Following his look around the New Acropolis Museum, Richard Lacayo has also spoken to Professor Pandermalis, the director of the organisation for the construction of the New Acropolis Museum.

From:
Time Magazine Blogs

October 30, 2007 12:00
Quick Talk: With the Head of the Acropolis Museum Project

Dimitrios Pandermalis is the president of the New Acropolis Museum Project. (Until the museum opens, there’s no one with the title of director.) Last week he gave me a tour of the new building. Then we sat down for a conversation about the new museum, the Elgin Marbles and whether the British should be persuaded to send them back to Greece. I’ll post this conversation in two parts.

LACAYO: When did the government of Greece begin to think about a new museum?
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Richard Lacayo of Time Magazine has been shown around the New Acropolis Museum & seems impressed with what he has seen so far. The question of whether it will bring about the return of the Elgin Marbles remains unanswered though…

From:
Time Magazine Blogs

October 28, 2007 2:55
The New Acropolis Museum

I got a preview a few days ago of the new Acropolis Museum in Athens. Any building has to accomodate its site, and for some the site can be a very delicate matter. (You’ve heard of the World Trade Center, no?) But I can’t think of another building where the site has dictated the design as much as this one, and where the building has responded so adroitly. Then again, it’s hard to think of a site that compares to this one in importance.

Actually, the Swiss-born, New York and Paris-based architect Bernard Tschumi had to answer to two demanding sites. One is the ground his museum actually rests on. Tschumi’s angular design spearheads its way into a dense quarter of town at the foot of the Acropolis, a plot of land that also was also a sensitive archeological dig. No surprise, stick a spoon into the ground anywhere in Athens and you have one of those.
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The University of Sydney’s Parthenon Project has its own website here.

The project has also been the basis for two articles in the Sydney University Museums News, one by David Hill, chair of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, The other article arguing for retention of the sculptures is by Dyfri Williams of the British Museum.

From:
Sydney University Museums News

Sydney University Museums News
Issue 13
October 2007
Who owns the marbles?
The debate hits Sydney

The Parthenon in Athens is one of the world’s most famous and instantly recognisable buildings. It is an iconic cultural symbol of the modern Greek state, and a reminder of a shared cultural heritage that reaches back to the 5th century BC; a defining period in the history of democracy, theatre, architecture, philosophy and more.

During the first decade of the 19th century, Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, was granted permission by the Sultan to remove decorative features from what was already a building in ruins. These marble sculptures and friezes are now in the British Museum in London.
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As the New Acropolis Museum nears completion, people are starting to look at it for what it represents rather than getting bogged down in the political arguments that have overshadowed much of the construction process. In this article, you can start to build a mental picture of the spectacular fusion of the ancient & modern worlds represented by the museum.

From:
New York Times

October 28, 2007
Where Gods Yearn for Long-Lost Treasures
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF

NO sane architect, one can assume, would want to invite comparisons between his building and the Parthenon. So it comes as little surprise that the New Acropolis Museum, which stands at the foot of one of the great achievements of human history, is a quiet work, especially by the standards of its flamboyant Swiss-born architect, Bernard Tschumi.

But in mastering his ego, Mr. Tschumi pulled off an impressive accomplishment: a building that is both an enlightening meditation on the Parthenon and a mesmerizing work in its own right. I can’t remember seeing a design that is so eloquent about another work of architecture.
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Often the solution to arguments over looted artefacts end with the enemies becoming collaborators in an attempt to reach an amicable solution without losing face.

From:
New York Times

Returning Stolen Art: No Easy Answers
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO
Published: October 27, 2007

MILAN — Not 15 months ago, they were staring each other down at a negotiating table, bargaining tensely over who should have title to 13 archaeological artifacts. But on a recent afternoon they seemed the best of colleagues, amicably discussing how museums might cope with demands for the restitution of cultural property.

“This was the enemy,” said Maurizio Fiorilli, a lawyer for Italy who negotiated the handover of the 13 artworks by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, last year. “Now we’re the tangible example of what happens when there is collaboration.” Sitting with him on a conference panel at the University of Milan on the issue of cultural restitution was Katie Getchell, deputy director of the Boston museum, who echoed many of his comments. “I can confirm that a responsible, legal, ethical solution to disputes is possible,” she told the participants.
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The New Acropolis Museum now has an official website. Hopefully this will be regularly updated with further information on the project as it nears completion.

http://www.newacropolismuseum.gr/

Nana Mouskouri, a long time supporter of the return of the Parthenon Marbles is setting out on a farewell tour to complete a singing career lasting over fourty years. Previously, she has funded exhibitions about the reunification of the marbles & given encouragement to the campaigns for restitution.

From:
The Independent

Going out on a song: Nana Mouskouri sets off on farewell tour after 40-year career
By Jonathan Brown
Published: 26 October 2007

It could have all been so different. Back in 1966, a young Nana Mouskouri, then relatively little known outside mainland Europe, embarked on a tour of the US with Harry Belafonte.

It was a big moment in her embryonic career. The calypso legend loved Nana’s voice but when it came to her choice of eyewear he was unequivocal, insisting she ditch the black horn-rimmed specs on stage.
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Has the time come for the Parthenon sculptures to be returned?

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

When, not if, the marbles return…
A crane transferring a crate of antiquities from the old to the new Acropolis Museum.
HELBI

The Acropolis is “missing the Marbles,” was the headline of a story in the Christian Science Monitor by Nicole Itano, in a report on the beginning of a large-scale operation last week to move tons of antiquities from the Acropolis to the new museum at its foot. At 9 a.m. sharp last Sunday, a 2.3-ton marble sculpture was the first of 4,500 works of art that will be moved over the next three months. The new museum, however, will be better known for what is missing from it rather than for what it contains. For when it opens to the public next year, the celebrated Parthenon Marbles, also known as the “Elgin Marbles” after the British member of the nobility who made off with them in the 19th century, will still be missing. Read the rest of this entry »

Will the opening of the New Acropolis Museum represent a turning point in the restitution campaign, or will the British Museum move onto a new set of excuses?

From:
San Francisco Gate

Posted By: Edward M. Gomez
October 19 2007 at 05:59 AM
Despite new museum, Greece probably won’t get ancient sculptures back

Greece will not be getting the so-called Elgin Marbles back anytime soon – the British Museum in London owns them and won’t let them go – but at least the rest of the ancient carvings from the Parthenon’s legendary frieze and related decorative artworks that had been salvaged over the years will soon have a handsome new home.

Earlier this week, the ancient sculptures “began making their way down from Athens’ Acropolis via a series of cranes to a new museum built specifically to hold them” at the base of that famous hill. More than “4500 antiquities, most of which are marble sculptures from the sixth and fifth centuries B.C., will make the trip after being enclosed in Styrofoam-filled boxes made of plywood and metal.” Reportedly, the precious artifacts have been insured for the equivalent of approximately $567 million. (Der Spiegel Online; also, the Scotsman)
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New of a new initiative involving exhibitions & lectures, started by the University of Sydney’s architectural faculty.

From:
Sydney Morning Herald

30-year campaign for chips off an old block
Valerie Lawson
October 20, 2007

THE verbs may vary – chiselled, chopped, pillaged – but the fact remains that more than 200 years ago, the English ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Lord Elgin, used the Royal Navy to transport marble sculptures from the Parthenon to England, where they were sold in 1816 to the British Museum.

Now, with the vast restoration of the Parthenon nearing completion, along with a new Acropolis Museum due to open next year, the time has come for the Elgin marbles, as they are known in England, to go home.
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Greek President Karolos Papoulias as referred to the fight for the return of the Parthenon Marbles during a speech to UNESCO in Paris.

From:
Athens News Agency

10/19/2007
Papoulias addresses UNESCO con’f in Paris

Greek President Karolos Papoulias on Thursday addressed the 34th UNESCO conference in Paris, where he emphasised the global fight against ignorance through education, while he also touched on the areas of culture, science, migration and protection of the environment.
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More coverage of the decision by National Museums Liverpool to return Aboriginal remains to Australia.

From:
International Herald Tribune

British museum agrees to return Aboriginal remains to Australia
The Associated Press
Published: October 16, 2007

LONDON: A second British museum has agreed to return Aboriginal remains to Australia, including bones collected by explorers in 1849.

National Museums Liverpool said it has decided to turn over the remains of three bodies, unconditionally fulfilling a request made by Australia in January 2006.
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