The woman who asked Britain to return the Parthenon marbles
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 7 March 2019
⏱️ 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.
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 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:37.0 | Hello and welcome to Witness History on the BBC World Service |
| 0:44.0 | with me Claire Bowes. |
| 0:46.0 | Today a story of love, national pride and possession. |
| 0:50.0 | 200 years ago, pieces of a Greek sculptural freeze were hacked off a temple on the |
| 0:55.9 | Acropolis overlooking Athens and taken to Britain. In 1983 the Greek government |
| 1:01.8 | made its first official request for the return of the |
| 1:05.3 | Parthenon Marbles, also known as the Elgin Marbles. The Greek Minister of Culture is |
| 1:10.6 | on an official visit to London at the moment to ask the British |
| 1:13.4 | government and the British Museum to hand back the famous Elgin Marbles which she |
| 1:18.1 | alleges were stolen from her country by Lord Elgin in 1801. |
| 1:23.0 | The Greek Minister of Culture, Molina McCurry, was in Britain as she saw it to right a wrong. |
| 1:30.0 | These 2,500-year-old marble sculptures carved so skillfully to create warm flesh, flowing robes and muscular bodies were remarkable for their anatomical detail as well as their intrinsic beauty. |
| 1:46.0 | But Melina McCurry argued that for Greece they meant so much more. |
| 1:51.0 | What does the Taj Mahal mean to India? |
| 1:55.0 | What do the paintings in the Sistine Chapel mean to Italy? |
| 2:02.0 | The Palfin and Marlous are... mean to Italy. The person and marbles are our pride. They are our identity. |
... |
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