News

The Elginism website was set up in 2005 by the International Association's current treasurer, Matthew Taylor, with the aim of ccollating as many current articles relating to the Parthenon Sculptures & the campaign for their reunification in one single location.

This week, the website celebrates its fifth birthday. It now holds over 1500 articles about the issue, along with other related restitution cases.

You can read more about this story here.

The fragment from the Parthenon Frieze which was lent to Greece by the Palermo Museum has now been returned, despite initial hopes that the loan would be extended to become semi-permanent.

CULTURE: PARTHENON FRIEZE FRAGMENT RETURNS TO PALERMO

(ANSAmed) – PALERMO – A ship sailing from Naples has brought a fragment of the Parthenon’s frieze back from Athens where it has been on show since September 2008. The find had first been housed at the city’s old Museum of Archaeology, where it was visited by Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano, before being transferred to the new Acropolis Museum. The art treasure, a piece of stone measuring 34 by 35 centimetres, is being kept in Palermo in a double strong box before being returned to the region’s ‘Antonino Salinas’ archaeological museum, where it has been an exhibit for over a century. The stone is a fragment of Phidias’ eastern frieze of the Parthenon and features a foot of Peitho, the Greek goddess of persuasion. The piece had been part of the collection of a British diplomat before it was donated by his widow to the University of Palermo in 1836; it then passed into the collection of Palermo’s National Museum when it was founded in the second half of the 19thcentury. The fragment will be on view when the Antonino Salinas Museum reopens. (ANSAmed).

Read the original article here.

Pierce Brosnan has expressed support for the return of the Parthenon Marbles in an interview.

Interviewer: I have a question about the Parthenon Marbles which are now in the British Museum

Pierce: The Elgin Marbles?

Interviewer: The Parthenon, as we say…

Pierce: The Parthenon. They Should come back. They should come back. Sure. You should have them. They’re yours.

Read more about it here.

Dimitrios Pantermalis, the New Acropolis Museum's director, has given a lecture about the New Acropolis Museum in New York, to tie in with an exhibition there about the building.

Lecture on New Acropolis Museum in NY

New York (ANA-MPA/P. Panagiotou) — Dimitrios Pandermalis, President of the Board of Directors of the New Acropolis Museum and Professor of Classical Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, presented a lecture on “the Acropolis Museum and Its Collections” on Saturday evening at Columbia University in New York, in Schermerhorn Hall at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP).

Pandermalis made a historic review of the landmarks in the search for the appropriate site for the New Acropolis Museum, the obstacles that arose along the way, the excavations that necessitated a change of plan, and the final result that he said enchanted humanity.

Speaking to a packed auditorium, which also included the Museum’s architect, Bernard Tschumi, Pandermalis also outlined aspects unknown to the wider public concerning the entire course from inception of the idea of the New Acropolis Museum to the completion of the project.

Pandermalis also noted the “great advantages” of the Museum, such as the exploitation of natural light, and its roof, which functions as a “fifth facade”.

The lecture was given in conjunction with the exhibition on the New Acropolis Museum running at Columbia University’s Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery through December 19.

Opening just four months (October 21) after the new Acropolis Museum itself (June 20), the exhibition focuses on the building itself – its innovative architecture and the major role it plays at the nexus of Greco-Roman cultural and archaeological history, according to the organisers.

Sited to be in visual dialogue with the Acropolis, The new Acropolis Museum creates a direct association between the displayed objects and their original context. For the first time, all significant archaeological finds from the area are consolidated into one, state-of-the-art museum, highlighting the importance of the site in shaping artistic expression in Greco-Roman antiquity and its continuing influence on perceptions of Greek art. At the heart of the Wallach exhibition is an array of full-scale casts of prime examples of the sculpture that the museum was built to house, together with casts of pottery that was unearthed during excavations for its foundation. The casts, on loan from the museum in Athens, are complemented by color photographs of the building.

Introducing the exhibition are planning documents from Bernard Tschumi Architects, the firm that designed the museum. These materials include preparatory sketches, working drawings and architectural models. Tschumi, a New York-based Swiss architect, is a member of the faculty of Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where he served as dean from 1988 to 2003.

Early archaeological work on the Acropolis is illuminated by illustrated books from Columbia’s Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library. Copies of archival documents from the American School of Classical Studies in Athens outline the pioneering studies of William Bell Dinsmoor, a Columbia faculty member from 1919 to 1963 and one of the few foreign scholars allowed to conduct excavations on the Sacred Rock. Ioannis Mylonopoulos, professor of Ancient Greek art and archaeology in Columbia’s department of art history and archaeology, is serving as curator of this exhibition.

The exhibition winds up on December 19.

View the original article here.

Andrew George MP, chair of the Marbles Reunited campaign, has asked written Parliamentary Questions of DCMS about the Parthneon Marbles.

House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 30 Nov 2009  (pt 0003)

30 Nov 2009 : Column 373W—continued

[...]

Elgin Marbles

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions he has had with the Board of Trustees of the British Museum about the future management of its Parthenon marble exhibits. [302468]

Margaret Hodge: Neither my right hon. Friend, nor I have had any recent discussions with the Board of Trustees. However, he has met the Director of the British Museum and discussed the Museum’s capital programme. He has also been briefed by the Director

30 Nov 2009 : Column 377W

on the issue of the Parthenon Sculptures, whose management, as part of the entire collection, is a matter for the Museum and not for Government.

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions he has had with his Greek counterpart on exchange of museum artefacts since the building of the new Acropolis museum. [302469]

Margaret Hodge: Neither my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State nor I have had such discussions.

[...]

You can read the full transcript here.