The winners have been announced for a Greek literary contest to produce essays about the Parthenon Marbles.

From:
Athens News Agency

06/13/2011
History of a looting, or looting of history?

(ANA-MPA)-The Hellenic Cultural Association ‘Nostos’ in Argentina has announced the winners of its 3rd international literary contest, with the theme this year being “The Parthenon Marbles: The history of a looting, or the looting of history?”.

More than 350 essays, tales and poems in the Greek, Spanish and English languages from five continents were entered in this year’s contest, organised by Nostos under the aegis of the Greek Embassy in Buenos Aires and the Argentinean national senate.(ANA-MPA)

The first prize in the Greek language category went to Vayia Kapnia (Greece) for her work “Caryatid”, while second place was shared by Sonia Zacharatou (Greece) for her work “Selene’s Mourning” and Vassiliki Nevrokopli (Greece) for her work “Parthenon Marbles – The Petrified Fury”, and third place was shared by Dimitris Despotakis (Greece) for his work “In the Heavens on a Blonde Day” (Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin) and by Paraskevi Kostopetrou and Victoria Makri (Greece their work “The Sacred Dance of the Caryatids”.(ANA-MPA)

Honorable distinctions were also awarded to Antonia Georgedaki from Greece and Ioanna Georgikopoulou from France.(ANA-MPA)

Special prizes were also awarded to three minors from Greece: Manolis Dikaiakos, Andreas Horakis and Nikolaos Xifaras.(ANA-MPA)

The three top prizes in the Spanish language were awarded to Maria del Pilar Paz Manoso (Spain), Marta Silvia Dios Sanz (Greece) and Hector Manuel Taboada (Argentina).(ANA-MPA)

The award-winning works will be published in a special anthology, together with the works receiving honorable mentions, including a tale by ANA-MPA journalists Alexandra Gouta.(ANA-MPA)

The communications sponsor of the contest was ANA-MPA.

This year’s contest opened up collaboration, for the first time, with overseas agencies working for the spread of Hellenic civilisation and history, including the University of Chile’s “Fotios Malleros Center for Hellenic and Byzantine Studies”, the only such center in Latin America, established in 1968, and the Association of Writers of Argentina, as well as the Association of Greek Writers and Authors of the Five Continents, the Diaspora Literary Stoa from Australia, and the Greek Community of Lima, in Peru.(ANA-MPA)

“This year’s contest aims to unite all Greeks and non-Greeks with one voice, in a written appeal to the world of Letters, so as to vindicate the just national demand of Greece for the Return of the Parthenon Marbles, by the British Museum to the New Acropolis Museum,” Nostos president Christina Tsardikos told ANA-MPA.(ANA-MPA)