As part of the annual Battle of Ideas, a two day event organised by the Institute of Ideas, there is a debate about who owns culture, where the Elgin Marbles no doubt feature in the discussion. Geoff White from the Marbles Reunited campaign will be one of the speakers there.

From:
Battle of Ideas

Losing our marbles? Who owns culture?
Sunday 31 October, 12.30pm until 1.30pm, Courtyard Gallery Battle for the Past

The ownership of the Parthenon Marbles has been disputed since their removal from Athens in the early 19th century, by Lord Elgin. Some argue the sculptures belong in Greece, where they were carved almost two and a half thousand years go. Advocates of repatriation insist that the marbles are part of the heritage of Greece, and should never have been taken in the first place. Others feel that the marbles are now part of the history of the British Museum, and point out that in their current Bloomsbury home they can be seen in relation to other cultures, as part of world history. But with the opening of the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, a state-of-the-art centre, claims for their return are growing stronger.
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The Cypriot Student Movement Metopo UK in collaboration with Actclick (the organisation that promotes the “Bring them Back campaign” in Greece) is organising a demonstration outside the British Museum on Saturday 23rd October, from 14:00 – 14:40.

All supporters of the return of the Parthenon Sculptures are welcome to attend this event. The dress code is black.

There is also a facebook page for the event.

An exhibition opens in Athens later this month, of three-dimensional photography of the sculptures from the Acropolis.

Exhibition in Athens 21-30 June 2010

The Cultural Organization of Athens Municipality invite you to inaugurated the exhibition entitled: “The magic of photography in three-dimensional sculptures of the Acropolis” of Kika Pardaki.

A year and a day after The opening of the new Acropolis Museum, which was built to house the statues, you are in London come to us with this report, through unique stereoscopic images of high quality and unique analysis for the use of special 3d glasses.

June 21 – June 30 2010, 20:00 at the Cultural Center, Akadimias 50, Hall “Iakovidis”

Open daily 10.00-20.00 & Sun 10.00-14.00

more information (in Greek) is available here.

On 8th – 9th July 2010, Manchester University’s Centre for Museology is organising a two day conference on Museums & Restitution.

For more details of the conference & to book a place on it, go to their website.

A provisional programme of the conference is also available to download.

From:
Centre for Museology

Museums and Restitution – International Conference
Museums and Restitution is a two-day international conference organised by the Centre for Museology and The Manchester Museum at the University of Manchester. The conference examines the issue of restitution in relation to the changing role and authority of the museum, focussing on new ways in which these institutions are addressing the subject.

Restitution is one of the most emotive and complex issues facing the museum world in the twenty first century. Its current high profile reflects changing global power relations and the increasingly vocal criticisms of the historical concentration of the world’s heritage in the museums of the West. The 2002 Declaration of the Importance and Value of Universal Museums, which was signed by the directors of eighteen of the world’s most prominent museums, pushed the subject to the forefront of debate as never before.
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Any debate on the ownership of cultural property is to be welcomed – however, based on past experiences, any involvement of Robert Anderson will mean that only the view of the issue as seen b the British Museum is represented.

From:
Web News Wire

Who owns antiquities?
Submitted by editor on May 11, 2010 – 11:32

Dr Robert Anderson, former Director of the British Museum and Vice-President of Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge, will examine who really owns antiquities lost, stolen and unearthed over recent years.

Speaking ahead of the event, he said, Antiquities, frequently being valuable and sought-after, often lead exciting, itinerant lives, ending up in places remote from where they originated. They can get into the news by being unexpectedly unearthed, offered surprising identities, sold for huge prices, exported ( sometimes illegally ), stolen, and even deliberately destroyed.
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I went yesterday evening to East 15 acting school’s play: Losing Marbles.

I’m not sure what I expected the play to be like – but it definitely wasn’t like any of the ideas I had in my mind. It was at the same time different & far better than what I had expected. As it still has one more night to show (at a different theatre) I won’t reveal the plot – but I can say that it is hilariously funny, ingeniously performed & well worth watching – whether or not you are interested in the story of the Parthenon Marbles.

As I mentioned before, there is one last chance to see it – in Colchester, Essex this Friday Night.

From:
University of Essex

11 December 2009
Losing Marbles and The Tart With a Heart

Performance Time: 19:30
Venue: Lakeside Theatre

Joining TAS on the second night of Snow White: The Tart With a Heart, East 15 acting school present Losing Marbles, a tale of ancient grievance.

When a Greek immigrant attempts to singlehandedly return the Elgin Marbles to Athens, an epic struggle unfolds – hurtling from the Parthenon to the bowels of the British Museum and beyond. A startlingly profound musical satire on the nature of love and posession.

Tickets:
Full: £7.00, Conc: £5.00, UoE Students: £3.00

Booking information:
Ticket Hotline: 01206 573948
Book Online: http://www.mercurytheatre.co.uk/artson5
In person: University Gallery, Square 5
Monday – Friday 11 – 5, Saturday 12 – 4

East 15 Acting School are performing a play about the Elgin Marbles in London next week.

The play is on Tuesday 8 December & Wednesday 9 December 2009 at 20:00 in the Drill Hall, 16 Chenies Street, London WC1E 7EX. This is conveniently located in central London, only a few minutes walk from the British Museum. Tickets can be booked at the website address below.

From:
the Drill Hall

Losing Marbles
East 15 Acting School Showcase

Losing Marbles is an epic cinemascope blockbuster Christmas show made with the help of sticky back plastic, cardboard tubes and spaghetti.

A high speed chase across the new Europe to discover who owns the past.
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The annual lecture of the Irish Museums Association is this year being presented by Dimitrios Pantermalis, director of the New Acropolis Museum, on the topic: Collections present and absent at the New Acropolis Museum.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday 18th November – further details below.

From:
Irish Museums Association

MUSEUM NEWS – IMA EVENTS
[…]

2009 (November) – IMA Annual Lecture: Held in memory of Dr James White. Collections present and absent at the New Acropolis Museum, Athens will be presented by Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis Director, New Acropolis Museum in the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology, Kildare Street, Dublin 2 on Wednesday 18 November 2009 at 6.30pm. See our poster for details, admission is free but booking is essential. To book a place contact Ms Carla Marrinan, IMA Administrator at +353-1-4120939 or office@irishmuseums.org

[…]

You can view the poster for the lecture here.

Next week’s episode of The Agenda, a programme presented by Yvonne Ridley on Press TV is on the subject of Treasure: Who really owns stolen and looted artefacts?. I am appearing on the show, along with three other guests, to discuss various aspects of this issue. The programme isn’t specifically about the Parthenon Sculptures, but covers them along with many other similar cases.

The programme is on Friday 13th at 19:05 GMT for 55 minutes. If you are in the UK, Press TV is available on Sky Channel 515. It should also be available on satellite or cable in most other English speaking countries.

You can watch the channel live online here. You can also watch it after the show has been broadcast on this archive page for the programme.

Submissions are invited for abstracts for a conference on Museums & Restitution to be held at the University of Manchester on 8th & 9th July 2010. Any abstracts should be submitted by 11th December 2009.

From:
Kostas Arvanitis (by email)

Call for papers
Museums and Restitution
International Conference
8-9 July 2010, University of Manchester

http://www.manchester.ac.uk/museumsandrestitution/

Museums and Restitution is a two-day international conference organised by the Centre for Museology and The Manchester Museum at the University of Manchester. The conference examines the issue of restitution in relation to the changing role and authority of the museum, focussing on new ways in which these institutions are addressing the subject.
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This week, the University of Tennessee is using a regular discussion programme to talk about the Parthenon Sculptures and other restitution claims.

From:
The Daily Beacon (University of Tennessee)

Beacon Bits
Staff Reports
Thursday, September 17, 2009 issue

Global Hour evaluates antiquities trade

This week’s Global Hour, a weekly discussion of current events, will address how nations are dealing with antiquities such as the Elgin Marbles. Removed from Greece to be displayed in the British Museum, the collection of marble sculptures are one example of a nation’s heritage that has been displaced. Global Hour will be held Thursday at the I-House from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

[…]

During the summer of 2009, the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square has been occupied by various people as part of a project organised by the sculpture Antony Gormley.

This Saturday, Sofka Smales, a student from Calderdale will be using her sixty minutes on the plinth to raise awareness for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Athens. Here time on the plinth will start at 11:00pm.

From:
Halifax Courier

Wednesday, 9th September 2009
‘Send them back’ call: Elgin Marbles plea of our plinth ‘goddess’
By Colin Drury

AN art student will dress as a Greek goddess when she becomes the latest Calderdale person to take to the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, London
Sofka Smales, 19, will use her hour on the stone stand to campaign for the Elgin Marbles to be returned from London to Athens.

She was selected at random from more than 30,000 applicants to appear on the plinth as part of Antony Gormley’s One & Other project which sees a different person take to the plinth every 60 minutes for 100 days.
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