Extract from a letter to the newspaper “TO VIMA” 10/2/2009

March 10 16:05 2015 Print This Article

 

Negotiating with the British Museum, Elgin set as a condition  these masterpieces of our ancestors to bear his name. So unfortunately from 1816 until today they are called ‘Elgin Marbles’. But artworks take the author’s name or the name of the monument for which they were created. They do not take  the name of the thief. They are the  sculptures of Phidias, Myron, Alkamenis, Agorakritos. They are the sculptures of the Parthenon, of the Erechtheion  and of the Temple of Athena Nike. And we Greeks in no case are allowed to call the Parthenon marbles as “ the Elgin marbles”  honouring the man who abused our monuments.

 E.F.

 

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