Neil MacGregor, the Director of the British Museum has been appointed by the British government as the country’s first Cultural Envoy. MacGregor wants to co-operate with other countries (such as China), but only when any co-operation or collaboration happens on his own terms.

From:
The Times

From The Sunday Times
December 30, 2007
Britain to woo world with first cultural envoy
Marie Woolf, Whitehall Editor

THE director of the British Museum, responsible for bringing China’s terracotta warriors to the UK, is to be appointed the government’s first “cultural ambassador”.

Neil MacGregor will be given a £3m budget by James Purnell, the culture secretary, to promote a new programme called World Collections, intended to increase the profile of British museums and galleries around the world and to bring more exhibitions to Britain from abroad.
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Following changes in the law by the British government, Russia is now allowing artworks to travel to the UK without fear of seizure. As I mentioned before, it seems that when there is a well to do so, it is quite easy to rush through changes in the law regarding artefacts.

From:
St. Petersburg Times

Russia Will Allow Artwork To Go to London Exhibit
The Associated Press

MOSCOW — Paintings from Russian museums will be permitted to go to London for a major exhibition after British legislation protecting art from seizure comes into force, the Federal Culture and Cinematography Agency said.

The exhibition, “From Russia: French and Russian Master Paintings 1870-1925,” is scheduled to open at The Royal Academy on Jan. 26. But the exhibit was cast in doubt after the Russian agency said British laws did not adequately protect art from seizure in connection with private legal claims.
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Alex Salmond’s requests for the return of the Lewis Chessmen seems to have stirred various other controversies – not least those that suggest that the artefacts were never Scotland’s in the first place.

From:
The Scotsman

Published Date: 26 December 2007
Source: The Scotsman
Location: Scotland
Chessmen should be returned to Norway

There is indeed a comparison to be made between the Lewis Chessmen and the Elgin Marbles. If it is right for the Marbles to be returned to Greece where they were created, then the Chessmen should be returned to Norway.
They are, despite your editorial claim (24 December) “most definitely” not Scottish. They were lost here. If they were originally bound, as claimed by historians, for Ireland, then that country has a stronger moral claim than Scotland.
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The main puzzle about this story is why The Times has chosen to label him as the Marbles Minister. His ministry dealt with the marbles – but also with many other things too. No other media sources tried to make this direct connection.

From:
The Times

From The Times
December 24, 2007
Marbles minister, Christos Zachopoulos, critical after suicide plunge
John Carr in Athens

The Greek official responsible for seeking the return of the Elgin Marbles from Britain was in a critical condition last night after an apparent suicide attempt triggered by a relationship with an archaeologist on his staff.

Christos Zachopoulos leapt from the balcony of his fourth-floor flat in Kolonaki, central Athens, hours after being forced to resign his post as general-secretary of the Ministry of Culture.
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Coverage of the British Museum’s response to recent calls by the Greek Prime Minister for the return of the Elgin Marbles to Athens.

From:
Turkish Daily News

The British Museum says ‘no’ to Greece, again
Monday, December 24, 2007
Ariana FERENTINOU

It was a spectacular sight by all accounts. A huge mass of marble covered with protective white material was raised from the top of one of the most well known rock tops in the world, the rock of Akropolis, some 165 meters above sea level, and was gently lowered down a few hundred meters away, at the entrance of the newly inaugurated Museum of Acropolis. With all Museum officials, politicians and TV cameras watching, that gentle operation by an intricate system of enormous aerial cranes was the first of a series of delicate removing jobs of the fragile statutes of Parthenon to their new house. A much delayed and complicated project which was finally completed this year.
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The New York Times has a published a gallery on their website of photos of some of the artefacts returned to Italy by US museums & galleries. In a different publication, Kwame Opoku writes about whether other countries can learn lessons from this event.

The New York Times gallery of images can be seen here.

From:
Afrikanet

RETURNED STOLEN/LOOTED ART DISPLAYED BY ITALY
Written by Dr. Kwame Opoku
Sunday, 23 December 2007

RETURNED STOLEN/LOOTED ART DISPLAYED BY ITALY. A LESSON FOR AFRICAN AND OTHER COUNTRIES?

The Italian authorities have opened a spectacular exhibition in the Presidential Palace, the Quirinal, in Rome, running from 21 December until 2 March, 2008, with free admission except on Sundays. The exhibition, entitled “Nostoi: Returned Masterpieces” (“Nostoi: Capolavori Ritrovati”) displays 68 cultural artefacts which had been stolen/looted from Italy and were kept in the United States.
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More coverage of Alex Salmond’s requests for the Lewis Chessmen to be returned to Scotland by the British Museum.

From:
Scotland on Sunday

# Published Date: 23 December 2007
Source: Scotland On Sunday
Location: Scotland
Salmond plots first move in Scottish battle to win back Lewis Chessmen
By Murdo MacLeod
Political Correspondent

FOR six centuries, they lay hidden, their secrets buried within the unblemished sands of the Outer Hebrides.
Now the fate of the ancient Lewis Chessmen – deemed one of the greatest artefacts ever found in Scotland – has become the latest subject in Britain’s cross-border political war.

First Minister Alex Salmond will start 2008 with a high-profile campaign to ‘repatriate’ 82 of the beautiful figurines back to Scotland from their current home in the British Museum in London.
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Michael J Repas, of the American Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures has written extensively in the past about the Parthenon Marbles & the law surrounding the case. Here he speaks about the aims of the US Committee.

From:
Miami Herald

A plea for ‘Marbles’ in Parthenon
Michael Reppas is South Florida’s spokesman for those who want to see the Elgin Marbles returned from the British Museum to the Parthenon in Athens.
Posted on Sun, Dec. 23, 2007
BY DAVID SMILEY

Michael Reppas realized a lifelong dream last summer when he was granted the rare opportunity to set foot inside the Parthenon, a 2,500-year-old Greek structure that has been off limits to tourists for more than 15 years.

But Reppas’ dream was missing something, namely the marble statues taken from the ancient Athenian landmark by a British diplomat 200 years ago during the Ottoman occupation of Greece.
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Alex Salmond, the sometimes controversial first minister of Scotland has called for the British Museum to return the Lewis Chessmen to Scotland, so that they can all be located in a single museum. This is not the first claim for their repatriation, although it has caused more people to notice than previous ones have.

Whilst the Lewis Chessmen are split between two museums, the details of the validity of the claim are unclear, as there was no clear wrongdoing in the original sale of the chessmen & it is also uncertain whether they were ever Scottish in the first place.

From:
BBC News

Last Updated: Monday, 24 December 2007, 20:12 GMT
Moves to unite historic chessmen

First Minister Alex Salmond has joined calls for the return of the Lewis chessmen to Scotland.

SNP members have been campaigning to bring the famed 13th Century figurines back to the country where they were discovered.
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More on the preliminary opening of the New Acropolis Museum in Athens.

From:
Athens News Agency

23-12-07
New Acropolis Museum entrance opens with exhibition

The entrance to the new Acropolis Musuem, located some 400 metres from the actual Acropolis in downtown Athens, opened to the public on Saturday with an inaugural exhibition titled “the Museum and its Excavations”.

The remains of a long-buried section of ancient Athens came to light with the excavation works for the new state-on-the-art museum, which revealed cobblestone roads, dwellings, baths and even the foundations of workshops.
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For the first time, members of the public (as opposed to invited visitors) have been able to enter part of the New Acropolis Museum & look around the ground floor of it.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Saturday December 22, 2007 – Archive
In Brief
ACROPOLIS MUSEUM

Ground floor opens to public, remainder will be ready in late 08

An area on the ground floor of the new Acropolis Museum will be open to the public from this morning. Artifacts that were found during the construction of the museum have been put on display, including ancient homes and workshops that will be visible through clear glass floors. The area, which is free to enter, will remain open every day, apart from holidays, from 10 a.m. to noon from today until March 31 next year. The remainder of the museum will not be open to the public until later next year.

Iran has had an important success in its attempts to make an art dealer return eighteen artefacts that they claim were stolen.

From:
International Herald Tribune

UK appeals court reinstates Iran’s claim to art it says was looted
The Associated Press
Published: December 21, 2007

LONDON: Iran won an important court ruling on Friday in its bid to force an international art dealer in London to return 18 ancient artifacts that allegedly were stolen from the country’s tombs.

The Court of Appeal, overruling a lower court, reinstated Iran’s suit to reclaim the artifacts.
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