British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has commented publicly on the Elgin Marbles, during an interview on BBC’s One Show. His response predictably follows the line of previous statements by the Department of Culture Media & Sport on the issue.

You can listen to the show online on the BBC’s website for the next few days. The relevant section is about fifteen minutes into the programme.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Gordon Brown’s son calls him ‘Gordon’ rather than ‘dad’
By Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent
Last Updated: 8:44PM BST 17/07/2008
Gordon Brown has told how his five-year-old son John had taken to calling him “Gordon” rather than “dad”.

[…]

Despite a tape-recorded plea from Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the owner of the budget airline Easyjet, Mr Brown said that he did not support the return of the Elgin Marbles to Greece.

Insisting the best place for the Marbles was the British Museum, he added: “From everywhere in the world people can see them free of charge.”

After much speculation & various conflicting reports, it now appears in the New Acropolis Museum, the copies of the British Museum’s Parthenon Sculptures will be displayed with a whiter colour than the authentic sculptures that they sit amongst. There is a certain irony in this of course, harking back to the cleaning controversy of the 1930s. Maybe once the actual sculptures are returned, they will still look much whiter.

This article is also notes that the museum is now scheduled to open in September of this year.

From:
The Art Newspaper

Parthenon frieze will be recreated in New Acropolis museum
Originals to be displayed next to plaster casts of British Museum’s marbles
Martin Bailey | 10.7.08 | Issue 193

LONDON. The long-awaited formal opening of the New Acropolis Museum in Athens has now been scheduled for September, after a series of delays. The gallery housing the Parthenon marbles, at the top of the museum, with a view towards the actual Parthenon 300m away, will be finally unveiled, although many of the other displays are not expected to be completed until next year.

After years of discussions, the museum has now decided how it will present the marbles. The originals are being displayed alongside plaster casts of the pieces removed from Greece, most of which are in the British Museum in London.
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Nicolas Mottas writes about some of the current developments in the campaign to reunite the Parthenon Marbles in Athens, along with some of the reason why it is imperative that this happens.

From:
OpEdNews

July 8, 2008 at 07:49:17
Restore the Parthenon Marbles
by Nicolas Mottas Page 1 of 1 page(s)
http://www.opednews.com

“We say to British goverment: you have kept those sculptures for almost two centuries. You have cared for them as well as you could, for which we thank you. But now, in the name of fairness and morality, please give them back. I sincerely believe that such a gesture from Great Britain would ever honour your name”. Melina Mercouri, Greek actress and politician, Oxford Union, June 1986.

With pleasure I was informed that the British-based Greek enterpreneur Sir Stelios Hadji-Ioannou is willing to participate actively in the campaign for the repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles. The case of Marbles reunification’s effort is, less or more, known. Information about the historical backround of the ancient sculptures, their removal from the Athens Acropolis and transfer to London, can be found in various sources, including the internet. On that issue there has been a decades-long concern which is connected with the restoration of the Marbles to their homeland, Greece. However, as it is mostly known, no progress has been done on the issue, mainly due to the continual denial of British Museum’s administrations to discuss such a possibility. Yet, the question still remains: should the Parthenon Marbles return to their natural environment, in the place where they were created, or they should remain in the place where Lord Elgin moved them in the early 19th Century?
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This documentary on the Parthenon Sculptures (in Greek language only) aired in Greece a few weeks ago. It contains a lot of very up to date information on the issue including footage of the Cambridge Union debate & the UNESCO conference held at the New Acropolis Museum.

You can watch the film online here.

A transcript of it is also available to download.

Following recent publicity about his advert campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, Stelios Hadji-Ioannou appears dis-satisfied with the way things are progressing. Whilst there are issues for both sides over whatever sort of deal might be reached though, I very much doubt that Stelios has given up on the issue yet. This seems more like wishful thinking on the part of the Telegraph, a paper who have (with a few notable exceptions) generally come out as strongly against reunification of the Elgin Marbles whenever the issue has been raised.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Gordon Brown won’t holiday in Cliff Richard’s Barbados villa
By Tim Walker
Last Updated: 8:54PM BST 04/07/2008

[…]

A game of Elgin Marbles

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou appears to have conceded defeat in his battle to return the Elgin Marbles to Athens.

“The Greeks don’t seem to understand that the marbles are not owned by the British Government but by a trust,” the founder of easyJet told Mandrake at The Spectator summer party.
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Dunfermline policeman Tom Minogue suggests in response to EasyCruise’s adverts, that the most successful way to enable the return of the Parthenon Marbles will be in court.

From:
The Scotsman

28 June 2008
Marbles must be settled in court

NEWS that the multi-millionaire founder of EasyJet, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, is set to launch a personal campaign for the reuniting of the Elgin marbles by placing adverts in newspapers is interesting, but hardly a new idea (‘EasyJet founder gets Elgin marbles campaign rolling’, June 15).
Various bodies have diplomatically campaigned for years to have the Parthenon Marbles reunited with the Parthenon. These diplomatic attempts have all ended in failure and much as I admire Stelios for trying, I fear his attempts will share the same fate.
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For reasons that are unclear, certain journalists at the Liverpool Echo have take huge objection to Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s involvement with the campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. As in the previous criticisms though, the story seems to be getting in the way of the facts.

Even at the time of Elgin’s acquisition of the sculptures, debates in parliament made it very clear, that people were not convinced that his conduct had been all legal & above board.

From:
Liverpool Echo

easyFacts for Stelios
Jun 19 2008 by Joe Riley, Liverpool Echo
IS it a bird? Is it a plane?

No. Just easyJet founder Sir Stelios attempting an emergency landing over the future of the Elgin Marbles, sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens which Greece wants returning from London.

In January, I revealed how Stelios, worth £725m (with a little help from the wallets and purses of passengers at JLA) was backing the campaign by sponsoring a Cambridge University debate.
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Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s advertising campaign has now been published in a number of national newspapers in Britain. On his website, he has created a page dedicated to the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. This also links to a copy of the actual advert, along with a photo of his new cruise ship with the words Reunite the Parthenon Marbles painted on the side.

From:
easyCruise

Stelios steps into Parthenon Marbles debate with new, challenging ad campaign
posted: 16.06.08

Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of easyCruise, has announced the launch of a national advertising campaign to get the nation talking about one of the World’s most complex cultural debates.

From Monday 16th June, open letters from Stelios himself will appear in the national press, calling for the curators of the British Museum and the new Acropolis Museum in Athens to open up communications to find a mutually acceptable way to engage in a cultural exchange. Within the letter, Stelios says: “I think the time has come for the curators of the two museums to have a constructive dialogue about the Parthenon Marbles. Away from politics and name calling, I feel there is now a win-win solution for both museums in the form of a cultural exchange. Therefore, art lovers worldwide might get the once in a lifetime chance to see these masterpieces reunited.”
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More coverage of Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s proposed advertising campaign in the British Press, aimed at encouraging the reunification of the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum.

From:
Scotland on Sunday

EasyJet founder gets Elgin marbles campaign rolling
Published Date: 15 June 2008
By Liz Longden

THE multi-millionaire founder of easyJet, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, is set to launch a personal campaign for the reuniting of the Elgin marbles.
The controversial marble sculptures, which have been at the centre of a diplomatic dispute between Britain and Greece for decades, are split between the British Museum in London and the New Acropolis Museum in Athens.

However, the Greek-Cypriot entrepreneur will take out full-page adverts in a number of British newspapers this week to argue the case for keeping the artworks in a single collection.
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Following the support of a Cambridge Union debate & then the branding of easyCruise’s new ship with Reunite the Parthenon Marbles, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has moved onto the next stage of his plan – a series of adverts in the British Press to increase awareness of the issue. One hopes that this plan will end up as successful as his previous businesses have been.

From:
The Independent

Stelios in bid to reunite Elgin Marbles
By Arifa Akbar, Arts Correspondent
Saturday, 14 June 2008

Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of the budget airline easyJet, is due to launch a one-man campaign to reunite the Elgin Marbles by taking out a series of full-page advertisements in national newspapers across Britain next week.

The Greek businessman has written an open letter to the British Museum in London and the new Acropolis Museum in Athens. In it, he urges the institutions to reunite the Elgin – also known as the Parthenon – Marbles that are currently divided between Greece and Britain.
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Earlier this year, Easyjet founder Stelios Haji-Ioanou spoke out in support for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece. He’s now continuing on this theme with the motto “Reunite the Parthenon Marbles” painted onto his new cruise ship.

From:
Daily Telegraph

easyCruise’s cut-price Odyssey
Max Davidson
Last Updated: 1:13PM BST 30/05/2008

Max Davidson joins the lastest ship from easyCruise for its maiden voyage around the Aegean – and is pleasantly surprised. Just don’t mention the breakfast .

It is after midnight. On the dance floor, a sixtysomething Sikh is strutting his stuff, arms aloft, to the strains of the Plastic People. “Nice mover,” says the man on the double bass. From the bar, a young German couple watch, mesmerised. There is a shriek of drunken laughter from the deck above. Welcome aboard the people’s cruise ship.
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