Australian Aboriginal activist, Dr Gary Edward Foley gave a talk about the restitution of the Parthenon Marbles yesterday, comparing the restitution of Aboriginal cultural artefacts to the ongoing campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

Parthenon Marbles in British Museum

From:
Greek Reporter

Aboriginal Activist to Give Lecture on Parthenon Marbles’ Return
by Ioanna Zikakou
Mar 4, 2015

Starting this Thursday, the 2015 Greek History and Culture Seminar series, organized by the Greek Community of Melbourne for the fifth consecutive year, will take place in the community’s new building. The seminars’ inaugural lecture is on March 5 with Aboriginal activist Dr Gary Edward Foley and Greek-Australian University of Melbourne professor Nikos Papastergiadis.

During his speech, Foley will focus on the recovery of cultural heritage and the return of Aboriginal antiquities, alongside the Parthenon Marbles case. This will be the first time that an Aboriginal will present his speech before the Greek Community of Melbourne.
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Richard Allan, whilst an MP, founded the Parthenon 2004 campaign in 2002, which was later re-branded as Marbles Reunited. Richard stood down as an MP in 2005.

Following the recent General Election, a Dissolution honours list has been released (as happens every time there is a new Parliament), of new Peers & Life Peers. Richard Allan has been named as one of the new Life Peers who will be entering the House of Lords, where he will hopefully be able to resume some of his efforts in lobbying for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures.

A number of other former MPs who were strong supporters of the campaign for reunification of the Parthenon Marbles are also due to enter the House of Lords.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Dissolution honours: the full list of new peers
This is the full list of the new members of the House of Lords created in the Dissolution Honours.
Published: 8:00AM BST 29 May 2010

Labour life peers:

Hilary Armstrong, chief whip under Tony Blair, stood down as MP for Durham North West at general election.

Des Browne, former defence secretary, stood down as MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun at general election.
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Despite promises when they were in opposition, since 1997, the UK’s Labour government has failed to make any meaningful headway towards resolving the situation of the Elgin Marbles in The British Museum. Previous statements from the Conservative party suggest that they would be even less in favour of any sort of reunification deal than Labour is.

Nick Clegg, unknown to many before he was elected as a UK MP in 2005, was previously an MEP & during this time he was involved in organising an exhibition at the European Parliament.

Since 2005, there have been 6 Early Day Motions relating to the Parthenon Marbles. Based on an analysis of the people who signed at least one of these EDMs, the breakdown of support (strong support – MPs only normally sign EDMs when they feel strongly about something) by party is:

Liberal Democrats – 33%
Labour – 15%
Conservative – 1%

The weak support from the Conservative party is particularly troubling – it is only 2 out of 193 MPs who have expressed any interest in the issue. These are: Richard Ottaway (Croydon South) & James Gray (North Wiltshire). There are other members of their party who I know are supportive of the issue, but clearly they are not interested enough in it to want to publicly express their support.

The SNP & Plaid Cymru are also supportive of return, but their results are less accurate as they have far fewer MPs:

SNP – 29%
Plaid Cymru – 100% (of 3MPs)

Other minor / regional parties that are supportive:

SDLP (Northern Ireland) – 67% (of 3 MPs)
Respect – 100% (of 1 MP)

Based on these results, a Liberal Democrat government in the UK currently seems by far the most positive option for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. (although the national parties listed above for Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland are also supportive of the issue).

Below is a press release from the Marbles in Exile conference (Note that The Parthenon 2004 campaign is what is now know as Marbles Reunited):

Embargo: 00.01, Wednesday 29th May, 2002
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT SHOWS SUPPORT FOR THE RETURN OF THE PARTHENON MARBLES – RICHARD ALLAN MP

Today, the (Parthenon) Marbles in Exile Conference and Exhibition will take place at the European Parliament. Nick Clegg MEP, chair of the Marbles in Exile Conference, says:

“I am thrilled by the positive response across Europe to this issue. After all, it’s about preserving our common European heritage. It is absurd that the Parthenon monument remains torn apart in this way. Imagine the outrage in Britain if Big Ben’s clock face was taken from Westminster and housed in the Prado museum in Spain.”
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Yesterday, the Marbles Reunited campaign completed a re-branding exercise with a relaunch event in the House of Commons. The committee is chaired by Eddie O’Hara MP & Speakers at the Event included Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis, the president of the Organisation for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum, Dr Nigel Spivey of Cambridge University & David Hill, Chair of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.
Marbles Reunited was formerly also known as Parthenon 2004.

From:
The Times Blogs

March 23, 2007
Supping with the devil?

If anyone is following my Lenten abstinence, I must confess that yesterday I deemed the Irish Embassy (which was hosting a friend’s book launch) to be foreign soil and I allowed myself a couple of whiskies. It was the first alcohol that I have knowingly consumed in several weeks, unless you count some sherry sauce on a bowl of ice cream.

I’m not a regular at embassy parties, but – alcohol or not – this little piece of Ireland seemed an unusually jolly place, from the welcoming doorman to the cloakroom attendant and the generous barmen. The consequence, I suspect, of being a small nation which is doing very nicely thank you, and which (unlike us) no-one hates.
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The Times has published an obituary of Peter Derow, ancient historian & long time supporter of the campaigns to return the Parthenon Marbles.

From:
The Times

From The Times
February 09, 2007
Peter Derow
Historian of Ancient Rome who was a sympathetic and artful practitioner of the tutorial teaching system

Peter Derow was a scholar for whom the highest priority, and the greatest pleasure, was to teach undergraduates.

The claim on the website of Marbles Reunited (one of the two pressure groups he long supported for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece) that he was “responsible for much of the teaching in ancient history at Oxford” is only a little exaggerated. And the long string of his undergraduate pupils who have gone on to distinguished careers as ancient, usually Greek, historians proves the power of inspiring example.
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Another obituary – noteworthy inasmuch as it is written by a senior employee of the British Museum (who was also once a student of Peter’s) & that it specifically refers to the Elgin Marbles.

From:
The Guardian

Obituary
Peter Derow
Oxford historian and gentle champion of the ancient Greeks
Jonathan Williams
Friday February 2, 2007

The American-born Oxford academic Peter Derow, who has collapsed and died of a heart attack, aged 62, in the front quad of Wadham College, Oxford, was one of the most influential teachers of ancient Roman history of his generation. As fellow and tutor in ancient history at Wadham, he taught almost 30 years of undergraduates, many of whom have gone on in the field, with the shape and focus of their careers owing much to his inspiration. Tutorials with Derow introduced his students to the Enlightenment tradition of intellectual activity as a demanding but social and humane endeavour.

Peter was born in Newport, Rhode Island, the only child of Sidney Derow, a US navy medic, and Elma Kari. He attended the Roxbury Latin school and, for his first degree, Amherst College, Massachusetts, where he met and married his first wife, Ellan Odiorne. His second degree was at Wadham, where, from 1965 to 1967, he read greats – ancient philosophy and history – and took his first. It was in this period that he first encountered George Forrest, then ancient history tutor at Wadham, who was an intellectual influence and personal friend until his death in 1997.
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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.

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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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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I was informed today of the tragic news that Dr Peter Derow, a long time supporter of the campaign for the return of the Elgin Marbles had collapsed & died at the weekend.
Peter Taught Ancient History at Wadham College, Oxford & was one of the original founding members of the Parthenon 2004 campaign (now known as Marbles Reunited). His wisdom & anecdotes & the intellectual clout that he added to the campaign will be sorely missed.

In the run up to the Athens Olympics in 2004, the Parthenon 2004 campaign in Britain played a prominent role in publicising the case for the reunification of the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum with the surviving Parthenon Sculptures in Athens. While the Parthenon 2004’s parent organisation, the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles dealt with academia & the museums world, through lectures & conferences etc, Parthenon 2004 aimed their campaign towards a wider audience, specifically focusing on politicians and the general public. Through presenting the case in a more exoteric way & highlighting it in ways that appealed to people who had not previously thought about it, the campaign raised awareness of the issue throughout Britain.
Since the 2004 Olympics, a name change was clearly required for the organisation, along with a rethink of strategies so that their campaign could continue to look forward to the future of the Elgin Marbles. Last week the decision was taken that the organisation would be change its name to Marbles Reunited : Friends of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles although generally it will be know by its abbreviated form as: Marbles Reunited. The previous website at www.parthenon2004.com has been replaced with a new website at www.marblesreunited.org.uk, the details of which will be updated as the efforts of the campaign are refocused and new events are announced.
If you would like further information about the Marbles Reunited campaign, please contact them using the details given on their website.

William G Stewart, a member of the Parthenon 2004 campaign is to tour the USA giving a series of lectures about the Parthenon Sculptures & why they should be returned to Greece.

From:
BBC News

Last Updated: Tuesday, 25 February, 2003, 16:44 GMT
Quiz host to lecture on Elgin Marbles

Fifteen-to-One presenter William G Stewart is to embark on a seven US city lecture tour on the return of the Elgin Marbles to Greece.

The quiz show host is a vociferous campaigner for the UK to return the artefacts to their country of origin and is an expert on their history.
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