International consensus in UNESCO <\/b>in favor of Greece<\/b> intensifies pressure for reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures<\/b> and their return<\/b> to Acropolis<\/b>.<\/p>\n
In a development with a strong diplomatic and cultural footprint<\/b>, the issue of the return of the Parthenon Sculptures<\/b> is being dynamically put back<\/b> into the international spotlight, following recent positions and discussions<\/b> within UNESCO<\/b> that reinforce Greece’s position<\/b>. The growing international consensus in favour of the reunification of the iconic Acropolis monument<\/b>, combined with the contestation of key arguments<\/b> put forward for years by the side of Britain<\/b>, creates new facts in the long-standing dispute<\/b>. At the same time, diplomatic interventions and broader support<\/b> from states of different geopolitical camps highlight the shifting climate<\/b>, making the reunification demand stronger than ever in contemporary cultural diplomacy<\/b>.<\/p>\n
The absolute support for Greece’s request<\/b> for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures<\/b> in Greece was expressed by a majority of States participating in the 25th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee<\/b>, the work<\/b> of which concluded today, ProtoThema reported.gr<\/b>.<\/p>\nGeneral support<\/h3>\n
Among them was Turkey, which participated as an observer state, which once again shot down the main demand of the British, stating clearly that there is no Sultan’s document or firman that legitimizes the seizure of the sculptures from the monument and their acquisition by Lord Elgin.<\/p>\n
It is worth noting, in fact, that in the final text of the recommendation adopted, the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee recognizes for the first time, Greece’s key argument that the Parthenon Sculptures are an integral part of Greek cultural heritage and are inextricably linked to Greek cultural identity, calling on the UK to cooperate for their reunification and permanent display at the Acropolis Museum, an issue that has been pending for a long time.<\/p>\n
He also called on the Director-General of UNESCO to help hold the necessary meetings between Greece and the United Kingdom to reach a mutually acceptable solution to the issue of the Parthenon Sculptures, and decided to include the issue in the agenda of the 26th session of the Intergovernmental Committee.<\/p>\n
The illegal acquisition of the sculptures by Lord Elgin constitutes a key weapon in the quiver of Greek arguments, the absence of a firman and relevant Sultanic documents and the disastrous consequences for their preservation of both their forcible seizure and subsequent misguided interventions, as well as the lack of respect for the way the British Museum treats the masterpieces of Phidias even today.<\/p>\n
The Greek side did not fail to underline the reluctance of the British to find a solution which is demonstrated by its insistence on the loan option and its recent move to attempt, bypassing Parliament, to exclude 16 National Museums, including the British Museum, from the application to them of two sections (15 and 16) of the Charities Act 2022, under which museums could for ethical reasons make returns of objects from their collections to their countries of origin.<\/p>\n
Italy, Colombia, Brazil, Azerbaijan, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, Italy, Poland, Guatemala, Burkina Faso, Libya, Cyprus, Turkey, Bahrain, Nigeria, Lebanon, Mexico and Mauritania were clearly in favour of our country, finding the British argument that the existing legal framework does not allow the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece insufficient.<\/p>\n
The Greek delegation was attended by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture, Georgios Didaskalou, the Director General of the Acropolis Museum, Prof. Nikolaos Stambolidis and the Head of the Directorate of Documentation and Protection of Cultural Property, Vasiliki Papageorgiou. The delegation was joined by the Head of the Special Legal Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Artemis Papathanasiou and the Permanent Representative of Greece to UNESCO Georgios Koumoutsakos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
International rallying at UNESCO in favour of Greece intensifies pressure for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures and their return to the Acropolis.In …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}