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How to Solve Greek Problems? Return the Elgin Marbles

October 19, 2011 by Marion Maneker

Dakkis Joannou, who was involved in the Guggenheim’s expansion in Blibao, sounds off on the Greek financial crisis to Bloomberg. He’s frustrated at Greece’s government. The government, no doubt, is frustrated that the United Kingdom won’t return the Elgin Marbles:

“Culture is a big business that people are hungry for and we have huge assets,” Joannou, 71, says from his office in the shadow of the Olympic stadium. “But the government uses our assets to make political statements and to gain votes. It’s a matter of survival for them, and nobody wants to invest in culture or anything else in a climate of bankruptcy.”

Even so, Joannou says that the two main political parties, Pasok and New Democracy, are devoid of the necessary cultural drive, and that the government’s projected 12 percent rise to 16.5 million foreign tourists visiting Greece in 2011 compared with last year is a Pyrrhic indicator.

“The tourists who come to Greece go to the sunny islands, making any rise in visitor numbers pathetic in comparison to our assets,” he says. “Culture management must be creative, imaginative, exciting and that can’t be done here.”Continue Reading

Huh? Revolution in Egypt Proves Greece Shouldn’t Get Marbles

February 1, 2011 by Marion Maneker

Well, it didn’t take long for the revolution in Egypt to be thrown back in the face of Zahi Hawass who has been loudly demanding Egypt’s treasures back from Germany, the UK and other museums. The Wall Street Journal reminds Hawass that his country’s patrimony seems safer in Europe than in his own museums:

These events make Mr. Hawass’s quest to return all Egyptian objects to Egypt misguided or at least poorly timed. Last week he again demanded the return of the bust of Nefertiti from Berlin. The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum has long been on Mr. Hawass’s wish list, along with the Zodiac Ceiling in the Louvre and statues in Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and museums in Hildesheim, Germany, and Turin, Italy. Continue Reading

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