Greece is stepping up efforts for the permanent return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Athens prior to next year’s 200th Anniversary of the Greek War of Independence of 1821, Greek Culture, and Sports Minister Lina Mendoni told Xinhua in a recent interview, greekcitytimes.com reports.
Their repatriation from the British Museum is a national priority, she noted.
“The Parthenon Sculptures exhibited in the British Museum are the product of theft,” the minister underlined.
The 2,500-year-old marble sculptures have been the subject of dispute for more than three decades, with Greece and the international community repeatedly calling on the British Museum to return them to their place of origin.
The sculptures were ‘violently’ and illegally removed from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin in the 1800s and sold to the British Museum.
Since September 2003 when construction work for the Acropolis Museum commenced, Greece has systematically demanded the return of the sculptures on display in the British Museum.
“The Parthenon was dismembered, broken into pieces and then looted,” president of the Acropolis Museum, Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis told Xinhua.
The marble friezes that are on display at the British Museum, make up approximately 60% of the total remaining sculptural material, he pointed out.
The need for their reunification with the other 40% in Athens, is a cultural imperative, Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis underlined.
“It is important the sculptures that lie separated in Athens and in London to be assembled again. A new interpretation will come up from this unity and will be treated as such. They will not be just pieces, but complete forms,” he added.
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