NewsLab

It was characterized as a historic day for the New Acropolis Museum. A big step for the repatriation of the Parthenon marbles. The return of the Palermo fragment, a foot from a sculpture of the ancient Greek hunt goddess Artemis, which was originally stood above the entrance to the Parthenon. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano presented Greek authorities with this small piece of broken sculpture, which has spent two centuries in a museum in Sicily after Lord Elgin gave it to the British consul-general there on his way back to London.

To applause and cries of “bravo”, Napolitano helped to fit the fragment, measuring 35 by 34 centimetres, into a reconstruction of the frieze on the museum’s glass-fronted upper hall, parallel to the Parthenon.

“This is the first step towards healing the wound left on the holy temple by the removal of the Parthenon marbles,” Greek President Karolos Papoulias said.  Although the return of the marble piece is currently temporary, authorities from both countries say that it indicates the willingness to strengthen their cultural ties, and there have been suggestions the loan to become permanent. Greece welcomed home the small fragment of the Parthenon marbles and expressed hope the gesture by the Italian government would prompt Britain to return its own prized collection of Greek sculpture. The British Museum has refused repeated Greek requests for the return of the priceless sculptures, removed by Scottish diplomat Lord Elgin in the 19^th century when Greece was occupied by the Ottoman Empire.  But Greece’s campaign received a moral boost with this gesture and its success in securing claims from other museums and collections, including the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Shelby White collection in New York. A number of these items are part of a landmark exhibit reclaimed from foreign museums and collections in recent years. In Greek, “nostos” means homecoming and this is the title of a unique exhibition at the New Acropolis Museum, featuring 74 Greek and Italian repatriated antiquities. The new Acropolis Museum is set to open early next year and Greece aspires to see reunited all the Parthenon sculptures at the foot of the Acropolis.  

Share on Facebook