News about Melina Mercouri

The marbles, also known as The Parthenon Sculptures, are part of a series of Ancient Greek sculptures built between 447 BC and 432 BC. The Acropolis, which had existed for 2,000 years, was for the most part destroyed as the Ottoman Empire, which then ruled Greece, became embroiled in a conflict with Venice. The remaining sculptures were removed from Lord Elgin's Parthenon (inset) ruins and brought to Britain between 1802 and 1812. The British Government's long-standing position has been that Elgin had permission to take the marbles. No such records exist that support this assertion, according to critics. However, a study published earlier this year by leading expert Sir Noel Malcolm said it was the case. Melina Mercouri, then the Greek minister of culture at the time, was the first notable attempt to recover the Elgin Marbles in the early 1980s. In a meeting with Dr. Wilson, the British Museum's director, in 1983, she requested their return.