GREECE: Greece and Italy display looted antiquities returned from other countries after long battle

Record ID: 1526136

  • Title: GREECE: Greece and Italy display looted antiquities returned from other countries after long battle
  • Date: 25th September 2008
  • Summary: (EU) ATHENS, GREECE (SEPTEMBER 24, 2008) (REUTERS) EXHIBITION HALL OF GREEK AND ITALIAN REPATRIATED ANTIQUITIES AT NEW ACROPOLIS MUSEUM BRONZE KRATER RETURNED TO GREECE FROM COLLECTOR SHELBY WHITE ETRUSCAN ANTEFIX RETURNED TO ITALY FROM THE GETTY MUSEUM MARBLE TABLE LEG RETURNED TO ITALY FROM GETTY MUSEUM ARTEFACTS IN EXHIBITION HALL MARBLE STATUE REPATRIATED TO ITALY FROM MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BOSTON MACEDONIAN GOLD WREATH RETURNED TO GREECE FROM GETTY MUSEUM
  • Embargoed: 10th October 2008 12:23
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: International Relations,Arts / Culture / Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAF4RI2UR7F0RZJ9HM8U3A7TBH1
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Greece and Italy display looted antiquities repatriated from international museums and collectors as part of a long battle to return artefacts illegally removed from their countries, and highlighting Greece's ongoing appeal for the return of the Parthenon Marbles from Britain.
    Greece and Italy have been fighting a vigourous campaign to bring back scores of ancient artefacts looted from their countries over the past decades, many ending up in international museums and private collections. It opened a Pandora's box of scandals and court cases involving museum curators, dealers, and collectors over antiquities illegally removed from their countries of origin.
    "Greece and Italy have been fighting a battle for many years to repatriate pieces of their archaeological and cultural heritage which the changing course of history and predators of art have ripped from their context," said Italian President Giorgio Napolitano at the opening of the exhibition of 74 artefacts on Wednesday (September 24).
    American museums including the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Metropolitan Museum in New York agreed to return items to Italy and Greece after years of negotiation, while prominent U.S. collector Shelby White returned artefacts to both countries.
    Sweden and Germany have also returned fragments of the Parthenon to Greece, and with the Italian president's visit to Athens, Sicily loaned a fragment from the frieze of the Parthenon, called the Leg of Artemis, which was placed in the Parthenon wing of the new Acropolis Museum, set to open in 2009.
    For decades, Greece has been appealing to the British Museum in London for the return of the Elgin, or Parthenon Marbles, pieces of the temple removed some 200 years ago by British diplomat Lord Elgin, with no avail. It has used the construction of the new Acropolis Museum, and the recent repatriations from other countries, as an argument for Britain to return the marbles from the Parthenon, which are displayed in their own wing in the British museum.
    "The leg of Artemis, which once again returns to its original place where it was first made, is the first step towards healing the wound left on this holy temple by the removal of the Parthenon Marbles," said Greek President Karolos Papoulias during the exhibition's opening.
    Greek Culture Ministry officials said the Vatican was also planning to repatriate two pieces from the Parthenon to Greece in the next months.
    The new Acropolis Museum is set to open in 2009, and plaster reproductions of the Parthenon Marbles will be placed in the spaces where the originals are supposed to be in the Parthenon wing of the museum.
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