In an addenda to the obituary printed in The Independent, Professor Anthony Snodgrass, chair of the BCRPM outlines some aspects of Peter’s passion for the return of the Elgin Marbles.

From:
The Independent

Obituaries
P. S. Derow
Published: 27 December 2006

Professor Thomas Harrison’s obituary for P. S. Derow [21 December] captured well the genial essence of the man, writes Professor Anthony Snodgrass, yet omitted one area of his subject’s vigorous activity: Derow’s work for the movement to reunite the Parthenon Marbles in Athens.

Peter did not merely support this cause, but promoted it so forcefully that, on one occasion when a trustee of the British Museum was a guest at a dinner in Wadham College and confronted Peter, the alarmed trustee withdrew in such dismay as to make him later renege on a proffered lunch meeting with another campaigner (myself). So I never got to hear what exactly Peter had said to him, but clearly it exemplified that strength of opinion which, though usually cloaked by geniality, was equally central to his character.

Seven of the surviving metope sculptures on the Parthenon have been removed from the building & placed and replaced with casts, in order to protect the originals from harmful air pollution.

From:
CBC News (Canada)

Parthenon sculptures to be replaced with replicas
Last Updated: Friday, December 22, 2006 | 9:46 AM ET
CBC Arts

Greek authorities will move seven sculptures from the Parthenon into a museum and replace them with replicas to avoid damage from acid rain.

Natural erosion and pollution are taking a toll on the marble metopes.
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Many Ethiopian artefacts have been removed from the country at different points in history & now sit amongst the collections of individuals & private institutions around the world.
Professor Richard Pankhurst looks at what the future might hold for some of these cases.

From:
Nazret.com (Ethiopia)

12/21/06
Ethiopia: The Ethiopian Millennium By Professor Richard Pankhurst
The Ethiopian Millennium – and the Question of Ethiopia’s Cultural Restitution
By Professor Richard Pankhurst
Addis Ababa Ethiopia

As the Ethiopian Millennium – which is nothing if not a cultural manifestation – approaches, today would seem an appropriate time to discuss the long-drawn-out question of Ethiopia’s cultural restitution.

This question has come to the fore on a number of occasions – and does so once more in the run-up to the New Ethiopian Millennium!
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An obituary of Peter Derow from The Independent by the historian Thomas Harrison.

From:
The Independent

21 December 2006 10:52
P. S. Derow
Oxford ancient historian
Published: 21 December 2006

Peter Sidney Derow, historian: born Newport, Rhode Island 11 April 1944; Hody Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History, Wadham College, Oxford 1977-2006; married first Ellan Odiorne (one son, two daughters; marriage dissolved), second Lucy Grieve (marriage dissolved), third Emma Dench (marriage dissolved); died Oxford 9 December 2006.

P. S. Derow was a specialist in the history of the Hellenistic world, who was well known for a number of acute and powerful contributions to the history of Rome’s conquest of the Greeks. He was most recognised, however, as an outstanding Oxford tutor – who inspired the careers of an extraordinary proportion of those ancient historians and classicists active today.
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Greece has claimed that a statue in the Louvre on loan from the Cleveland Museum in Ohio was ilegally looted from the country.

From:
UKTV History

19th December 2006
UKTV History
Greece continues battle for ancient treasures

Greek authorities are continuing to press museums and galleries around the world for the return of ancient treasures.

The Louvre in Paris has been asked to refrain from displaying a statue of Apollo on loan to the museum from a US institution.
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Dr Stephen Heyworth, a colleague of Peter Derow gave an address at his funeral last weekend which was both a moving & amusing insight into the life of the historian who had campaigned for the return of the Parthenon Marbles.
Peter had been a founding member of the Parthenon 2004 campaign, now known as Marbles Reunited.

From:
Wadham College

Peter Derow

Well, the cat-in-the-hat, that legendary figure, is dead. I had better explain. I use that name not only because it avoids my having to make Peter the subject of that sentence, but also because the cat-in-the-hat crystallizes a number of things I want to say.

Firstly, Peter loved the Dr Seuss books, especially the first. And in his room, among the many other curiosities and toys, high up on the stack of videos, sits a figure of the cat-in-the-hat. More importantly, he was a great giver of gifts: I’m told he gave Cath Forrest, George’s daughter, her first camera and set her on the path to photography. One gift he often gave was copies of these books: he kept a stock for when he found a friend or a pupil who didn’t know them at all. So ten years ago, he gave a copy to my daughters; and on Friday afternoon last week, when we were thanking the two student hosts for looking after the candidates, Josie took away a bottle of the burgundy we’ll have a chance to drink later, and Sophie two Dr Seuss books. My daughters’ copy is inscribed in Peter’s beautiful italic hand: ‘To Lucy and Harriet from the funny dancing man’ [I think the dance was the one from Zorba, but I’ve not got time today to go into his love of films] ‘… from the funny dancing man a.k.a. … the Cat-in-the-Hat’. He loved the precise rhymes and the surprising rhythms of the books, but I suspect it was the anarchic morality of the narrative that appealed to him most: he truly knew how to have ‘fun that is funny’; and that’s what lies behind his self-identification with the cat-in-the-hat. But anarchic bringer of fun though he was, like the cat at the end of the book, he could also tidy up the mess; one would see him the morning after Classics drinks in the garden picking up glasses and cigarette butts; but I mean more than that-he gave his time and his care to helping us clear up the messes that we can all make of our own and each others’ lives. But I’ll return to that theme.
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The British Museum (in its caring friendly role that it adopts only when its own collection is not at stake) has highlighted the worrying scale of the trade in illicit artefacts on Ebay, the online auction site.

From:
The Times

The Times
December 18, 2006
Illicit artefacts sold as eBay turns blind eye
Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent
# 3,500 items for sale in two months
# Sellers claim to have obeyed the law

Roman and Anglo-Saxon jewellery and other artefacts are still being sold illegally on eBay, despite the website’s promise to clamp down on the trade.

The British Museum has told The Times that it is alarmed at the number of sellers offering gold and silver that has apparently been found on British soil but has not been reported.
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A letter in The Times responds to Dalya Alberge’s slightly misleading statement a few days ago that The Greeks have failed to reclaim the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum.

From:
The Times

The Times
December 16, 2006
The Elgin Marbles dilemma

Sir, Dalya Alberge’s judgment that the Greeks have failed to reclaim the Elgin Marbles, from the British Museum must be viewed as strictly interlocutory (report, Dec 13). The Greek claim, dating from 1842, has been renewed by Britons and Greeks of every subsequent generation, and will not be over until it’s over.

The Getty Museum’s decision to return two more ancient artefacts to Greece, together with the return earlier this year of pieces from the Parthenon and the Erechtheion formerly in German and Swedish ownership, adds to the mounting pressure on the trustees of the British Museum to abandon their dismissive attitude to Greek proposals for the relocation of the Elgin Marbles to the magnificent new Acropolis Museum, which will open in Athens in a few months’ time.
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The Orthodox Archbishop of Athens has raised the issue with Pope Benedict of the return of a piece of the Parthenon currently in the Vatican Museum. The Pope says that he will consider the request.
The success of this request is a lot more likely following the return of the Heidelberg fragment earlier this year, which represented the first time that a foreign institution had returned part of the Parthenon sculptures to Greece.

From:
Reuters

Greek bishop asks Pope to return piece of Parthenon
Thu Dec 14, 2006 12:56pm ET140

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Greece’s top religious leader asked Pope Benedict on Thursday to return a piece of the Parthenon in the Vatican Museums, Greek officials said.

Christodoulos, Orthodox archbishop of Athens and of all Greece, made the request during a visit when he and the Pope signed a joint declaration on issues of common concern, such as the defense of life.
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Two more articles on the Getty’s latest agreement with Greece.

From:
The Times

The Times
December 13, 2006
Getty returns Greek antiquities

LONDON The Greeks may have failed to reclaim the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum, but they scored a significant victory yesterday when the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles took the dramatic step of returning two important antiquities.

A gold funerary wreath, c320-300BC, and a marble statue of a Kore, c530BC — both jewels of the Getty’s collection — are going home after the Greek Culture Ministry proved that they had been excavated illegally.
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This article on CNN looks at the true impact that the trade in looted ancient artefacts has on many countries.

From:
CNN

Antiquities smuggling: ‘A crime against humanity’
POSTED: 6:25 a.m. EST, December 12, 2006
By Paul Sussman for CNN

(CNN) — She’s 2,500 years old, stunningly beautiful and at the center of the latest smuggling scandal to have sullied the world of antiquities.

On Monday the Los Angeles-based J. Paul Getty Museum announced it would return a sixth century B.C. marble statue of a young woman to Greece following claims by the Greek government that the artwork was illegally excavated and taken out of the country without proper authority.
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Following various disagreements in the past, where Greece & Italy had both laid claim to the same artefact in a foreign museum, the two countries have now agreed to cooperate & avoid making any further contradictory claims.

From:
International Herald Tribune

Italy teams with Greece to reclaim antiquities
By Hugh Eakin
Published: December 11, 2006

Pooling their resources and diplomatic clout, Greece and Italy plan to forge a formal alliance to pursue the return of ancient artifacts from museums in the United States and Europe, the Greek culture minister has said.

The agreement, which he expects to complete in early 2007, would cement recent collaboration between the two countries as both pursue increasingly muscular campaigns to get back prized Greek and Roman antiquities. Greece especially is focusing on recovering the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum.
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