Athens sends a message to the British Museum of Parthenon Sculptures with tradition of the statue of the goddess Athena from the Acropolis Museum to the Antonino Salinas Museum in Palermo. This is a retaliation from Greece in the gesture and political will of the Sicilian government, to return to Greece and to the Acropolis Museum the Fagan fragment from the eastern frieze of the Parthenon for eight years and to request from the Italian government his stay in Athens.
With a moving ceremony, which began with the rebuttal of the National Anthem of Greece and Italy, the handover ceremony of the beautiful statue from the Acropolis Museum took place this morning at the Italian Museum, in the presence of the Minister of Culture and Sports Lina Mendoni. The statue will be on display at the Museum for four years.
As the Minister of Culture and Sports Lina Mendoni said in her speech, “It is a special pleasure and honor for me to be with you, together with the General Director of the Acropolis Museum of Athens and my associates, in order to reciprocate the generosity that includes the initiative of the Regional Government of Sicily and especially of Assessor Alberto Samona and Director Dr. Caterina Greco, not only to exhibit the Fagan fragment from the frieze of the Parthenon, for a long time (4 + 4 years) at the Acropolis Museum , but also to request from the Ministry of Culture of the Italian Republic his final repatriation to Athens. This expressed political will confirms the longest ties of cultural connection and brotherhood of Greece and Sicily, as well as the de facto recognition of the common Mediterranean identity.
“The return and reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures in Athens is a moral obligation for all of Europe, in the context of the protection of its common cultural heritage. And the greatest force for their reunification is the belief of Europeans themselves, as well as British citizens, in the importance of the Parthenon, this greatest monument to European culture. The architectural sculptures of the Parthenon are in the British Museum as a product of theft. Greece does not recognize any right of ownership, occupation and prefecture over them. On the contrary, it is constitutionally obliged and morally legitimized to demand and seek, by all legal and appropriate means, their final, permanent and irrevocable return, for the restoration of law and moral order, and above all for the restoration of the integrity of the monument, “added Lina. Mendoni.
The Agreement between the Autonomous Government of Sicily and Greece, a product of 14 months of cooperation and consultations, includes the sending of two important antiquities from the Collections of the Acropolis Museum in Palermo, once every four years. “This agreement indicates the path that London can follow.”
The Deputy Minister of Culture of Italy, Lucia Borgonzoni underlined that “Relations between Greece and Italy are already close. Today they are becoming even narrower. What is happening today is a political act between Greece and Italy and that is of particular importance. As Minister Lina Mendoni said, the world deserves to see the Sculptures of the Parthenon reunited. UNESCO showed the same direction. I am very proud that Italy and Sicily are making the first move. This is a deposit at the moment, but we are working at the Ministry, so that the fragment stays in Athens forever. The competent committee of the Ministry of Culture has already started the necessary procedures “.
The Assistant of Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity, Dr. Alberto Samonà said: “Sicily is taking the first step today and I hope that other countries will follow this example in order to build a new humanism of Culture.”
The director of the Museum Antonino Salinas Caterina Greco, noted that “Today we celebrate the exhibition of the statue of Athena in Palermo. In the coming months, our cultural cooperation will acquire even greater substance with a program, which includes more initiatives and is based on the ancient substratum of Greek colonization that from the 8th c. e.g. connected Sicily forever with the Greek homeland “.
The General Director of the Acropolis Museum Nikos Stampolidis stated that “The fragment of Palermo, which you gave us on January 10, was transferred to the eastern frieze of the Parthenon and eventually joined its place of origin, to which it belonged for centuries, reuniting the rest of the body. of the goddess Artemis. The reunion of this divine body raises the desire and the human gesture of our Sicilian friends to a similar level, to their desire to bring back to Athens the “Fagan Fragment” of the Antonino Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum.
The honorary chairman of the International Commission for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, Professor Louis Godard, stressed that “The current Greek authorities rightly believe that only a move of cultural diplomacy like the one implemented by Italy in recent years, may lead to the signing of an agreement with Great Britain and the British Museum and eventually lead to the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to their homeland “.
Before the ceremony at the Antonino Salinas Museum, the President of the Region of Sicily Nello Musumeci welcomed Lina Mendoni to the Palazzo Orléans saying that “It is impossible to think of the history of Sicily without Greek culture. The recent agreement signed between the museums of Sicily and Greece is the starting point of a synergy that has begun, a testament to the renewed interest in resuming cooperative relations with the Mediterranean countries. It is the first step of a long journey that we hope will continue in the name of cultural exchanges “.
Lina Mendoni, conveying the greetings of the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, noted that Greeceis open to further cooperation with the Region of Sicily, as it will also entrust some archaeological finds related to the myth and form of Odysseus, to be exhibited in an exhibition in Gela in the coming months, which is dedicated to the protagonist of the Odyssey. “We are very happy to work with Sicily and Gela, where the Greek influence is strong, enriching the list of the exhibition that is being prepared,” he added, while addressing an official invitation to President Musumeci to visit Greece.
A few words about the statue
The statue of the goddess Athena from the Acropolis Museum is dated between 420-400 BC. The goddess Athena bends her body as she leans on the spear she lost today in her left hand. He wears a veil, the folds of which embrace the curves of the body, and from above a narrow aegis, passed obliquely under the left armpit. In the center of the aegis was originally a mermaid, probably made of metal, adapted to the holes that are drilled there. After a four-year exhibition at the Antonino Salinas Museum, the statue will be replaced with a geometric vase.
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