“Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles is fair and essential,” said the President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos. The struggle to return the sculptures “is not only about Greece and its historical and cultural heritage, but also about culture as a whole, given that its result will be a real confirmation of the notion of Culture as a top achievement of human spirit,” he added.
Speaking at the international conference “Reunion of the Parthenon Marbles” held at the Museum of Acropolis, Pavlopoulos stressed among others that the main aim of the museum is to host the Parthenon Marbles.
The Acropolis Museum is negates the argument that claims that “Greece did not have an appropriate housing space for the Parthenon Sculptures corresponding to that of the British Museum”, the President underlined.
Pavlopoulos described the looting the Parthenon by Lord Elgin as “crime” and “theft.”
He added that the British Museum keeps the Marbles “in violation of any institutional and cultural ethics, and even under conditions of preservation that threaten their existence and the defense of their historical origins and symbolism.”
He reckoned that the struggle for the Return of the Parthenon Marbles “actually began shortly after the commitment of Elgin’s sacrilegious crime between 1801-1804,” that is in 1842.
“Greece’s uninterrupted struggle to end this elusive “Elgin’s crime against the World Cultural Heritage began early” the President stressed adding that “it is universally accepted that the Parthenon Marbles belong, rightfully and culturally, to the Parthenon and its Monuments.”
The conference is co-organized by the Presidency of the Republic, the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures and the Acropolis Museum.