The woman who asked Britain to return the Parthenon marbles
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 11 March 2021
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Melina Mercouri, famous actress turned politician, visited Britain in 1983 as Greek Minister of Culture and made the first official request for the return of the Parthenon marbles. The marbles were removed in 1801 by Lord Elgin, who was the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time. Lord Elgin, who was based in Istanbul sent his agents to Athens to remove the marbles which he claimed were at risk of destruction. He later sold them to the British parliament who in turn entrusted them to the British Museum where they've been exhibited since 1832.
This programme was first broadcast in 2019
(Photo: The Greek Minister for Culture, Melina Mercouri, inspects the Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum in May 1983)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism. |
| 0:08.9 | In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero? |
| 0:16.1 | Simply doing your job, being a decent human being. |
| 0:20.0 | A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by |
| 0:23.1 | their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism |
| 0:27.8 | with me, Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to witness history on the BBC World Service with me Claire Bowes. |
| 0:41.8 | Today, a story of love, national pride and possession. |
| 0:46.3 | 200 years ago, pieces of a Greek sculptural freeze were hacked off a temple on the |
| 0:51.7 | Acropolis overlooking Athens and taken to Britain. |
| 0:55.2 | In 1983, the Greek government made its first official request for the return of the Parthenon marbles, |
| 1:02.5 | also known as the Elgin Marbles. |
| 1:04.8 | The Greek Minister of Culture is on an official visit to London at the moment |
| 1:08.4 | to ask the British government and the British Museum to hand back the famous Elgin marbles, |
| 1:13.4 | which, she alleges, were stolen from her country by Lord Elgin in 1801. |
| 1:18.4 | The Greek Minister of Culture, Malina Makuri, |
| 1:21.5 | was in Britain as she saw it to write a wrong. |
| 1:25.8 | These 2,500-year-old marble sculptures |
| 1:29.7 | carved so skillfully to create warm flesh, |
| 1:33.9 | flowing robes and muscular bodies |
| 1:35.9 | were remarkable for their anatomical detail |
| 1:39.3 | as well as their intrinsic beauty. |
| 1:42.3 | But Melina McCurry argued |
... |
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