Κατάπτυστο Ανθελληνικό άρθρο στην Guardian για τα κλεμένα γλυπτά του Παρθενώνα

Ακόμα ένα κατάπτυστο δημοσίευμα απο Βρετανό δημοσιογράφο, ήρθε να προστεθεί στην μακρά λίστα με τα Ανθελληνικά Βρετανικά παραληρήματα, στις απεγνωσμένες προσπάθειες των Βρετανών να αλλάξουν το παγκόσμιο πλέον αίτημα  για την επιστροφή των γλυπτών στην Ελλάδα.

 Το άρθρο είναι γραμμένο στην Βρετανική Guardian από τον Simon Jenkins με τον εμπρηστικό τίτλο “A banana republic police HQ maybe, but not a home for the Elgin marbles” (“http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/22/parthenon-marbles-elgin-athens-acropolis?commentpage=1“). O αρθρογράφος φανερώνει εκτός την φανερή εμπάθεια του, την πλήρη άγνοια σχετικά με τις συνθήκες που επικρατούν στην Αθήνα και στους αρχαιολογικούς χώρους. Σε τέτοιο σημείο μάλιστα, ώστε να προκαλεί ειρωνικότατα σχόλια εναντίον του ακόμα και  απο τους Βρετανούς αναγνώστες. Παραθέτουμε ένα χαρακτηριστικό σχόλιο απο αναγνώστη που κυριολεκτικά ξεσκεπάζει την ημιμάθεια και σκοπιμότητα του αρθρογράφου.

Any lawyer can prove anything, and I happen to agree with those who regard the Elgin marbles as legally Britain’s.

How so? As far as I’m concerned, and pretty much the whole of Greece is concerned, the Turks were an occupying force and had no right to give anything away to other nations. Byron said so at the time, too, and was utterly outraged that Elgin had hacked off the frieze. And if you are a restitutionist as you claim, why do you call them the Elgin marbles? They are not the Elgin marbles. He didn’t create them, he stole them.

Last week the view of the Acropolis from the adjacent hill of Lycabettus was glorious, with the streets subdued in mist below and the deep blue bay of Phaleron shimmering in the distance.

Errm.. Before last week, when was the last time you’d come to Athens? Because I’ve been here 15 years and the view from Likavitos has always been lovely… It’s not a new thing!

The sunlit slopes of the Acropolis were rid of traffic and immaculately landscaped.

The slopes of the Acropolis rid of traffic? When was there EVER traffic on the slopes of the Acropolis? Complete codswallop to imply that there was ever traffic on the slopes of the Acropolis. What they have done in recent years is pave over the street between the Acropolis and the hill of Philippapou. This makes it lovely walking from Monastitraki, up to Thesio and around the base of the Acropolis, just as Melina Mercouri had planned..

the Parthenon itself might be restored, as the Stoa of Attalus in the agora has been restored.

No the Stoa was not restored! It was completely rebuilt by the Americans.

the excavated streets of old Athens, discovered below, have not been laid out as a public site but consigned to a surreal dungeon beneath the concrete columns and glass pavement of the museum’s ground floor. Were this Pompeii, no one would have dared such an outrage. Where there should be elegance and deference, there is all the architecture money could buy.

You can see examples of this kind of thing all over Athens and even in the metro stations themselves. Because Athens is a living modern city. We can’t turn the whole city into a museum. So rather than just lose or cover up the sites that have been found a compromise is made. These sites are covered in glass so that they can be seen but the city continues to be a living vibrant city of about 5 million people not some stultified theme park!

They suggest that Athens has treasures aplenty, without having to reclaim those lost to other cities.

Oh really? That sounds mighty restitutionist of you, I must say? Well, however many treasures Greece has is not the point. It’s not a numbers game.

The political point is made, the visual impact stunning.

Exactly Simon! You may not like the aesthetics of this museum (so what? It’s irrelevant) but I defy anyone to say that the room that was designed for them isn’t freakin stunning. Spacious and filled with the natural light of Attica this is where the frieze belongs, not some dark dingy room in a stuffy old English (there’s not much British about it!) museum.

Again I would be more sympathetic to Athens were it not for the continued chaos of the Acropolis itself. In a lifetime of visits, I have never seen it free of builders’ yards, now more than ever. It was taken from world view by the archaeological profession in the 1980s and submitted to a protracted torture of poles, planks, cranes, rails and sheds. It seems destined to last for ever. I doubt if readers of this article will be able to photograph the Acropolis free of scaffolding in their lifetimes: I have not.

What exactly is your point here? The frieze isn’t going to be re-attached to the Parthenon. It is to be housed in the new scaffolding-free museum. And, funnily enuf, the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis are not there simply for the delectation of you or any other tourist. They are the cultural heritage of Greece, which is doing its utmost to protect them, and all the other sites in Greece. The amount of work that has been done on sites within Athens in the past 15 years is phenomenal and the Greeks should be applauded for it. There’s still plenty of work to be done all over Greece but they’re on the case and you can keep yr snide comments to yourself you little imperialist hypocrite… restitutionist my arse!

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