Generosità e larghezza di vedute.

Il Direttore del British Museum (del quale taccio con disprezzo il nome) ha risposto negativamente alla richiesta ufficiale pangreca (e non solo greca) di restituire i marmi del Partenone che ancora detiene. 
Pudicamente ed ipocritamente questi marmi sono denominati 'marmi di Elgin' dal nome del Lord Inglese che li fece traslare - secondo lui - del tutto legalmente e con massimo profitto per la cultura mondiale.
Il giornale che pubblica la notizia - meritandosi  di essere rifiutato come cartoccio anche da un pesce marcio - s'affretta a dichiarare che " Un terzo circa dei marmi si trova  a Londra, un altro terzo in Grecia, il restante terzo è andato perduto. Pertanto non esistendo la possibilità di ricostituire l'intera entità artistica perduta, non si vede perché riportarli nell'edificio in rovina dal quale provengono". 


British Museum director says "No" to return of 

Parthenon Sculptures 


 MacGregor said that the efforts of the Greek government to claim the return of the Elgin marbles is not going to bear any fruitful results.

Disputed: The Parthenon Sculptures, which reside  in the British Museum [Credit: TOC] 

In a very provocative way, the Director of the British Museum in London, Neil MacGregor reiterated today to British media that there is absolutely no intention from the British side to return the Parthenon marbles to Greece. 

Speaking today, “he repeated the museum's long-held position that the acquisition of the famous sculptures by Lord Elgin at the start of the 19th century was legal and that there was 'maximum public benefit' in them remaining in London where they were seen in the context of world culture,” the Evening Standard, a British newspaper reports. 

According to the newspaper, MacGregor said that the efforts of the Greek government to claim the return of the Elgin marbles is not going to bear any fruitful results. 

“Yet the museum is coming under the most sustained attack for decades from the Greek government whose call for the works to be repatriated is now being fought by a team including the lawyers Geoffrey Robertson and Amal Clooney,” it mentions. 

The newspaper further mentions that approximately one third of the marbles from the Parthenon marbles is in London, while about the same number remains in Greece. 
"Quite a lot of them no longer exist. So there's no possibility of recovering an artistic entity and even less of putting them back in the ruined building from which they came," he said.


 Source: Times of Change [November 07, 2014]

I MARMI DI ELGIN

UNESCO Letter to 

British Government 

for return of Parthenon Sculptures

Innanzitutto è giusto descrivere esattamente quale sia l’oggetto del contendere: si tratta di 15 metope, 56 bassorilievi di marmo e 12 statue, quasi l’intero frontone ovest del Partenone, in cui era rappresentata la processione panatenaica, oltre ad una delle sei Cariatidi del tempietto dell’Eretteo. Il Partenone, eretto tra il 447 ed il 432 a.C per volere di Pericle il grande, dopo numerose “trasformazioni” dovute alle diverse occupazioni, subisce il danno più grave nel 1687, quando il generale veneziano Francesco Morosini bombarda l’Acropoli sapendo che i turchi la utilizzano come deposito di polvere da sparo; una tremenda esplosione distrugge una rilevante parte del monumento.
Nel 1804 Lord Elgin, ambasciatore britannico presso l’impero Ottomano, asporta quanto sopra descritto. Da allora i marmi greci custoditi al British Museum sono conosciuti come 'Elgin's Marbles'. Anche se il diritto morale di appartenenza dà ragione alle istanze greche, la questione legale internazionale è molto più complicata e spesso avversa alle ragioni del cuore e della logica.

In a pivotal moment for the reinforcement of efforts for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures, an international deliberation of the individual committees is held  on Sunday, Oct. 6 in Athens. 

If the British side agrees to participate this process, it will be the first time that UNESCO will have taken action to solve a cultural dispute between two European member states [Credit: TANN]

UNESCO has sent a letter to the British Foreign Secretary, informing him of Greece’s request for the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

During the meeting of Minister of Culture & Sports Mr. Panos Panagiotopoulos with the General Director of  UNESCO in Paris in July, Mrs. Irina Bokova was asked  to influence from personal and institutional position, in order to initiate the mediation process with the British side. 

UNESCO, as international cultural organization, wrote a letter to the British Foreign Minister William Chag , the British Minister for Culture Ms Maria Miller and the Director of the British Museum Mr. Robert Neil McGregor. 

In this letter the British officials were informed officially about the request of the Greek side to proceed to the process of mediation in order to reach a settlement on the issue of Parthenon Sculptures. 

If the British side agree to conduct this process, it will be the first time that UNESCO will enable this institution to resolve cultural differences between two countries. 

The issue of the Parthenon Sculptures has, since 1987, steadily been in the agenda of any conference of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or repatriation in case of illegal possessions. 

Under these conditions , the International committee meetings to be held next Sunday at the Acropolis Museum acquires major importance .

Source: IEMC-UNESCO [October 03, 2013]