Following the support of a Cambridge Union debate & then the branding of easyCruise’s new ship with Reunite the Parthenon Marbles, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has moved onto the next stage of his plan – a series of adverts in the British Press to increase awareness of the issue. One hopes that this plan will end up as successful as his previous businesses have been.

From:
The Independent

Stelios in bid to reunite Elgin Marbles
By Arifa Akbar, Arts Correspondent
Saturday, 14 June 2008

Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of the budget airline easyJet, is due to launch a one-man campaign to reunite the Elgin Marbles by taking out a series of full-page advertisements in national newspapers across Britain next week.

The Greek businessman has written an open letter to the British Museum in London and the new Acropolis Museum in Athens. In it, he urges the institutions to reunite the Elgin – also known as the Parthenon – Marbles that are currently divided between Greece and Britain.
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Christopher Hitchens has just released a revised & updated edition of his book on the Parthenon Sculptures: The Elgin Marbles: Should They Be Returned to Greece?
As any who have read this book will know, it takes pretty much the opposite viewpoint to James Cuno’s new book on the ownership of cultural property.
In this review, the two books are compared together. Whilst the reviewer seems to follow Cuno’s viewpoint, comments posted afterwards correct some of the inbalance in this piece.

From:
The New Statesman

Books
Losing our marbles?
Robin Simon
Published 05 June 2008

It is one of the most controversial issues in the art world today – should museums disperse their collections and return antiquities to their original sites? In particular, should the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum be restored to Athens?

With the opening of its glamorous new Acropolis Museum, the Greek campaign for the return of the Elgin Marbles appears to have shot itself in the foot. A few years ago, the remaining pieces of the great frieze of the Parthenon in Athens – those not on display at the British Museum – were taken down from the long-suffering temple for conservation. It is now clear that they will never be put back. They have gone on display in the museum, mounted in a gallery that has the identical dimensions of the Parthenon. Joining them, set in their correct locations, are replicas of the originals in London. So far, so good, one might think. But hang on. The replicas are covered in wire mesh veils to represent, it seems, some kind of mourning. This is not didacticism: this is propaganda.
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An interview with Christopher Hitchens following the publication of the third edition of his book on the Parthenon Marbles & why he feels that they should be returned to Greece.

From:
Kathimerini

Does your book offer anything to the case for the reunification of the Parthenon sculptures?

“Ohi. No, I have nothing new to add to the argument. It’s an old argument, nearly 200 years old. All I can say is that I can phrase the old arguments in maybe some fresh way, so that everyone can understand the history of this case. But the argument is always what it is, that it is aesthetically and artistically wrong to mutilate, to amputate, to partition, to smash up a work of art. That’s the essential argument. This is an argument that you can understand if you are Mexican or Latvian or Irish. You don’t have to be Greek or English – although it helps.”
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Earlier this year, Easyjet founder Stelios Haji-Ioanou spoke out in support for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece. He’s now continuing on this theme with the motto “Reunite the Parthenon Marbles” painted onto his new cruise ship.

From:
Daily Telegraph

easyCruise’s cut-price Odyssey
Max Davidson
Last Updated: 1:13PM BST 30/05/2008

Max Davidson joins the lastest ship from easyCruise for its maiden voyage around the Aegean – and is pleasantly surprised. Just don’t mention the breakfast .

It is after midnight. On the dance floor, a sixtysomething Sikh is strutting his stuff, arms aloft, to the strains of the Plastic People. “Nice mover,” says the man on the double bass. From the bar, a young German couple watch, mesmerised. There is a shriek of drunken laughter from the deck above. Welcome aboard the people’s cruise ship.
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A new historical novel by Karen Essex looks at the Parthenon Marbles through the eyes of two different people at different times, contrasting their views.

From:
Library Journal

Xpress Reviews—First Look at New Books
— Library Journal, 5/27/2008 10:30:00 AM

Fiction

[…]

Essex, Karen
Stealing Athena
Doubleday. Jun. 2008. c.400p. ISBN 978-0-385-51971-7. $22.95. F

Verdict: Essex (Kleopatra; Leonardo’s Swans) excels at well-researched historical fiction based on the lives of real women. Her latest is sure to have broad appeal among individual readers and book discussion groups. Highly recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/08.]
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The Marbles Reunited campaign has an associated Facebook group which is open to all who support the campaign for reunification of the Elgin Marbles in Athens.

If you are a supporter & a member of Facebook, then you are encouraged to become a fan of the organisation. (Note that this is not the same as full membership of the Marbles Reunited campaign. Any who join the group are encouraged to become members, but it is not obligatory). If you join, please also encourage any friends you have who might be interested in it to also become members – the more people who join, the greater the awareness of the campaign.

The Facegroup page is located here.

Marbles Reunited’s website is located here.

A follow-up article to Malcolm Brabant’s broadcast about the New Acropolis Museum. The museum has been & in the minds of many people, always will be controversial, due to its proximity to one of the worlds most iconic archaeological sites. Once the building opens however, many perceptions will change & evolve as people finally get a chance to experience the building themselves.

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 01:05 GMT, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 02:05 UK
New home for Greece’s holy grail
By Malcolm Brabant
BBC News, in Athens

The Acropolis Museum is now just months away from entering service in Greece’s struggle with its most implacable cultural adversary.

Its priceless treasures lie in marble halls, hidden from view in giant removal boxes.
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BBC reporter Malcolm Brabant has been shown round the New Acropolis Museum in Athens & reports on its progress & how it will act as a powerful argument for the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

You can watch the broadcast online here.

Australia’s Charles Darwin University is hosting a lecture on The global campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

From:
Charles Darwin University

Battle over ‘Marbles’ spans two centuries
29 April 2008

Charles Darwin University will hold a free public lecture this week presenting, “The global campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles”.

The founder and chairman of the International Organising Committee Australia for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles, Mr Emanuel J. Comino will speak about his campaign to return the “world’s greatest single collection of classical Greek sculptures” to Greece.
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The International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures currently has fourteen member organisations:

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.

Following the Athens UNESCO conference, Tom Flynn has concluded that litigation may be the only way to make the British Museum take the Parthenon Marbles issue seriously. This echoes the view of various other comentators who have been observing other similar (but successful) cases that have occurred in recent years.

From:
Artknows

Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The Parthenon Marbles: Time to litigate?

The case of the Parthenon Marbles has been simmering away for decades. Every now and then an event occurs which prompts the Greeks to half-heartedly drag it forward onto the media front burner. For a few weeks everyone watches it let off steam until it gradually slides onto the back burner again.

The last time the Marbles issue moved up the news agenda was in 2003, just prior to the Olympic Games in Athens. But thanks to British Museum intransigence (it was also the BM’s 250th anniversary) the Greek appeals came to nothing. Now the temperature has risen once again due to the planned opening later this year (or more likely early next) of the new €94 million Bernard Tschumi-designed Acropolis Museum.
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Yet again, in discussions about the Parthenon Marbles (amongst other things), Neil MacGregor reverts back to his favourite Universal Museum argument. There is nothing inherently wrong with the Universal Museum idea – but at the same time, it is only one premise (out of many) that a museum could be based on. Just because the British Museum happens to fit within this (largely self created) category, it does not mean it is the only option, nor does it mean that it is the right option. Many archaeologist would convincingly argue, that seeing site specific historic artefacts within the context they were created for is far more important than seeing them within the context of other tenuously related artefacts from different times & cultures.

From:
Time Out (London)

Neil MacGregor: interview
By Ossian Ward. Photography Gautier Deblonde
Posted: Tue Apr 1 2008

You may think you‘re in London when you visit the British Museum but according to its acclaimed director Neil MacGregor you are actually walking the corridors and galleries of a global institution. As the record-breaking ’First Emperor‘ exhibition comes to an end, MacGregor tells Time Out why he‘s excited about the future
Neil MacGregor: interview

Neil MacGregor loves talking about the world, because most of it is on display at the British Museum, where he’s been director since 2002. ‘The museum was set up in 1753 to be a comparative world collection. One that should be usable by the world and free to people of all nations.’ I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone repeat one word so often in the space of an hour. ‘In order to make citizens equipped for the world, they’ve got to study the world. There was no equivalent of Oxford or Cambridge in London at that point, so in a way this became the Open University. In fact, it’s like the World Service, helping to build global citizenship and community.’
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