Following on from the news that Marbles Reunited has opened their campaign office, a press release gives more details on Thomas Dowson who has been appointed as Campaign Director.

From:
Newswire Today

PRESS RELEASE:
9 July 2008
Contact: Thomas Dowson +44 (0)20 7930 1813
Embargo: none
MARBLES REUNITED APPOINTS CAMPAIGN DIRECTOR

The campaign for the return of the Elgin marbles to Greece has moved up a gear with the appointment by Marbles Reunited of a full-time Campaign Director, Thomas Dowson, who will be based in the organisation’s office in the West End of London. The appointment of Thomas was warmly welcomed by Andrew George MP, Chairman of Marbles Reunited.

Says, Andrew George, “When the New Acropolis Museum opens later this year, the absence of the marbles will be obvious for all the world to see. The British Museum and the British Government could of course continue dragging it out, but that will look excruciatingly embarrassing as it would send out an undesirable impression of Britain’s arrogance. We have appointed a Campaign Director to up our profile, to enable an alternative dialogue between Greece and Britain. Thomas Dowson has a fine pedigree and the energy to see a job through.”
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Bruce Blades, head of the International Organising Committee – New Zealand – for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles, sadly died on 26th of June.

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.
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John Huntley’s letter last week has prompted this response, highlighting the differences in the approach of the Scottish National Party between cases where they can gain politically (such as the Lewis Chessmen) & cases where they believe that supporting it will not help drive their nationalist agenda (sch as the Elgin Marbles). This is a clear case of politics over-riding any moral or factual reasoning that might lie behind either of the cases.

From:
The Scotsman

Marbles expose SNP
Saturday, 12th July 2008

John A K Huntley’s thought provoking Alternative Take (8 July) on the Elgin or Parthenon Marbles exposes Alex Salmond’s government for what it is in relation to Scotland’s supposed influence and power for good in the world.

It is quite clear that where there is political capital to be had from talking up all things Scottish, SNP government ministers will assume the moral high ground and pontificate relentlessly to those who might listen. However, suggest a situation where an eminent Scottish personality might be deemed to have acted beyond the pale, and the SNP doesn’t want to know. Even where the outcome (however unlikely) could have resulted in the repatriation to Athens of artefacts held in a British Institution.

Compare their reaction to Mr Huntley with the debates surrounding the Lewis Chessmen or the Stone of Destiny (neither of which were “stolen” from their original locations) and one can only marvel at the SNP’s political gymnastics.

BILL GOODALL
Baird Terrace
Edinburgh

After much speculation & various conflicting reports, it now appears in the New Acropolis Museum, the copies of the British Museum’s Parthenon Sculptures will be displayed with a whiter colour than the authentic sculptures that they sit amongst. There is a certain irony in this of course, harking back to the cleaning controversy of the 1930s. Maybe once the actual sculptures are returned, they will still look much whiter.

This article is also notes that the museum is now scheduled to open in September of this year.

From:
The Art Newspaper

Parthenon frieze will be recreated in New Acropolis museum
Originals to be displayed next to plaster casts of British Museum’s marbles
Martin Bailey | 10.7.08 | Issue 193

LONDON. The long-awaited formal opening of the New Acropolis Museum in Athens has now been scheduled for September, after a series of delays. The gallery housing the Parthenon marbles, at the top of the museum, with a view towards the actual Parthenon 300m away, will be finally unveiled, although many of the other displays are not expected to be completed until next year.

After years of discussions, the museum has now decided how it will present the marbles. The originals are being displayed alongside plaster casts of the pieces removed from Greece, most of which are in the British Museum in London.
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Following comments on the New Acropolis Museum, various people have suggested that Mary Beard may have changed her mind on the Parthenon Marbles and is stepping down off the fence on the issue.

According to this piece in the Spectator (hardly an unbiased source on the Elgin Marbles issue) the answer is that nothing has changed.

From:
The Spectator

An expert in Athens
Tuesday, 8th July 2008

Mary “Marbles” Beard travels to Greece to view the new Acropolis Museum, and pronounces herself well impressed. But has the trip prompted a change of heart about the fate of Lord Elgin’s famous souvenirs? Not quite.

Given my generally positive reaction, did I think I should get off the fence about the return (or not) of the Elgin Marbles? Well, no . . . It’s going to be one of the world’s great museums, but for me the issue has never been about whether the sculpture was well looked after and displayed in Greece. So this doesn’t change the argument. For me, it’s going to be perfectly possible to love this wonderful new showcase for the Acropolis collection — and still not be sure whether the Elgin marbles should be “repatriated”.

Nicolas Mottas writes about some of the current developments in the campaign to reunite the Parthenon Marbles in Athens, along with some of the reason why it is imperative that this happens.

From:
OpEdNews

July 8, 2008 at 07:49:17
Restore the Parthenon Marbles
by Nicolas Mottas Page 1 of 1 page(s)
http://www.opednews.com

“We say to British goverment: you have kept those sculptures for almost two centuries. You have cared for them as well as you could, for which we thank you. But now, in the name of fairness and morality, please give them back. I sincerely believe that such a gesture from Great Britain would ever honour your name”. Melina Mercouri, Greek actress and politician, Oxford Union, June 1986.

With pleasure I was informed that the British-based Greek enterpreneur Sir Stelios Hadji-Ioannou is willing to participate actively in the campaign for the repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles. The case of Marbles reunification’s effort is, less or more, known. Information about the historical backround of the ancient sculptures, their removal from the Athens Acropolis and transfer to London, can be found in various sources, including the internet. On that issue there has been a decades-long concern which is connected with the restoration of the Marbles to their homeland, Greece. However, as it is mostly known, no progress has been done on the issue, mainly due to the continual denial of British Museum’s administrations to discuss such a possibility. Yet, the question still remains: should the Parthenon Marbles return to their natural environment, in the place where they were created, or they should remain in the place where Lord Elgin moved them in the early 19th Century?
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ABC Television in Australia has produced a program about the Parthenon Marbles as part of their Foreign Correspondent series.

From:
ABC (Australia)

Greece – Losing their Marbles
Broadcast: 07/10/2008
Reporter: Helen Vatsikopoulos
LEAD STORY, SERIES 18, EPISODE 15
Synopsis

The Acropolis, framed by the pillars of the Parthenon, is one of the most important ancient monuments in the world – a constant reminder of the glory days of Greece.

“Every Athenian has a difficult life, has to earn a living, but at any moment he can raise his eyes and look at the Acropolis and nothing is so bad at that moment,” says the head of the new museum, Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis.
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This documentary on the Parthenon Sculptures (in Greek language only) aired in Greece a few weeks ago. It contains a lot of very up to date information on the issue including footage of the Cambridge Union debate & the UNESCO conference held at the New Acropolis Museum.

You can watch the film online here.

A transcript of it is also available to download.

Dorothy King has unexpectedly posted on her blog, photos of a number of items from the St Clair Archive at the British Museum. This archive includes amongst other things, the only surviving translation of the firman that it is claimed permitted Elgin to take the marbles and the first letter from Greece requesting the return of marbles.

You can read her own introduction to the items from the archive (& her reasons for posting them online) here.

A full list of all her posts relating to the archive is available here.

Each post contains an overview, followed by additional posts that show more detailed photos, so that in most cases it should be possible to read the text. It is suggested that if you are interested in studying these items, you download them, in case at some later date they become unavailable.

James Cuno’s new book expounds his views that we should not be moving towards more reunifications of artefacts. The Daily Telegraph (somewhat predictably) chooses to agree with him in their review of his new book, although others have already pointed out the numerous flaws in his reasoning.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Why the Elgin Marbles should stay
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 06/07/2008

Jonathan Keates reviews Who Owns Antiquity?: Museums and the Battle Over Our Ancient Heritage by James Cuno

Connoisseurs of little-known facts will rejoice in the existence of a department of Unesco called the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in case of Illicit Appropriation.

Besides defying all efforts to reduce it to a manageable acronym, the name surely deserves some sort of accolade for its verbosity.
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The opening of the New Acropolis Museum later this year will represent one of the most significant events in the museums world for some time – not necessarily because of the building’s facilities, but because of what it will stand for. The question remains though over whether the British Museum will acknowledge this fact & allow the Elgin Marbles to be reunited in their rightful home.

From:
The Sunday Times

From The Sunday Times
July 6, 2008
The new Greek Acropolis Museum
The Acropolis will this year have a museum fit for Greece’s greatest treasure, the Elgin Marbles
Mark Hodson

A new museum will open in Athens later this year. No big deal, you might think. You’d be wrong. The New Acropolis Museum is not merely a dazzling piece of modernist architecture, but the latest gambit in a 200-year campaign for the return of the Elgin Marbles.

The museum, which has been 30 years in the planning and has cost the Greek government more than £100m, will at last provide a permanent home for the greatest treasures of the classical period, safe from the city’s corrosive, polluted air.
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Following recent publicity about his advert campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, Stelios Hadji-Ioannou appears dis-satisfied with the way things are progressing. Whilst there are issues for both sides over whatever sort of deal might be reached though, I very much doubt that Stelios has given up on the issue yet. This seems more like wishful thinking on the part of the Telegraph, a paper who have (with a few notable exceptions) generally come out as strongly against reunification of the Elgin Marbles whenever the issue has been raised.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Gordon Brown won’t holiday in Cliff Richard’s Barbados villa
By Tim Walker
Last Updated: 8:54PM BST 04/07/2008

[…]

A game of Elgin Marbles

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou appears to have conceded defeat in his battle to return the Elgin Marbles to Athens.

“The Greeks don’t seem to understand that the marbles are not owned by the British Government but by a trust,” the founder of easyJet told Mandrake at The Spectator summer party.
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