Posted on: March 25, 2024 by Charlotte Woodhead
The “legislative prison walls” of the British Museum Act In 2022, the then UK Prime Minister (the antepenultimate Prime Minister of recent times) responded to calls for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece by saying that it is for the trustees to decide. However, even if the trustees considered it appropriate to return […]
Posted on: April 20, 2015 by Alexander Herman
Having highlighted the issue in an earlier post, the criticism of the upcoming British Museum exhibition, Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilization (a purposely ambiguous title?) has become more vociferous with a cutting article published recently in The Guardian provocatively entitled ‘Preservation or plunder? The battle over the British Museum’s Indigenous Australian show’. Past events involving the Dja Dja Wurrung bark etchings are […]
Posted on: March 10, 2015 by Alexander Herman
Yesterday, an ‘early day motion‘ was presented before the UK Parliament by MP Andrew George calling on Britain to engage in a ‘gracious act’ and reunite the sculptures at the British Museum (aka the Elgin Marbles) with those kept in Athens’s purpose-built Acropolis Museum, ‘in the shadow of the monument to which they belong’. More specifically, the motion calls […]
Posted on: January 28, 2015 by Alexander Herman
All eyes in Europe were turned towards Greece this past Sunday as the general election resulted in a victory for the Coalition of the Radical Left (SIRIZA) led by the young Alexis Tsipras. Following a surprising union with a right-wing anti-austerity party, ANEL, the coalition now has a majority in the legislature and Tsipras has become Prime Minister. His cabinet was sworn in yesterday. As […]
Posted on: November 11, 2014 by Alexander Herman
Much has been said in the media of late about the Greek claim to the Elgin Marbles. But last week came a response from the director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor. It was written up in The Times on Friday 7 November, but is sadly unavailable online to non-subsribers. In response to the claims made […]
Posted on: October 29, 2014 by Ruth Redmond-Cooper
Former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam passed away last week at the age of 98. He had served as Prime Minister between 1972 to 1975, during a turbulent period of Australia’s history. He had also spoken at an Institute of Art and Law event in 2001 on the topic of the Parthenon (or Elgin) Marbles. He was […]
Posted on: October 16, 2014 by Alexander Herman
In the media furor surrounding this week’s visit to Athens of the London legal team advising the Greek State on the Parthenon Marbles, much has been made of a certain member of the delegation. Amal Clooney (or depending on your preference, Amal Alamuddin) has stated: “Everybody hopes there will be a friendly and amicable solution, but I […]