Richard Dorment’s article in the Daily Telegraph unsurprisingly provoked many angry responses on the newspaper’s comments page. Not least, were the claims that the sculptures have been, & would continue to be, better displayed & looked after in the British Museum than in the New Acropolis Museum.

From:
London Daily News

01 July, 2009 12:03 (GMT +01:00)
“Greeks should build a statue to Lord Elgin in Athens”, Telegraph editorial
International News

In what is becoming an increasingly protracted debate, the issue of the reunification of the stolen marbles of the Parthenon took a new dynamic with a highly provocative editorial by Richard Dorment the arts editor of the Daily Telegraph calling for the Greeks to “erect a statue of Lord Elgin near the Parthenon to express their nation’s gratitude to him for saving the marbles”.

Ironically an extensive report published in 1999 by world archeological experts found that the “Elgin marbles” morphology had suffered as a result of the “misguided efforts to make them whiter than white”. The report went onto to say :
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On the eve of the official opening of the New Acropolis Museum, the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures held a meeting to discuss how the issue might be tackled in the coming years & how the organisation could help facilitate the return of the Elgin Marbles. Members were present from organisations in sixteen different countries, all of whose primary aim is the reunification of the surviving Parthenon Sculptures in Athens.

From:
Agence France Presse

Return Elgin marbles for London Olympics: campaigners
3 days ago

ATHENS (AFP) — The 2012 London Olympics would represent a symbolic moment perfect for the return of the long-disputed Elgin Marbles from Britain to Greece, campaigners said Friday.

Representatives of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures (IARPS) — which has members in 17 countries — visited Athens Friday ahead of the new Acropolis Museum’s inauguration on Saturday.
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The Marbles Reunited campaign has become the fifteenth member of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.

From:
International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures

NEWS UPDATE
November 11th 2008

Today it was announced that British based Marbles Reunited campaign has joined the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.

The Chairman of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, David Hill said he welcomed the addition of such an esteemed group to the international campaign.
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Bruce Blades, head of the International Organising Committee – New Zealand – for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles, sadly died on 26th of June.

Bruce was a tireless campaigner for the reunification of the Elgin Marbles to Athens, with his efforts eventually leading to a motion being passed in New Zealand’s parliament urging the British Museum to return the sculptures.

He will be missed greatly both by the campaign within New Zealand, but also by other reunification campaigns around the world.

From:
Dominion Post

Zisis Bruce Evangelos Blades
Tireless community worker
PETER KITCHIN – The Dominion Post | Thursday, 10 July 2008

Zisis Bruce Evangelos Blades, engineer: Born Wellington, September 8, 1937; married 1967 Kathy Papadimitriou 1 son 1 daughter; died Wellington, June 26, 2008, aged 70.
Bruce Blades, of Brooklyn, was a civil engineer whose multiplicity of skills extended to sports field strategies and diplomacy.

He was a cultured dynamo whose enthusiasms were tempered by a great deal of commonsense and a closely held understanding of team and family dynamics. His negotiation skills were first-rate, and he had a disarming capacity for leaping hurdles in order to reach solutions.
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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.

Kevin Rudd, Australia’s Prime Minister has been criticised by some groups over appearing to make light of the Elgin Marbles issue. It is not clear at the present, what his own personal views on the controversy are, although historically Australia has tended to support requests for reunification.

From:
Herald Sun (Australia)

PM Kevin Rudd in hot water over Elgin Marbles joke
Gareth Trickey
April 08, 2008 10:15am

A JOKE told by Kevin Rudd that compared ownership of the Elgin / Parthenon Marbles to the Ashes urn has caused a stir among Australia’s Greek community.

Australia’s Greek Community leaders have questioned Mr Rudd’s comparison of the fight for the repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles with Australia’s desire to win back the Ashes cricket urn.
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Press coverage of the results of the Cambridge Union debate on the return of the Elgin Marbles.

From:
ABC News (Australia)

Cambridge debates Elgin Marbles
By Europe correspondent Jane Hutcheon
Posted Sun Feb 24, 2008 1:32pm AEDT

Cambridge University has debated the contentious issue of returning the Parthenon Sculptures, otherwise known as the Elgin Marbles, to Greece.

The statues were removed in the early 1800s by Britain’s ambassador to Athens, Lord Elgin.
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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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More coverage of David Hill’s meeting with Greece’s culture minister last week.

From:
International Herald Tribune

Campaigner urges Greece to fight for Marbles for new Acropolis museum
The Associated Press
Published: October 5, 2007

ATHENS, Greece: Greece should use the opening of its new Acropolis museum to ratchet up the pressure on Britain for the permanent return of the Parthenon Marbles to their homeland, the head of an international campaign said Friday.

The 2,500-year-old sculptures and friezes were removed from Greece in the early 19th century by British diplomat Lord Elgin and successive British governments have refused to return them despite a campaign launched by Greece in the early 1980s.
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Michalis Liapis, the new Greek Minister of Culture has met in Athens with David Hill, the chair of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.

From:
Athens News Agency

11/07/2007
Liapis meets chairman of ‘Parthenon Int’l’

Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis on Friday morning met the chairman of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures David Hill, who told reporters he had been impressed by the new Acropolis Museum that is now nearing completion and the high priority given by Liapis to the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.

According to Liapis, the transfer of the sculptures currently held in the old museum on the Acropolis citadel to the new Acropolis Museum created a new hopeful, prospect regarding the return of the sculptures now held by the British Museum in London, while stressing that this was “a lasting historic debt”.

Members of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures have met with representatives of the British Department of Culture, Media & Sport to discuss the case for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.

From:
International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures

Meeting with the British Government – July 17th 2006
Issued globally on Tue, 2006-07-18 18:04

At a meeting with the British Government in London on July 17, the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures requested that the British Government commit to a process that would result in the Parthenon Sculptures held in the British Museum being returned to Athens.

A deputation from the International Association, including its Chairman David Hill (Australia), Diogenis Valavanedis (Serbia and Montenegro), Krister Kumlin (Sweden), and John Voorhees (U.S.A), met with the British Minister for Culture David Lammy MP at the House of Commons on July 17 2006.
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