A conference organised by the Greek organisation AHEPA in Melbourne has decided to begin a legal battle against the British Museum for the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

From:
Greek Reporter

AHEPA Initiative for Parthenon Marbles Return
Posted on 06 October 2010 by Panos Kontogiannis

A conference organized by the Greek-American progressive organization AHEPA of Australia in Melbourne has decided to begin a legal battle against the Museum of London to return the Parthenon sculptures in Greece. AHEPA of Australia made the first initiative by giving the amount of $15.000 Australian dollars for Emanuel Komninos and Victor Bizanis to start a global campaign on this issue.

Emanuel Komninos who is in charge of the first committee for returning the Parthenon sculptures and lawyer Victor Bizanis spoke among others, at the conference.

Mr. Bizanis was born in Australia but loves his homeland. In his opinion, the legal representation of Greece should rely on the extremely successful Australian lawyer Jeffrey Robertson who lives in London. In the past he has won a legal battle concerning the aborigines of Tasmania. Mr. Bizanis claims that there are lots of criminal records on which the Greek representative should take into consideration.

According to the “Mambo” case, the Aborigines sued the Australian state of Couinsland in 1992. They stated that their ancestors lived there when white people concurred their land, claiming them as: “to belong to no one”. Aborigines won the trial and made the state return their land which had been concurred in 1788.

The second criminal record according to Mr. Bizanis has to do with the return of skulls and bones of Aborigines from Great Britain to Australia. Thε skulls and bones had been stolen by the British in the 19th and 20th centuries for anthropological research. The aborigines sued Great Britain, won and their ancestor’s skulls and bones were returned.