Showing results 1 - 12 of 29 for the tag: Canada.

November 6, 2014

Venizelos offers Britain other loans in return for Marbles

Posted at 8:28 am in British Museum, Elgin Marbles

Reading some of this article feels a bit like history repeating itself. Back in late 2002, when Evangelos Venizelos was Culture Minister, he presented the UK with a summary of the limitations of Greece’s demands for the Marbles, along with what they might expect to receive in return. In effect, what he came up with was a win-win situation, although the British Museum refused to recognise it as such.

Many changes of government later, after being finance minister during possibly the toughest of times during the unravelling of the Greek debt crisis, Venizelos is now Deputy Prime Minister in the current coalition government. He has take the opportunity of announcing loans of artefacts to an exhibition in Canada, as an opportunity to re-iterate these demands. This is great news, as for many years, there was no clear offer on the table & there was much speculation in the absence of a new offer, as to whether the old one was still valid. What Venizelos describes here sounds remarkable similar – if anything more flexible (perpetual loan, rather than a series of separate short term loans).

As a separate point, in the past, I have highlighted that Greece has never really withdrawn cooperation from Britain to put pressure on them in the way that other countries (notably Iran) have tried to, to secure artefact returns. From what Venizelos describes though, it seems that the deal with Canada could be the evidence of a similar sort of strategy. Greece will not stop cooperating with Britain – but it will offer greater levels of cooperation to other countries wanting to organise temporary exhibitions etc.

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos

From:
Ottawa Citizen

Greece hopes exhibit at Museum of History will help free Elgin Marbles from Britain
Don Butler
Published on: November 3, 2014Last Updated: November 3, 2014 1:30 PM EST

ATHENS • Greece hopes a blockbuster exhibit coming to the Canadian Museum of History next year will boost its argument for repatriating the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum, foreign minister Evangelos Venizelos said Monday.

In an act the Greeks have long characterized as looting, British diplomat Lord Elgin removed about half of the surviving classical Greek sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens between 1801 and 1812 and shipped them to Britain.

The British government purchased the artifacts in 1816 and passed them to the British Museum in London, where they remain on display to this day.

In a meeting with Canadian journalists and officials from the Canadian Museum of History, Venizelos was asked if Greece’s willingness to allow more than 500 rare artifacts to travel to Canada and the United States was partly a tactic to ramp up pressure on the British to return the long-sought sculptures.
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November 9, 2013

Former Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean speaks out in support of Parthenon Marbles return

Posted at 6:43 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles

Michaelle Jean, a former Governor General of Canada, has expressed her support for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece.

Parthenon Marbles in British Museum

Parthenon Marbles in British Museum

From:
Greek Reporter

Michaelle Jean: In Favor of the Return of Parthenon Marbles
By Evangelia Kagkelidou on November 7, 2013 In Culture, Politics

Former Governor General of Canada Michaelle Jean is in favor of the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

A very positive step for the promotion of Greek issues through the international organization of Francophonie happened οn Monday during the working lunch at the Acropolis Museum. The Minister of Culture and Sport, Panos Panagiotopoulos, with the former Governor General of Canada Michaelle Jean, who was in Athens to deliver a lecture on “Multiculturalism, Cultural Dialogue and Social Change.”
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September 6, 2012

UK owners return 230 year old canoe to Canada

Posted at 8:12 am in Similar cases

More coverage of the story that first emerged over a year ago, about one of the earliest examples of a birch bark canoe, owned by a family in Cornwall, who decided to return it to Canada.

From:
Vancouver Sun

Rare birchbark canoe repatriated from U.K. to Peterborough museum
By Mike Fuhrmann, The Canadian Press August 17, 2012

PETERBOROUGH, Ont. – The latest arrival at the Canadian Canoe Museum, a six-metre-long birchbark craft, is in poor shape. Ribs poke out from the sides and much of the frame has disintegrated.

But the vessel’s remarkable history — and the fact that it has survived at all, becoming one of oldest birchbark canoes in the world — make it a “stunning find,” says museum curator Jeremy Ward.
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May 25, 2012

Symposium on criminality involving art & cultural property

Posted at 7:52 am in Events, Similar cases

Czegledi Art Law is organising a “Criminality in the art & cultural property world”.

The event takes place in Toronto on June 15th – 16th 2012.

For more information, & to book a place, view the full details here.

April 27, 2012

Norway gets permission to excavate and export the wreck of the Maud from Canada

Posted at 8:23 am in Similar cases

Further to my previous post about the wreck of Roald Amundsen’s ship in Canada, the Canadian Heritage organisation has contacted me with updated information about this story.

From:
Canadian Heritage

At its meeting on March 15, 2012, the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board reviewed the decision to refuse the export permit for the Maud.

The Board makes decisions on appeals of refused export permits based on criteria of “outstanding significance and national importance,” as per section 11 of the Cultural Property Export and Import Act.

The Board issued the following statement:

“The Board was sensitive to both sides of the story of the Maud and appreciated all the relevant information presented by the expert examiner and the appellant, the Norwegian Embassy. The Board recognized the shared heritage of Canada, Norway and the world, and after careful consideration of the criteria under the Act, determined that an export permit will be granted for the Maud. ”

As a result of this decision, the export permit for the Maud will be issued by the Canada Border Services Agency at the request of the applicant.

April 24, 2012

Will Canada allow Norway to excavate & remove Roald Amundsen’s ship?

Posted at 5:09 pm in Similar cases

In an intriguing case, Norway would like the rights to excavate & remove (to a museum in Norway), the ship of the polar explorer Roald Amundsen. So far, Canada have blocked the requests, as they feel hat the ship is of archaeological significance within Canada & needs a proper study & archaeological survey done before any decision could be made. On the other hand, nobody in Canada has the resources / willingness to carry out this survey – and as each year passes, the ship wreck will deteriorate further as it is battered by the elements in its exposed position on the beach.

Note that since this post was written, I have received updated information about the story, which is posted here.

From:
Nunatsiaq Online

Nunavut March 12, 2012 – 11:53 am
Review board set to hear Norway’s claim to the Maud
“We cannot imagine that there’s anyone who can take over this ship”
JANE GEORGE

It’s been more than 100 years since Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen sailed the Maud into the western Arctic, where it ended up sinking some years later in the waters off Cambridge Bay.

But the ship is still making waves.

On March 15 Canada’s cultural property export review board will meet in Ottawa to review a previous decision by the Canadian Border Services Agency to deny an export permit to a Norwegian group that wants to tow the half-submerged wreck of a ship off the shore back to Norway.
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April 12, 2012

The statue at the Lord Elgin hotel

Posted at 7:35 am in Similar cases

More coverage of the peculiar story of a missing statue – only really connected to the Elgin Marbles in name.

From:
Ottawa Citizen

Case closed: Archivists solve mystery of Lord Elgin Hotel’s Wolfe statuette
Artwork turned up in Lord Elgin loo
By Tom Spears, The Ottawa Citizen January 23, 2012

Mary Margaret Johnston-Miller of Library and Archives Canada explains how she she tracked down the history of a stolen statuette of General Wolfe.

OTTAWA — The Maple Leaf Forever says that Wolfe the dauntless hero came from Britain’s shore. So did his dauntless statuette.
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January 30, 2012

The statue at Ottawa’s Lord Elgin Hotel

Posted at 1:53 pm in Similar cases

Another restitution story, only tenuously connected to that of the Parthenon Marbles via the Elgin name – but interesting none the less.

From:
Vancouver Sun

Statuette returned, but was it stolen?
Note says it was taken 50 years ago, although archives uncertain they ever owned it
By Ari Altstedter, Postmedia News June 7, 2011

Someone entered the first-floor men’s room of the Lord Elgin Hotel in downtown Ottawa on Saturday, carefully placing a shopping bag on the floor and leaving.

Inside was a century-old bronze statuette and an anonymous typed note.
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November 2, 2011

Play inspired by the Parthenon Marbles

Posted at 1:57 pm in Elgin Marbles

Janet Munsil’s play about the Elgin Marbles is showing again in Canada.

From:
Times Colonist (Canada)

Theatre Review: Stolen Greek sculptures inspire play
By Adrian Chamberlain, Times Colonist March 6, 2011
What: Influence
Where: Metro Studio
When: To March 13
Rating: 3 1/2

No wonder Athena seems choked.

The citizens of Athens built the Parthenon in the goddess’s honour. So when Lord Elgin pilfered the sculptures from the Parthenon in the early 19th century, she took it as a personal affront.

An enraged Athena storms the stage in Influence, a 2008 play by Victoria’s Janet Munsil, now undergoing its second production. Set in the British Museum in 1817, where the marbles are newly installed, she is joined by fellow Greek gods Apollo and Hephaestus. The mortals are the poet John Keats and the English painter Benjamin Haydon, a lesser-known figure.
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October 26, 2011

The Elgin family busts in Ottawa

Posted at 1:09 pm in Elgin Marbles, Similar cases

More coverage of the controversy over the locations of the busts of the Eighth Earl of Elgin and his wife in Canada.

From:
The Herald (Scotland)

Elgin marble row with a difference as Canadian hotel seeks return of busts
MARTIN WILLIAMS
22 Feb 2011

IT sometimes seems that anything linked to the Elgin dynasty and made of marble is bound to become shrouded in controversy.

The long-running row between London and Athens is rumbling on over the sculptures known as the Parthenon Marbles, which were taken from the Acropolis.
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The location of the Ottawa busts of the eighth Earl of Elgin & his wife

Posted at 12:53 pm in Elgin Marbles, Similar cases

It is hard to tell, whether everything that the Elgin family were involved in had a tendency to generate controversy – or whether the controversies are always mentioned, because it is easy for writers to attempt to draw parallels to the story of the Parthenon Marbles

From:
Ottawa Citizen

Our Elgin Marbles
Sculptures of Lord and Lady Elgin have moved from hotel to Rideau Hall
By Tony Lofaro, The Ottawa Citizen February 20, 2011

OTTAWA — What is the rightful home of Ottawa’s marble busts of Lord and Lady Elgin? The answer is a compelling tale about an Ottawa landmark, a noble Scottish family and a government that appears to value fine print over tradition.

Since 2003, the busts of the eighth earl of Elgin, an influential governor general of Canada, and his wife, Lady Mary Lambton, have been at Rideau Hall. Before that they were displayed prominently in the lobby of the Lord Elgin Hotel, and had been there since prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King unveiled them at the hotel’s opening on a Saturday afternoon in July 1941.
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February 2, 2011

Influence – a play about the arrival of the Elgin Marbles in Britain

Posted at 2:23 pm in Elgin Marbles, Events

A play on in Victoria, British Columbia, is set during the arrival of the Parthenon Marbles in Britain in 1817, when a young John Keats visits them for the first time.

Intrepid Theatre presents:
‘Influence’
by Janet Munsil

March 4-5 & March 9-12, 8pm
Sunday Matinees + talkback: March 6 + 13, 2 pm
At the Metro Studio (Quadra at Johnson), Victoria BC
TICKETS $25: www.intrepidtheatre.com or call 250 590 6291

“A winner. . .I can’t wait for the day that Janet Munsil’s Influence will extend across the seas to be presented where it’s set, in London.” Vancouver Sun

Audiences in Victoria, BC will get a rare chance to see internationally renowned Victoria playwright Janet Munsil’s latest work, Influence, when the play makes its Victoria premiere at the Metro Studio in March.
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