Greece
looks to international justice to regain Parthenon marbles from UK
As
200th anniversary of artefacts’ removal approaches, Greek culture
minister says government will appeal to courts and the likes of UN
Helena Smith in
Athens
Sunday 8 May 2016
19.41 BST
Greece has not
abandoned the idea of resorting to international justice to
repatriate the Parthenon marbles and is investigating new ways in
which it might bring a claim against the British Museum.
As campaigners
prepare to mark the 200th anniversary of the antiquities’
“captivity” in London, Athens is working at forging alliances
that would further empower its longstanding battle to retrieve the
sculptures.
“We are trying to
develop alliances which we hope would eventually lead to an
international body like the United Nations to come with us against
the British Museum,” the country’s culture minister, Aristides
Baltas, revealed in an interview.
“If the UN
represents all nations of the world and all nations of the world say
‘the marbles should be returned’ then we’ll go to court because
the British Museum would be against humanity,” he said. “We do
not regard the Parthenon as exclusively Greek but rather as a
heritage of humanity.”
But the politician
admitted there was always the risk of courts issuing a negative
verdict that would wreck Athens’ chances of having the artworks
reunited with the magnificent monument they once adorned.
“Courts do not by
definition regard [any] issue at the level of history or morality or
humanity-at-large. They look at the laws,” said Baltas, an academic
and philosopher who played a pivotal role in founding Syriza,
Greece’s governing leftist party. “As there are no hard and fast
rules regarding the issue of returning treasures taken away from
various countries, there is no indisputable legal basis.”
The move came to
light as the world’s longest-running cultural row looks poised to
intensify. Almost 200 years have elapsed since the British parliament
voted on 7 June 1816 to purchase the collection from Lord Elgin, the
Scotsman who as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire ordered the frieze
to be torn from the Parthenon and shipped to England. Activists are
counting down to what they call the “black anniversary”.
In London, only
metres away from the British Museum, a huge billboard funded by
campaigners in Australia this weekend showed six strategically placed
words across a statue of classic nudity – and above a list of the
vital contributions Greece has made to modern democratic life. The
words read: “Please give us back our marbles.”
“There is no point
any longer in taking the gentle approach because that has failed,”
said Alexis Mantheakis, chairman of the New Zealand-based
International Parthenon Sculptures Action Committee. “The British
have never given anything back, be it colonies or artefacts, without
pressure. To ignore that fact is to undermine the chances of any
success in the campaign for the return of the Parthenon sculptures.”
Seen as the high
point of classical art – a peerless example of beauty in carving –
the antiquities were acquired for £35,000 on condition they be
exhibited in the British Museum. Mortified, steeped in debt and
determined to dispel rumours that he had exploited his post as
emissary to plunder the Acropolis, Elgin reluctantly accepted. It
had, all expenses considered, cost him nearly twice what he claimed.
But in a 141-page
document of legal advice – the details of which have been leaked
exclusively to the Guardian – QCs specialised in cultural
restitution say Elgin clearly exceeded the authority, or firman, he
was given when he ordered the treasures to be “stripped” from the
monument. The lawyers, including the human rights expert Amal
Clooney, insist that Greece could mount a strong case to win the
marbles back.
“We consider that
international law has evolved to a position which recognises, as part
of the sovereignty of a state, its right to reclaim cultural property
of great historical significance which has been wrongly taken in the
past – a rule that would entitle Greece to recover and reunite the
Parthenon sculptures.”
The advice –
provided at the request of the country’s former centre-right
coalition but previously only made public in summation – amounts to
a toolbox of how Athens could pursue its claim to the classical
masterpieces. Greece could either bring the UK before the European
court of human rights, or the UN cultural body Unesco could apply for
an advisory judgment by the international court of justice. Court
action could prompt Britain, which has repulsed every entreaty to
date, to agree to arbitration or mediation.
“The legal case is
strongly arguable, both under international customary law and
provisions of the European convention. [Greece] would stand a
reasonable prospect of success.”
But the lawyers also
counsel that Athens should move fast in pursuing litigation. Mired in
its longest recession in modern times, many fear the cash-strapped
country would not have the means to take such action.
The advice, which
took almost a year to draft, was reputedly financed by a Greek
shipowner sympathetic to the cause.
“Unless the claim
is brought fairly soon, Greece may be met with the argument that it
has ‘slept on its rights’ too long for them to be enforced,”
the lawyers argue, adding that even if initial litigation failed it
would not be the end of the fight.
“If Greece does
fail, it will very likely be on technical ‘admissibility’
grounds, which will have nothing to do with the merits of its claim.
A case lost on a legal technicality can often be fought again.”
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