The strengthening of Greece’s arguments for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to our country, based on the support of British public opinion, is reflected in an extensive article in the British Telegraph. At the same time, the Guardian newspaper hosts today, Saturday, an opinion article in which it directly calls on the UK government to return the Sculptures to Athens.
A few days after the meeting of the Prime Ministers of Greece and Britain in Downing Street, where the request for reunification of the Sculptures with those in the Acropolis Museum was officially made by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Telegraph reports that when asked by YouGov polls the majority (56%) stated that the Sculptures should be exhibited in Greece, while only one in five (20%) answered that they should remain in the United Kingdom.
The article is signed by the Associated Editor of the newspaper Gordon Rayner, who signed last weekend the interview of the Greek Prime Minister through which the Greek request was presented to the British public again, just before Mr. Mitsotakis’ visit to London.
The Telegraph emphasizes that the pressure comes not only from the Greek side, but also from UNESCO. The UN cultural arm, the Telegraph continues, has strongly criticized the conditions under which the Sculptures are on display in the British Museum, and recently ruled that the issue of their return is transnational, “undermining Boris Johnson’s ready excuse that ministers do not can be mixed up because the Marbles belong to the British Museum “.
The Greek position, the British newspaper emphasizes, is also strengthened by the growing trend within major European museums in favor of the return of antiquities and artifacts that have been taken from third countries. “There is no doubt that there is a shift in this direction, museums in Europe and elsewhere are changing their attitude towards repatriation,” Alexander Herman, author of Restitution: The Return of Cultural Artifacts, told the Telegraph. This trend “has really strengthened in the last five years and other countries with a colonial past, such as Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, are all moving there,” he added.
“The British Museum is clearly behind the scenes,” actress Janet Suzman told the Telegraph. during Melina Mercouri’s campaign. She emphasizes that the arguments of the British Museum no longer correspond to reality and are reminiscent of “childish behaviors, with the logic” I found it is mine “.
“Anyone who visits the museum in Athens can see that the Sculptures should be there,” he adds.
Guardian: Do not prevent the return of the Sculptures to Greece
“Someday, a British government will return the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece,” regular columnist Simon Jenkins told the Guardian. Boris Johnson to be credited with making this important decision.
“Paris is returning stolen artifacts from Southeast Asia and Senegal. “Benin’s bronze treasures have been returned to Nigeria from Cambridge, Aberdeen, Germany and France.”
The debate over the repatriation of such important works, the author emphasizes, has taken on other dimensions thanks to the development of 3D printing, a technology that allows us to reconstruct exact copies of ancient creations, using even the same type of stone or marble.
Plans are already under way to build copies of some of the historic monuments destroyed by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, and as Greeks want to see the original cultural treasures return to the shadow of the Acropolis, similar copies could replace the Glyphs today. on display at the British Museum.
“If Londoners want to see the aesthetic lures of Greek sculpture have this opportunity, technology can copy them, as it copies famous statues across Europe. “But do not prevent the return of the Sculptures,” said the Guardian columnist.
.
