple by Lord Elgin’s crew and was shipped to London. In the intervening years, the Karyatis was eyewitness to some of the proudest but also darkest moments of Hellenic history, as a series of great empires — Athenian, Macedonian, Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman — rose and fell. The story opens in the British Museum, where the Karyatis bemoans the start of yet another day in captivity. She longs to return home to the Acropolis in Athens hence she was forcibly removed. In the Museum we also meet Sophia, an artist living in London and an admirer of the Karyatis whose painting she is working on. Eventually, Sophia and the Karyatis “connect” and a lively “dialogue” ensues between the two…..

Michael J Reppas, the chair of the American Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures has written a new book about how the issue of the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures might be approached from a legal perspective.

You can order it online from Barnes & Noble here. For some reason it doesn’t seem to be in Amazon’s catalog.

From:
Hellenic Communications Service

Book Release for Why Don’t We Just Sue the British Museum? A Litigator’s Perspective on the Elgin-Parthenon Marbles Debate by Michael J. Reppas, II, Esq.

Title: Why Don’t We Just Sue the British Museum? A Litigator’s Perspective on the Elgin-Parthenon Marbles Debate
Author: Michael J. Reppas, II, Esq.
Publisher: E-volve Publishing, LLC, 8004 NW 154h St. #214, Miami, FL 33016
Date of Publication: 2012
Language: English
ISBN: 978–0-9859755-0-0
Price: $29.99 (plus $3.50 S&H)
Description: 306pp softcover, incl. illus.
Availability: Website of The American Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, Inc. (downloadable order form) at the URL http://www.parthenonmarblesusa.org/index.php/support-acrps/michael-j-reppas-new-book . All proceeds donated by author to The American Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, Inc.

About the Book

Reppas skillfully crafts a trial for the return of the Marbles, with an impassioned Opening Statement, engaging trial transcript dialogue, introduction of exhibits and evidence, and Closing Statement.
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Monuments Men was originally a book by Robert M. Edsel, soon to be made into a film by George Clooney.

The story is based around people at various museums, who during the second world war did anything in their power to protect as many of their artefacts as possible from potential seizure by the Nazis. Now, in its own way, this is admirable behaviour – although I think a distinction needs to be made between protecting the artefacts – and just not wanting someone else to have them – thus enriching their culture rather than your own. Many of the items that were “protected” were removed from other countries in times of war – and these earlier removals were seen as entirely acceptable, while at the same time, we tried to stop the same thing from happening to them again. Many times, the excuse has been given for the removal of items such as the Parthenon Marbles, that had the British not takes them, Napoleon would have. Looking at it another way though, is this different from walking past a shop that has the door open at night & robbing it before someone else does, rather than closing the door & helping to secure it?

I’m sure that most of the monuments men had entirely admirable intentions – I just have trouble reconciling some of their behaviour & the reasoning behind it, with that of their predecessors – that the same action by one person can be right, when it is wrong by another.

From:
Get The Big Picture

Monday, October 29, 2012 at 7:06AM
Some Dude Named Clooney Snags Steve Zissou & Galadriel for Next Movie

Say what you will about George Clooney (and I really don’t have anything negative to say about the guy), but he has a pretty good eye when it comes to picking projects, be it for acting or directing. I’m a fan of the movies he’s directed (especially Confessions of a Dangerous Mind). He’s not flashy, workman like I would say, but outside of Leatherheads, the guy has delivered. His next project might be another win for the Cloonster and he’s bringing Bill Murray & Cate Blanchett along for the ride.

The movie is called Monuments Men (based on a book of the same name by Robert Edsel) and while it’s another movie set during World War II, this one has a really interesting premise:
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Graham Bishop has just released the latest in his series of Commissaire Pierre Rousseau Mysteries, called Return to the Parthenon. Much of the story is based around the marbles, that were lost at sea in the wreck of the Mentor off the coast of Kythera

It is available to buy as an e-book from Amazon. You can read the first chapter on the author’s website.

From:
Amazon

Return to the Parthenon (Commissaire Pierre Rousseau Mysteries) [Kindle Edition]
Graham Bishop

When HMS Mentor sank off the island of Kythira in 1802, 17 crates of sculptures prized off the Parthenon on the orders of Lord Elgin went to the bottom of the sea. Later they were all salvaged and taken to England. Or were they? Did the islanders save some of the sculptures themselves and conceal them on the island before the salvagers arrived? Why is an Italian diving team now searching the wreck? Pierre Rousseau and his Greek colleagues become involved in investigating what could be the find of the century. Returning lost scuptures to the Acropolis Museum in Athens would create a sensation. Or is all just a hoax to attract more tourists to the island?

If you talk to a group of lawyers who believe the return of the Elgin Marbles could be brought about by legal action (as I have done), and each one that you talk to will have a different idea of exactly how it can be achieved – in terms of which court, which jurisdiction, and which points form the basis of the case. One fact remains though – Italy argued for a long time with many of the big US museums for the return of looted artefacts – but only started to see any results once they had initiated legal proceedings against them. Whether or not legal action is aimed at winning the case in court, it can be a powerful tool for bringing people to the negotiating table with a more serious mindset – taking the case seriously rather than ignoring it in the hope that it will go away.

This new book by Greek Australian lawyer Kathryn-Magnolia Feeley gives her perspective on the legal issues involved.

From:
Greek Reporter

Feeley’s Legal Argument For the Return of the Greek Marbles
By Stella Tsolakidou on October 13, 2012 in News

Australian lawyer Kathryn-Magnolia Feeley offers her own approach to the issue of the return of the Parthenon Marbles from London to Athens. Her ideas will be officially launched Oct. 14 during her book presentation in Canberra.

The author of “How The Greeks Can Get Their Marbles Back- the legal argument for the return of the Parthenon Marbles ” is an expert on human rights law and has worked as an archaeologist in Greece before taking up her lawyer profession.
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Graham Bishop alerted me to a novel that he is writing, about French & Greek police trying to secure the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece. The story revolves around attempts to retrieve some sculptures from the the wreck of Elgin’s ship off Kythera.

From:
Commissaire Pierre Rousseau’s Diary

Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Back to the Parthenon

Our latest case is now written up in first draft. But before I submit it to the PJ there is a lot of work to do revising and checking facts. This time it was Patrick and Eleni who were the prime movers. Eleni spotted some suspicious goings on the the Greek island of Kythira and followed up a fascinating story told to them by a waiter at their favourite restaurant about the possible rescuing of some carvings from the Parthenon.

The background involves the foundering off the island of the HMS Mentor, the ship which carried the first of the cases Lord Elgin shipped back to England with the sculptures he had prised off the Temple of Athena the Virgin, that is, the Parthenon.

Should take a few months but then everyone will be able to read it.

Another review of Chasing Aphrodite, The book about the problems of looted artefacts in their collection that have plagued the Getty Museum for the last decade.

From:
Paste

By Chaz Oreshkov
Chasing Aphrodite by Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino
The Art of Looting
Published at 12:32 PM on June 12, 2012

“To me my works of art are all vividly alive. They’re the embodiment of whoever created them—a mirror of their creator’s hopes, dreams and frustrations. They have led eventful lives—pampered by the aristocracy and pillaged by revolution, courted with ardor and cold-bloodedly abandoned. They have been honored by drawing rooms and humbled by attics. So many worlds in their lifespan, yet all were transitory. What stories they could tell, what sights they must have seen! Their worlds have long since disintegrated, yet they live on.”—J. Paul Getty, The Collector’s Choice

Artifacts belong in museums. We know this much from Indiana Jones’ epic words at the beginning of Last Crusade, when he yells (on a sinking ship in the middle of a typhoon, no less) “That belongs in a museum!” to another explorer who wants to keep an artifact for private use.
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Tom Flynn has written a book on the Universal Museum – and why it should not be seen as a valid model for museums any longer. This presents a refreshing antidote to the views espoused by James Cuno, in his book on the subject.

You can purchase the book on Lulu.

From:
Tom Flynn

The Universal Museum: A valid model for the 21st century?
The Universal Museum
By Tom Flynn

A considered critical response to the Declaration on the Importance and Value of Universal Museums issued by the Bizot Group of Museum directors in 2002. The text offers a critique of the concept of the Universal Museum by tracing its historical roots in the Cabinets of Curiosity assembled by European princes from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. The early ‘universal’ cabinet collections ultimately formed the foundations of the great western ‘encyclopedic’ museums which in turn benefited from the era of colonialism and imperial adventure in the nineteenth century. The book argues that the concept of a ‘universal museum’ is philosophically and practically flawed, an anachronistic aspiration that is the product of an idealistic, eighteenth-century Enlightenment mindset devoted to the accumulation and classification of all species of flora and fauna, natural and man-made objects. Such collections are not only unsustainable but perpetuate many of the worst aspects of the age of imperialism.

Buy the book now on Lulu:
https://www.lulu.com/commerce/index.php?fBuyContent=12656359

Following the death of Christopher Hitchens, an article on the Malathronas blog looks particularly at how strongly he put forward the arguments for the reunification of all the surviving Parthenon Sculptures in Athens.

You can view this article here.

George Clooney’s new film, “The Monuments Men”, is about the true story of looting of artworks by the Nazis, along with Hitler’s reasoning behind this, in his attempt to create the greatest art museum in the world.

This is an issue that is still a major problem today, as people try & untangle the true ownership of many artworks, so anything that gives the story more of a public prominence will hopefully help to raise the profile of ongoing cases.

The film is based on Robert M. Edsel’s book, “The Monuments Men.”

From:
Artlyst

Date: 08 Jan 2012
George Clooney Highlights Stolen Nazi Art
New film “The Monuments Men” starts pre- production in LA

A film directed by Hollywood A- lister George Clooney has started pre- production in LA this month. The film is based on the book “The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History,” by Robert M. Edsel. It is about Adolf Hitler’s attempts to steal the most important art in Europe and set up the worlds greatest museum, in Berlin. His armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: “degenerate” works he despised. In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Momuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture. Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world’s great art from the Nazis.

Clooney will be writing, directing and starring in the film, a co-production along with his partner, Grant Heslov. Clooney stated at the Palm Springs Film Festival on Saturday; “I’m excited about this project, It’s a fun move because it could be big entertainment. It’s a big budget, you can’t do it small, it’s la anding in Normandy.” “I’m not opposed to doing a commercial film, I’m just opposed to doing a commercial film that doesn’t feel organic to me. So if we’re going to do a commercial film we thought, ‘Let’s do something that seems exciting and actually has something to say.’”
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