World Media on Greece : Acropolis and the Parthenon Marbles - 2007 Archive
Greece renews demand for Parthenon Marbles at UNESCO conference (AP/International Herald Tribune, 17.03.2008)
Lawyers, museum professionals, archaeologists, academics and cultural property experts met in Athens, Greece, 17-18 March for an international conference on the Return of Cultural Property to its Country of Origin, organised by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture in cooperation with UNESCO.
|
Culture Minister Michalis Liapis said Athens' long standing demand for the Elgin Marbles was gaining momentum as museums around the world have in recent years started returning ancient artifacts to their countries of origin and avoiding to buy objects that were illegally excavated or smuggled abroad. 
Return Elgin Marbles and lay 'curse of Minerva' to rest (Scotsman.com, 7.3.2008)
Author John Kapranos Huntley reminds readers that Lord Elgin was a Scot, who was at the time, British ambassador in Constantinople. Furthermore, in removing the sculptures from the Acropolis buildings, through his agents in Athens, Elgin was acting in a personal capacity. Read more...
Cambridge debates Elgin Marbles (ABC News, 24.02.2008)
Chairing the debate at Cambridge was the president of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, David Hill. He says the Association won the debate 114 to 46. "That sort of outcome's pretty consistent with all of the evidence of public opinion in Britain about the return of the Parthenon Sculptures." Read more... |
Cambridge University has debated the contentious issue of returning the Parthenon Sculptures, otherwise known as the Elgin Marbles, to Greece. The statues were removed in the early 1800s by Britain's ambassador to Athens, Lord Elgin.
Who Owns History? (Time, 21.02.2008)
"Dimitrios Pandermalis knows all about the idea of the universal museum. He doesn't think much of it. "A translation of the imperialism of the 19th century to the globalization of the 20th century" is what he calls the concept, and his view counts. Pandermalis is president of the organization behind the New Acropolis Museum in Athens, conceived as a standing rebuke to the British Museum's continued possession of the most passionately disputed cultural property of them all, the 5th century B.C. Elgin Marbles. Those are carvings taken from the Parthenon in the early 19th century at the direction of Lord Elgin, who was then British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Together the Elgins constitute roughly half of the surviving figures from the Parthenon." Read more... |
In this article published in Time Magazine, Richard Lacayo exlpores the notion of cultural property and "universal museums", presenting opinions and arguments from all sides. One of the Museum professionals he talks to is Dimitrios Pandermalis:
Acropolis Museum to Open in September (New York Times, 22.02.2008)
Read world media reports on this story
New Acropolis Museum Website - New Material: |
The new ultra-modern Acropolis museum in Athens will open in September, the Greek culture minister announced on Wednesday. “In one month, we are to finish moving all the pieces from the old museum,” the minister, Michalis Liapis, said during a visit to the site. 
“Secrets of the Parthenon” airs on Public Broadcasting Service (AP, 26.10.2008)
|
How did they do it? Some 25 centuries ago, how did the Greeks build the Parthenon with such beauty, permanence and speed? The answer may be found at the television production “
EasyJet founder joins fight to return Elgin Marbles to Athens (The Daily Telegraph, 28.01.2008)
Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the tycoon behind easyJet, has thrown his weight behind the campaign to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece. The 40-year-old Greek Cypriot, whose business empire includes a cruise line, bus company and hotel chain, has pledged his support to the British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles. Read more..
Time to restore the Parthenon Sculptures to 'the birthplace of European Civilisation' (Partick Comeford's Blog, 05.01.2008)
The return of the Sculptures to Athens would help to restore the beauty and meaning of the Parthenon and its physical and historic integrity. The New Acropolis Museum is ready to receive at least three million visitors a year, and is equally ready to receive the Parthenon Marbles". Read more... |
Patrick Comerford in his blog makes a strong argument about the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to the New Acropolis Museum: "The Parthenon Sculptures are not free-standing works of art - they are integral architectural parts of one of the most magnificent and unique monuments in the world. [...]
Iconic Acropolis statues begin move to new museum (AFP, 9.12.2007)
The operation of transferring the five statues of young women that acted as pillars to the temple, with the help of three giant cranes, will take some two weeks, Greek culture yminister Michalis Liapis said. Read more... |
The best-known statues from the Athens Acropolis, the Caryatids that once adorned the Erechtheion temple, began their journey Saturday to a new museum.
Acropolis now (The Guardian, 3.12.2007)
Entirely free of decoration ("The ancient sculpture on display inside will be enough," says Tschumi), the concrete, glass and marble building nevertheless plays a number of clever structural games. Read more... |
Greece makes booty call for lost marbles (The Australian, 20.10.2007)
Accroding to Luke Slattery, the most notable feature of the new Acropolis museum, due to open early next year, is a bare room awaiting the return of the Parthenon sculptures from their home of two centuries: the British Museum.
The wait, on present indications, will be a long one. Greek authorities hope to repatriate these ravishing yet barely understood works - removed from the temple of Athena in the early 19th century by the 7th earl of Elgin, Thomas Bruce - in time for the new Acropolis museum's scheduled opening in January 2008. Read more...
Acropolis statues set for transfer (Associated Press, 4.10.2007)
Swaddled in white drop cloths, hundreds of sculptural masterpieces from the Acropolis are waiting to be delicately lifted by crane to a glass and concrete museum nearing completion at the foot of the ancient citadel. This month, officials plan to start whisking some 4,500 artifacts from the old, cramped Acropolis museum.It will be the first time the artifacts,some of which are considered among the most important works of antiquity have been moved from the site. Read the entire article by Nicolas Paphitis here.
More articles on the tranfer of antiquities to the new Acropolis Museum:
- Where Gods Yearn for Long-Lost Treasures (New York Times, 28.10.2007)
- New home for Greece’s absent treasure (The Telegraph, 16.10.2007)
- The transfer in pictures (,BBC News, 15.10.2007 )
- Cranes move Acropolis sculptures ( BBC News, 15.10.2007)
- After 2,500 years, Parthenon treasures move to new home (Guardian, 15.10.2007)
- Ancient treasures begin move from Acropolis to antiquities museum (The Independent, 16.10.2007)
- Elgin Marbles project in swing (Financial Times, 15.10.2007)
- Moving day at Acropolis: out with the old (Times, 15.10.2007)
- Les frises du Parthénon quittent la colline de l'Acropole (Le Figaro, 15.10.2007)
- Greece hoists Parthenon sculptures to new home (Reuters, 14.10.2007)
- Greece Begins Transfer of Ancient Acropolis Sculptures (Voice of America, 14.10.2007)
- Acropolis statues bid adieu to hilltop home (The Hindu/AP, 15.10.2007)
Filming in Acropolis (AP, 14.10.2007)
|
Derek Gatopoulos reports from Athens on the shooting of Nia Vardalos's new film, a romantic comedy titled "My Life in Ruins". The Canadian-born star of 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' was granted rare permission by Greek authorities to film on the Acropolis and other ancient sites in Greece such as Delphi and Ancient Olympia. "My Life in Ruins" is the first major project helped by the 
Read more on
Greeks go for all the marbles in effort to get back artifacts (Washington Post, 7.10.2007)
The size of the building and the pedigree of its architect. Bernard Tschumi emphasizes that Athens wants its new museum to be thought of as a project similar in seriousness and ambition to other "star architect" museum projects around the world. The slickness and design efficiency of the building puts to rest any remaining notion that Athens is unprepared to tend them. The veils over the missing marbles add a poignancy to their absence.
Tschumi has managed to design a building that feels both minimalist and classical at the same time. Without echoing the Acropolis or succumbing to ancient kitsch, Tschumi has built something that reveals its design and structure and purpose as clearly as a Doric temple.
Read the entire article by Philip Kennicott here.
British urged to flick marbles to Greece (The New Zealand Herald, 29.05.2007)
The New Zealand Parliament's call for Britain to return the Elgin marbles to Greece has been welcomed by the New Zealand Parthenon marbles committee. Last week in Wellington, MPs unanimously backed a motion that one of the world's longest-running diplomatic rows be ended with the marbles' return to Athens. Read more...
