Showing results 1 - 12 of 30 for the tag: Reunification.

June 1, 2016

RIP Eddie O’Hara, MP & Parthenon Marbles campaigner

Posted at 8:08 am in Elgin Marbles

The one time chairman of Marbles Reunited & long time reunification supporter has died aged 78

I first met Eddie O’Hara in 2001. Since then, I have got to know him well through out common interest of the return of the Parthenon Marbles, and he later chaired the Marbles Reunited Committee of which I am a member. On standing down from Parliament in 2010, he became Chair of the BCRPM,

He was tireless in his support for the issue, regularly raising it in Parliament, as well as speaking at conferences around the world in support of restitution.

During recent years, he had respiratory problems, but he never let this stop his campaigning, despite the fact that it clearly made travel far more difficult thatn it had once been.

Eddie passed away on Saturday 28th May 2016. His wisdom and vigour will be missed by all who knew him.

Eddie O'Hara MP and Parthenon Marbles campaigner

Eddie O’Hara MP and Parthenon Marbles campaigner

From:
Guardian

Eddie O’Hara obituary
Labour MP with a passion for the reunification of the Parthenon marbles
Julia Langdon
Tuesday 31 May 2016 17.22 BST

Eddie O’Hara, the former Labour MP for Knowsley South, who has died aged 78, had a lifelong passion for Greek scholarship and culture and was a fervent enthusiast for the long-running campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon marbles.

An irony of his years of dedication he gave to this cause was his good fortune to be alive to pursue it, as he had been personally identified as a military target when doing national service with the British Army in Cyprus in the late 1950s. A keen sportsman and athlete, he took a daily run outside the army camp, always along the same route in the Cypriot countryside, a routine that was observed by the Eoka terrorists who were fighting to free their island from what was termed “the British yoke” and who mined his path. Had the booby-trap not been discovered in time, the Greek Cypriots would have been denied the subsequent support O’Hara demonstrated as one of the most tireless and articulate advocates of their political interests.
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March 11, 2013

British Museum reunifies sculptued ancient marble panel pieces – perhaps the Parthenon Marbles next?

Posted at 1:41 pm in British Museum, Similar cases

The British Museum is proud of its current exhibition off artefacts from the town of Herculaneum (and rightly so – from all the reviews I’ve seen, it is an amazing exhibition, including many items that have never been on public display before.

The interesting story though, is one of joining together pieces of a panel of carved marble – that have been separate since the time of the eruption of Vesuvius. Surely if they see the benefits in doing this with one panel, they can understand why the same should be done with far larger numbers of panels – from the Parthenon Frieze?

From:
Guardian

British Museum reunites Roman marble panels split for 2,000 years
Maev Kennedy
Sunday 10 March 2013 19.27 GMT

Shimmering as if still lit by the Mediterranean sun, two spectacular Roman marble panels have been reunited at the British Museum for the first time in almost 2,000 years.

Both come from a seaside mansion in Herculaneum, the town overwhelmed by a torrent of boiling mud from Vesuvius, when the wind changed direction 12 hours after Pompeii had already choked to death. They will be seen in the most eagerly awaited archaeological exhibition in decades, on life and death in the Roman towns when it opens at the museum later this month.
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January 27, 2011

Dimitrios Pantermalis – Monuments have rights in the same way as people

Posted at 1:54 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles, New Acropolis Museum

New Acropolis Museum president, Dimitrios Pantermalis, has given an interview with a Chinese newspaper, talking about the issues of reunifying disputed cultural artefacts. Interstingly, this follows not long after an interview by Greek Ministry of Culture Acting Deputy General Director of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage Maria Andreadaki-Vlazaki, also published in the Chinese media.

From:
Xinhua

Monuments have rights like people: Greek museum president
English.news.cn 2010-12-31 20:49:45
ATHENS, Dec. 31 (Xinhua)

Monuments have rights of their own to reunite just as humans do, a Greek professor says.

In an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday, Dimitris Pantermalis, president of the New Acropolis Museum, focused on the reunification issue of the Parthenon marbles.
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November 14, 2010

Ghent’s “Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” theft & reunification of the world’s most frequently looted artwork

Posted at 3:38 pm in Similar cases

The Ghent Altarpiece, also known as the “Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” is a complex polyptych panel painting made up of twenty four separate scenes painted onto a number of panels. Since it was completed in 1432, at various times, many of the panels have been stolen or looted or lost by other means & at the same time, various attempts have been made to reunify all the surviving panels & where possible to replace the missing ones with copies. It has some odd parallels with the Parthenon Marbles, althogh the attempts to reunify it have been far more successful.

From:
Basil and Spice

Book Review: Stealing The Mystic Lamb By Noah Charney
Oct 5, 2010
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen

‘Stealing the Mystic Lamb’: Strange World of Art Theft Revealed With Emphasis on the Most Frequently Stolen Artwork of All Time

Question: What Is the Most Frequently stolen artwork of all time?

Answer: Read Noah Charney’s “Stealing the Mystic Lamb: The True Story of the World’s Most Coveted Masterpiece” (PublicAffairs, 336 pages, color and black and white photographs, notes and sources, bibliography, index, $27.95) to discover that truth is indeed stranger than fiction in the world of art theft and looting.
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December 4, 2009

UK Museum returns Maori bones to New Zealand

Posted at 1:57 pm in Similar cases

Following the high profile successes of Australian Aboriginal groups in securing the repatriation of human remains from Britain’s museums, New Zealand’s Maori’s are also achieving similar results.

From:
Agence France Presse

Museum returns Maori bones to N.Zealand
(AFP) – Nov 16, 2009

LONDON — A British museum handed back a set of Maori skeletal remains to indigenous leaders from New Zealand on Monday, 80 years after they were discovered in storage there, officials said.

The remains are thought to have been traded but then forgotten, and to be from Ahuahu or Great Mercury Island, off the coast of New Zealand’s North Island.
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October 29, 2009

A new home in Greece for the Parthenon Sculptures

Posted at 2:05 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles, New Acropolis Museum

Since its opening a few months ago, the New Acropolis Museum has become the strongest argument for the reunification of the surviving Parthenon Marbles in one place, raising their international profile, at the same time as making the case for their return even clearer.

You can listen to this original radio broadcast here.

From:
WBUR (Boston)

Greece Unveils Museum Meant For ‘Stolen’ Sculptures
By Sylvia Poggioli
Published October 19, 2009 1:28 PM

A new, hypermodern museum at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens has a defiant purpose: to convince Britain to give back the symbols of ancient Greek glory, the 2,500-year-old sculptures of the Parthenon that were pried off the temple by Lord Elgin two centuries ago.

For decades, the main argument against the return of the sculptures — known as the Elgin or Parthenon Marbles — was Greece’s lack of a suitable location for their display. The new Acropolis Museum is a stunning rebuttal.
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October 26, 2009

Call for papers – Museums and Restitution

Posted at 9:47 pm in Elgin Marbles, Events, Similar cases

Submissions are invited for abstracts for a conference on Museums & Restitution to be held at the University of Manchester on 8th & 9th July 2010. Any abstracts should be submitted by 11th December 2009.

From:
Kostas Arvanitis (by email)

Call for papers
Museums and Restitution
International Conference
8-9 July 2010, University of Manchester

http://www.manchester.ac.uk/museumsandrestitution/

Museums and Restitution is a two-day international conference organised by the Centre for Museology and The Manchester Museum at the University of Manchester. The conference examines the issue of restitution in relation to the changing role and authority of the museum, focussing on new ways in which these institutions are addressing the subject.
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October 8, 2009

More on the temporary loan of the Lewis Chessmen to Scotland

Posted at 12:50 pm in British Museum, Similar cases

Some further coverage of the news that some of the Lewis Chessmen will be loaned to Scotland temporarily, but that they will definitely not be returning long term. As expected, many are not happy with this decision by the British Museum.

From:
Press and Journal

Letters Page
Published: 02/10/2009
Lewis Chessmen returning

SIR, – I refer to your story (October 1) about the Lewis Chessmen returning to Scotland.

Once again, the authorities have graced us with their kindness, and agreed to “lend” the nation of Scotland her own items of cultural significance. How thoroughly decent of them.

The Scottish Government should be applauded and criticised in equal measure. We have seen the Stone of Destiny, arguably Scotland’s most important historical and cultural item, return to its rightful place, but with steel shackles attached. And now, some more of the Lewis Chessmen return to their adopted homeland, but please do not get comfortable, as England wants them back.
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August 17, 2009

The repatriation of human remains from Britain’s museums

Posted at 12:42 pm in British Museum, Similar cases

The reunification of human remains held in museums with Aboriginal groups is a hot topic at the moment in Australia. The Human Tissue Act made the return of many such artefacts possible, but there are still many who claim that such returns are removing a key source of scientific & anthropological study – to the detriment of the institutions that currently held the artefacts.

Listen to the original programme here.

From:
ABC (Australia)

Regarding human remains
12 August 2009
The collection and display of human remains and human body parts were once legitimate activities for the great universal museums. Rear Vision tracks the changes in attitudes towards such displays from outside the museum world as well as from within.

CLACKING/CHANTING

Man: We’re gathered here today to welcome our old people back home.

Reporter: The Naranjeri remains were stolen from 27 gravesites between 1898 and 1906 by the controversial Adelaide coroner, Dr William Ramsay Smith. He sold livers, hearts and skeletons on the open market, all in the name of research.

Keri Phillips: During the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, collectors, traders and amateur and professional scientists from the developed world amassed enormous collections from all over the globe. These collections often contained human remains, everything from tattooed human skin and skulls to the bones of lepers and other diseased body parts. Early on, but especially during the 20th century, many of these collections were bequeathed to museums but as time wore on and museums began to change from research institutions to places of public display, questions began to be raised both within and outside the museum community about the ethics and legality of the collection, retention and display of humans and human body parts. In recent decades, some museums have begun to repatriate their collection of human remains.
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June 30, 2009

A catalyst for the reunification of the Elgin Marbles

Posted at 1:00 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles, New Acropolis Museum

The issue of the Parthenon Sculptures has been relatively static for many years, despite progress made on many other restitution cases during the same time. What was needed is a catalyst to start the reunification process – something that represents a step forward in the situation. That catalyst has now been created in the form of the New Acropolis Museum.

From:
Agence France Presse

New museum for Acropolis
Article By: Helene Colliopoulou
Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:57

Greece’s Acropolis Museum was finally unveiled this week, an ultra-modern glass building at the foot of the ancient citadel originally intended to be open in time for the 2004 Olympics.

Designed by celebrated Franco-Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi, it offers panoramic views of the stone citadel and showcases sculptures from the golden age of Athenian democracy in the fifth century BCE.
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June 28, 2009

Protection for ancient artefacts

Posted at 1:04 pm in Elgin Marbles, Similar cases

Throughout history, there have been many cases where items of cultural property have been taken from their original owners & often put on public display. In recent years though, public opinion on this type of practice has changed, with more laws & regulations to try & prevent this from happening.

From:
Salt Lake Tribune

Ancient artifacts slowly gaining protection – and it’s about time
By Pat Bagley
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 06/27/2009 04:53:22 PM MDT

In 1802, Lord Elgin began stripping a good chunk of Greece’s cultural heritage to decorate his Scottish estate.

Two hundred years ago, the Ottoman Empire embraced the Middle East and southeastern Europe, including Greece. As British ambassador to the Sublime Porte (the Ottoman seat of the Sultan in Istanbul), Elgin admired the ancient statuary and friezes that adorned the Acropolis in Athens. He liked them so much he prevailed on the Turks to let him have them (the proper palms being greased along the way, of course).
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June 8, 2009

British Museum could return Roman tablets to Northumberland

Posted at 1:02 pm in British Museum, Similar cases

I’m intrigued by this story, as normally the British Museum is unable to return artefacts – this suggests that either:
A. the artefacts are only on loan to the British Museum at present
B. that the artefacts will only be returned as a loan by the British Museum or
C. that no one has considered this aspect yet.

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 14:36 GMT, Sunday, 7 June 2009 15:36 UK
Roman ‘expense’ tablets head home

Roman writing tablets highlighting the inflated expenses claims of public officials 2,000 years ago are to return to their Northumberland home.

The tablets were found at Vindolanda – a Roman encampment on Hadrian’s Wall -in 1973 and detail hundreds of expenses claimed by Roman officials.
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