Telegraph.co.uk

Saturday 11 March 2017

Advertisement

Amal Alamuddin to tour Acropolis as she advises Greece on return of Elgin Marbles

The new Mrs George Clooney will tour the Acropolis Museum and hold talks with the Greek prime minister as Athens renews its call for the Elgin Marbles to be returned from the British Museum

Ms Alamuddin, who last month married George Clooney in a lavish, four-day wedding in Venice, was expected to fly from London to Athens on Monday to advise the Greek government on how best to press its case
Ms Alamuddin, who last month married George Clooney in a lavish, four-day wedding in Venice, was expected to fly from London to Athens on Monday to advise the Greek government on how best to press its case Photo: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP

Campaigners calling for the return of the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum to Greece hope that the involvement of Amal Alamuddin will break the decades-old deadlock on the issue.

Ms Alamuddin, who last month married George Clooney in a lavish, four-day wedding in Venice, flew from London to Athens on Monday to advise the Greek government on how best to press its case.

Along with the boss of her London chambers, the high-profile Australian lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC, she will hold talks with Antonis Samaras, the Greek prime minister, and Konstantinos Tasoulas, the culture minister, and will visit the Acropolis Museum, where the remainder of the 2,500 year-old marbles are kept.

"We really welcome celebrities getting involved. As campaigners we chip away at changing public opinion, but people take notice of celebrities, so it's good news for us," said Eddie O'Hara, the chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, which has campaigned for their restitution for 30 years.

"We would hope that it will move the argument along by engaging more people."

There is keen anticipation, too, in Greece – on Monday, many Greek newspapers carried photographs of Ms Alamuddin and extensive coverage of her three-day visit.

The marbles were taken from the Parthenon in the early 1800s by Lord Elgin, the then British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, who sold them to the British government.

Their removal was criticised by Byron, among others, who denounced Lord Elgin as a vandal, and wrote in a poem "Dull is the eye that will not weep to see, Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed, By British hands ..."

They have been a bone of contention between the UK and Greece ever since.

Britain's refusal to return the marbles, also known as the Parthenon friezes, was a matter of shame, said Mr O'Hara, a former Labour MP for Knowsley South in Merseyside.

"If you visit the Acropolis Museum you see gaps in the displays, ghostly images of the pieces that remain in the British Museum," he told The Telegraph.

"Every time an international visitor sees them, that's to the discredit of the UK. Giving them back would be a grand gesture on cultural and ethical grounds.

"This monument has a special place in Western civilisation and it should have its integrity restored.

"They are sculpted elements of the Parthenon which were sawn off by Lord Elgin's agents."

The friezes should be returned as "soon as possible" the British Committee argues.

As she arrives in Athens, the Lebanese-born, London-based lawyer has the moral support of her new husband.

While promoting his new film "The Monuments Men" earlier this year, George Clooney told the Greeks they were in the right and that it would "probably be the right thing to do" for the British Museum to give up the sculptures.

Opponents of returning the marbles argue that their restitution would open a can of worms, with museums around the world likely to face demands to give up cultural treasures that were pilfered, dug up or bought from foreign countries.

But the British Committee says the case of the marbles is so unique that it would not set a precedent.

"I can't think of another example of a UNESCO monument which has been split in two, between two cities which are 2,500 miles apart. The Parthenon is the emblem of UNESCO, it's not just any old monument," said Mr O'Hara.

The British Museum had, over the years, used "a series of discredited arguments", including that the Greeks were unable to look after the friezes and that they did not have a suitable museum in which to put them, he said.

Those arguments now look flimsy because the Greeks unveiled a new museum on the Acropolis in 2009, which is purpose-built to accommodate the British Museum pieces.

The sleek, modern building lies within sight of the ancient Acropolis citadel and showcases sculptures from the golden age of Athenian democracy in the fifth century BC.

The Trustees of the British Museum maintain that the marbles legally belong to the museum.

The Parthenon marbles are Ms Alamuddin's first high-profile case since marrying the Hollywood star in Venice last month.

Before coming to the world's attention as the fiancée of the world's most eligible bachelor, she had represented Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, and Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Ukrainian prime minister, and advised former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the conflict in Syria.

She was first asked to provide legal advice to the Greek government regarding the marbles in 2011, long before she met Mr Clooney.

In 2007 Mr Robertson led a legal fight which resulted in London's Natural History Museum having to return the remains of Tasmanian Aborigines to Australia.

He has called for the adoption of "an international rule requiring the return of cultural treasures of great national significance."

It would not open the flood gates to similar claims around the world because the Parthenon friezes and a few other cases were unique – "a living symbol of history and culture", he said.

Advertisement

More from the web

Advertisement
Advertisement

More from the web

More from the web

Back to top

© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2017

Terms and Conditions

Today's News

Archive

Style Book

Weather Forecast