Parthenon Marbles: Tough words by the Greek President to British Museum

Tough words by the Greek President, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, towards the British Museum on the thorny issue of the Parthenon Marbles.

“The British Museum’s obsession is tantamount to supporting Elgin’s cultural grave robbing and theft. And, of course, this does not honor the people of Great Britain, with the story assigned to it, that the crown jewel of his Culture, the British Museum, behaves like a common receiver of stolen goods and  embezzler of World Heritage goods. ”

The President of the Hellenic Republic was speaking at the inauguration of the 24th  Art Athina at the emblematic site of the Zappeion Palace on Friday evening.

Pavlopoulos supported the immediate return of the Parthenon Marbles to Athens at the Acropolis Museum, which – he noted – has been erected for this very purpose. He stressed that the British Museum’s persistence in refusing to return the Sculptors also offends the Culture of Great Britain.

“This behavior has begun to cause a worldwide outcry,” Pavlopoulos stressed.

He noted that the initiative for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures is not just about Greece, Athens, but about World Culture.

“It is a ‘cry of agony’, which is directly linked to the defense of this Culture, if we consider that the Parthenon signals the the starting point of World Culture,” Pavlopoulos said citing French novelist and Culture Minister André Malraux’s speech during the first illumination of Acropolis on 28. May 1959.