The Parthenon which has inspired countless writers, historians, researchers and artists worldwide has resulted in the Parthenon becoming an attraction for tourists and visitors alike who would visit the sight daily to admire and to be taught art and civilization. However, these tourists didn’t just admire the monument they would also take with them a piece from the monument for their collection as if it were a souvenir and it would also represent a reminder to this magnificent ancient Greek monument. Due to the weight of the marble the would select pieces of quality and parts of a sculpture, which composed of architectural pieces which were particular in sculptural decoration. Then, in 1801 came the big merchant Elgin who was interested not only in quality but in quantity.

E.F.

Από άρθρο στο περιοδικό «ΔΙΑΚΟΣΜΗΤΙΚΑ ΠΕΤΡΩΜΑΤΑ» Ιανουάριος 2003

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The pillage if the monuments of the Acropolis from Lord Elgin for us Greeks is and will always be an open wound for every civilized individual on this planet an unjust action from a representative of the English crown against the cultural heritage of a glorious and proud nation who even from the darkness of his work never once stopped teaching Europe Art and Culture.

E.F.

Από ομιλία στην Σ.Σ.Α.Σ. 23/7/2009

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The predatoriness of Elgin didn’t only stop at the Parthenon. He grabbed a Caryatid and an lonic column from the Erechtheion depriving the monument from basic construction and decorative items. All of these together with four plates from the frieze of the Temple of Athena Nikis(victory) and a kyonokrano(capitol) and a spondyl from Propylaea today are found in the British History Museum far from the monuments and positions that had been chosen from the enlightened Greek sculptures. Imagine these creators these half gods who had carved the pentelic marbles to know the fate of their works.

E.F.

Από ομιλία στο κέντρο ιστορίας της Θεσ/νίκης (Μέγαρο Μπίλλη) 26/4/2006

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The descriptions and narrations of the two British visitors Edward Donwell and Edward Daniel Clark who were witnesses to the seizure of the sculptures shows the barbaric behaviour of the ‘artists’ of Elgin. The professor and Historian Edward Donwell who had visited Athens twice wrote “I faced the sorrow and humiliation as I witnessed the Parthenon being stripped of its brightest sculptures. Some of these sculptures were thrown to the ground from the height of 12 meters. We turned our faces away as not to witness these profane actions which were destroying the works of high intelligence of Perikles and the performances of the genius Feidias.

The professor Edward Daniel Clark described the scene where the sculptures being taken apart one piece slipped from the hands of the workers and fell smashing into pieces on the marble steps of the Parthenon. “We saw with such sadness the gap that was left from the removal of the fascias.

No matter how much wealth or means the rulers had in their possession it would be impossible to reconstruct the damage. Fancinating is the narration of another British, the famous architect Robert Smirk who was doserving the workers of Lord Elgin vidently and clumsily ripping and taking down the plates of friezes. “I was particularly annoyed when I saw the workers of Elgin tranfer the marbles with crowbars from the walls to remove the plates and friezes”.The stones that fell on the floor of the Parthenon shook the ground with a deep hollow sound which resembled the howl of the hurt soul of the temple.

E.F.

Από ομιλία στο Ανοιχτό Πανεπιστήμιο Ασπρόπυργου 3/3/2008

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Most of the British people have always been opposed to the way these treasures had been obtained. People were opposed and reacted against this action from the moment they arrived in London. Officials and authorities expressed their sorrow that a representative of the crown had committed this abominable actions. The biggest reaction came from the filellinon Lord Byron who with his poetic cry condemned the unethical and barbaric actions of Elgin against the cultural heritage of a slaved nation who were once glorious and free. “Blind are the eyes that do not cry watching the pillage of the sacred marbles from the profane hands of the English”…

“Let those be cursed who fled their island to come and demolish the sacred marbles that envious time respected and tyrannts left intact”. “Come you miserable thieves to despoil what has remained of this grieving place and pilgrims have asked to see”.

In his poem the “Curse of Athens”, Byron sees himself among the ruins of the Parthenon. While he is counting the ruins Athena appears before him, wounded armour and with a broken spear. “Human this spectacle of shame shows you are British. Once an honoured name, the first amongst the powerful leaders of freedom. Look around you look well and hard out the empty desecrated temple. Count again the violent pillmaging of the ruins. The leader of enemies the Pallada will be.

After, Byron dares to give an answer to Athenas outery. “Don’t blame England for this atrocious action. England repudiates because of the Darkness and in this country the Goddess of Wisdom will never rule. In this country were the agriagkatho betrays its stinginess of the soil the dark fog and the germs that cloud the human brain. This land that send its treacherous children to the East and West illegal profits to conquer. Let it be cursed the hour this land sent this miserable man to this sacred land”. Lord Byron was awarded like no other fillelinon from Greece. His name has been carved from anonymous Greeks on the Marble at Sounio on Mount Penteli, at Delphe oh the monument Lusicrate and on kyonokrano(capital) at Erechtheion.

E.F.

Ομιλία στην κεντρική βιβλιοθήκη του Δήμου Θεσ/νίκης 29/3/2006

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As regards the stolen Caryatid the emigrated daughter of the Athenians who was separated from her five sisters there are concussive narrations, poems and suggestions for her return.

In the Lament of Caryatid the British author and historian Fred Sylvester N. Douglas wrote that the servant of the Acropolis confirmed that the five Caryatids that had lost their sister express their grief at night with deep sorrowful sighs and when he heard these sighs he would be forced to move away. Another reference about the Caryatid informs us that when she was removed from the Erechtheion the whole city could hear the sorrowful sighs as the remaining five Caryatids expressed their grief as their sister was being taken away.

E.F.

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Imagine the sorrow I felt when I finally found her in a completely unsuitable place resembling a prison cell. She is loaded with a concrete bean on her head, two centuries now she has been supporting the loft of the British Museum.

Imagine my rage and indignation when I saw a group of visitors waiting in line to see her, to be photographed with her and to embrace her. A young man used indecent gestures in front of her  to entertain his friends.

I stayed with the Caryatid for three hours and guarded her from the visitors. She accepted my caress with relief it was a Greek caress.

Then, suddenly I heard children’s voices coming closer, they were a group from a Greek school. As they were approaching they whispered “Our marbles, they have been stolen”. When they came up close to the Caryatid they all shouted “Oh Karyatida! Oh Karyatida!” I called them over next to me and urged them to caress our emigrated Daughter of Athenians.  A BROTHERLY CARESS, A GREEK CARESS!

E.F.

Από ομιλία στο Γενικό Λύκειο Πευκών Θεσ/νίκης 23/10/2014

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The Greeks reacted as soon as Lord  Elgin undertook his catastrophic endeavor on the Acropolis. However, their reactions only took the form of silent discontent and unbearable pain. Suffering under the intolerable tyranny of the Ottoman yoke, the Greeks could not prevent Elgin from pillaging the monuments.

Athanassios  Psalidas  from Yiannena told a British traveler:      “You, Englishmen, who take away the artifacts of our ancestors, should take good care of them because there will come a time when we, Greeks, will ask them back.”

E.F.

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After a lot of adventures, the Acropolis Sculptures arrived in London to be welcomed by a deluge of reactions. Local dignitaries expressed sorrow over the fact that a respectable Englishman and representative of the Crown had committed these despicable acts.

Hugh Hammersley proposed to the British Government to buy the Scupltures from Elgin with the purpose of preserving them and returning them to the country where they were created when conditions permitted. It was also considered necessary to make know that Britain would keep and preserve the sculptures until the current or future possessors of Athens demanded their return and that they were bound to comply without question or negotiation.

E.F.

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These are the words that scholar Athanassios Psalidas from Yiannena  used to warn John Hobhouse that, once free and with their own independent and sovereign state, the Greeks would claim the treasures of their national heritage which were barbarously removed from the monuments of the Acropolis by Lord Elgin.

Now that the new Acropolis Museum is almost ready to open its doors and since it is considered to be most suitable to preserve and display these cultural artifacts, the most important argument of the British Museum officials is about to collapse. Greece now has a museum to house the Acropolis Sculptures and it is high time for the proposal put forward by Hugh Hammersley, MP, in the House of Commons on June 7, 1816, to be implemented: “…a communication should be immediately made, stating, that Great Britain holds these Marbles only in trust till they are demanded by the present, or any future, possessors of the city of Athens; and upon such demand, engages without question or negotiation, to restore them…”

Once again, it is about time we heard the voice of Frederick Harrison, an English historian, who wrote an article entitled “Give back the Elgin Marbles” in 1890, stating that all the British Museum arguments are quibbles and that “…the Parthenon Marbles are to the Greek nation a thousand times more dear and more important than they can ever be to the English nation…” We should now do what was proposed by Roger Casement in the poem he wrote in 1891: “Give back the Elgin marbles, let them lie // Unsullied, pure beneath the Attic sky… let them vigil keep // Where art still lies, over Pheidias’ tomb, asleep.”

There is a strong alibi for the British Museum officials, who undoubtedly believe that, if they return the Parthenon sculptures, they will carry the burden of a historic responsibility. They should simply go back two centuries and read the reactions, the proposals, and the protests of countless British scholars and artists.

In his foreword to “The Elgin Marbles”, Christopher Hitchens points out: “…I have been impressed… by the number of British people who, all down the generations since the marbles were removed, have looked at the matter in a sober and phlegmatic way and concluded that a wrong has been done. In a mostly dispassionate manner they have sought for nearly two centuries to put it right…”

The British must know that, as long as they refuse us the return of the artifacts of our ancestors, we will persist. What is more, we are not alone in our efforts. Apart from the majority of the British who are in favor of returning the marbles, the number of committees around the world struggling for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures is growing by the day. Resolutions and protests supported by institutions, organizations, and common citizens are often made public.

Justice and reason should prevail and, as Christopher Hitchens notes in the foreword to his book: “The prompting of justice, like the voice of reason, is quiet but very persistent.”

Today, the skills, knowledge, and experience of Greek restoration experts and the Committee for the Conservation of the Acropolis Monuments are universally acknowledged and warrant the pristine preservation of the sculptures, so they may be handed down to the generations to come in best condition possible.

The only thing left to do is a good-will gesture on the part of the British Museum, which will certainly go down in the annals of history as a courageous decision.

 E.F.

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