How the world sees Greece
I have just received the album marking the Sts. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church of Reading, PA’s centennial celebration of 1914 to 2014. A beautiful hardcover volume of just a tad under 500 pages, its quality can be seen in both the content of its written information and its physical composition. The […] The post Gust C. Kraras: Preserver of Communities appeared first on The National Herald.
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Since the outbreak of the economic crisis in Greece there has been a surge of relief provided by Greek-American foundations, organizations and individuals. We have not seen this scale of caring about the homeland’s wellbeing since WWII. Then, when Greece said “OXI” to Mussolini’s Italy and joined Word War II on the side of the […] The post Greek-Am. Relief and the Homeland appeared first on The National Herald.
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A temporary exhibition exploring the city of Athens as seen by European travelers between the 17th and 19th century will be inaugurated at the National Archaeological Museum on September 7 by caretaker Greek Prime Minister Vassiliki Thanou. According to a Culture Ministry announcement, the exhibition will be a forerunner of events celebrating the 150th anniversary since
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Something’s smoking at the Tobacco Museum of Kavala. It’s where you’ll find tobacco-related art, vintage advertisements, photographs, and more celebrating one of the world’s oldest pastime: smoking. The history of Kavala’s Tobacco Museum dates back before 2003 when it was officially opened to the public, since it is housed in the former Greek Tobacco Organization […] The post Tobacco Museum of Kavala appeared first on The National Herald.
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PRESS RELEASE ATHENS – On June 25 the Board of Directors of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation announced its decision to proceed with another emergency grant program supporting nonprofit organizations in Greece. The program, totaling €100 million, will last one year and aims to provide additional support for all those who have been affected the most by the […] The post Stavros Niarchos Foundation Announces New Grant for Greece appeared first on The National Herald.
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PRESS RELEASE ATHENS – On June 25 the Board of Directors of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation announced its decision to proceed with another emergency grant program supporting nonprofit organizations in Greece. The program, totaling €100 million, will last one year and aims to provide additional support for all those who have been affected the most by the […] The post Stavros Niarchos Foundation Announces New Grant for Greece appeared first on The National Herald.
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The Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, is becoming six years old today, June 20, and has already welcomed 8 million visitors from Greece and across the globe. The museum celebrates its birthday with a series of events. Since June 20, 2009, the museum sees an average of 4,000 people walk through its doors each day. Athenians especially have embraced this architectural jewel that houses archaeological treasures from the Parthenon and the surrounding area. The Acropolis Museum is the first archaeological museum that exclusively focuses on the findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis of Athens. The museum was built to house every object found on the sacred rock of the Acropolis, covering a wide period from the Mycenaean times to Roman and Early Christianity. Its highlight is the famous Parthenon sculptures. Only 280 meters separate the museum from the Parthenon, on the south slope of the hill. It was designed by Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi, who based his design on three axes: Light, movement and basic architectural principles. Light: The museum heavily relies on natural lighting, as it exhibits mainly sculptures that require different lighting conditions than other types of museums. Movement: The visitor’s route forms a three-dimensional loop, offering an architectural and spatial experience starting from the archaeological excavation to the Parthenon Hall and back. Architecture: The museum is built around a core of concrete with the exact dimensions of the Parthenon frieze. Since its opening, it has been featured in “most beautiful museums” lists and is considered to be one of the most important museums in Europe. A series of events is scheduled, including exhibitions of archaeological findings from other parts of Greece. On June 20 it is the opening of the exhibition “Samothrace: The Mysteries of the Great Gods,” while in the evening there will be concerts by the Wind Instruments Philharmonic Orchestra and the Athens City Choir. Admission will be reduced to 3 euros for the day.
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The Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, will celebrate its sixth anniversary on June 20 with the inauguration of its temporary exhibition “Samothrace. The mysteries of the great gods.” The exhibition, a cooperation of the Acropolis Museum and the Antiquity Ephorates of the Rodopi and Evros prefectures, as well as Samothrace antiquities expert Dimitris Matsas, will open for the public on June 20 and will run until September 30. 262 artifacts from the Samothrace Archaeological Museum will travel to Athens, some of which will leave the island for the first time. (Source: ANA-MPA)
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“Paul Valery would have no objection about this museum.” This was the first thing that was said after the presentation of the Greek Museum of Underwater Antiquities, a unique international museum which will be housed in the Silos building in Piraeus. The museum plan presentation took place under the auspices of Piraeus municipality and Piraeus Port Authority under the European Maritime Day that transformed the area, highlighting its history, dynamics and its prospect of becoming a leading port in Europe. Two thousand antiquities will be placed inside the unique Silo building which was built in 1936 — a great example of industrial architecture. The exhibits were found on the bottom of the Greek seas and were mostly housed in closed warehouses, said the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities director Angeliki Simosi. The exhibits will be spread over 6,500 square meters, in the 13,500-square-meter industrial building, creating a museum that will combine the city’s history and the port’s economic development, with the antiquities. Statues, equipment, weapons, unique ceramic vases, jewelry and maps will be displayed, while the museum also plans on displaying entire shipwreck hulls which have been found on the seabed, and transfer them to the building. The museum’s uniqueness on an international level is evident, and it is not only restricted to the exhibits. Museum visitors will be able to dive underwater to explore the antiquities found on the seabed. Furthermore, the southern museum area will be turned into a diving site where visitor can receive lessons.
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The Stavros Niarchos Park in Athens, Greece, will open its doors to the public for the first time, presenting 4 days -and nights- of events that will offer a “future-like experience” to visitors, reflecting the multifaceted program of activities that will take place at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) once it is in operation. From June 21 to 24, the Stavros Niarchos Park welcomes the first visitors with an exceptional program of activities, which will start late in the afternoon and last all night long until dawn of the morning after. Music, photography, architecture, sports, environmental and creative workshops, all-night video art screenings, an evening race, art, magic and more to come. The program includes: Guided tours to the Stavros Niarchos Park Documentary screening on the SNFCC Music concerts of Greek and international artists Sports activities for children and adults An evening race from the Panathenaic Stadium to the Stavros Niarchos Park A chess game with Garry Kasparov Creative workshops for children and families and… from Monday, June 22, to Wednesday, June 24, a three-night video art program entitled “Fireflies in the Night.” Organized by artistic director Robert Storr and curated by Barbara London, Kalliopi Minioudaki and Francesca Pietropaolo, this program of non-stop video screenings features some of the best video art produced internationally in one of the quintessential media of the late 20th and 21st centuries. Admission will be free to all events. A detailed program of the events will soon be available at www.snfcc.org. For safety reasons, entrance might be limited to a first-come first-served basis, as the site is still under construction. The evening race will require pre-registration. The online form will be available soon. Due to limited capacity, registration to some events might be required on the day, at the venue of the event. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation is one of the world’s leading private international philanthropic organizations, making grants in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. The Foundation funds organizations and projects that are expected to achieve a broad, lasting and positive impact for society at large, and exhibit strong leadership and sound management. The Foundation also actively seeks to support projects that facilitate the formation of public-private partnerships as an effective means of serving public welfare.
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International Museum Day represents a unique moment for the international museum community, aiming to highlight the importance of museums as a means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples. The International Council of Museums (ICOM) established that May 18 would be celebrated worldwide as the International Museum Day since 1977. On this day, participating museums plan creative events and activities related to the International Museum Day theme, engage with their public and highlight the importance of the museums’ role as institutions that serve society and its development. Furthermore, admission is free in all participating museums. Each year, International Museum Day is dedicated to a specific issue relating to museums and heritage protection. In 2015, ICOM has chosen the theme “Museums for a sustainable society.” One of the most important contemporary challenges shared by people across the globe is to adapt new ways of living and developing within the limits of nature, noted ICOM. The theme recognizes the role of museums in raising public awareness about the need for a society that is less wasteful, more cooperative and uses resources in a way that respects living systems. This year, the ICOM Greek branch will honor the Industrial Gasworks Museum at Technopolis Athens, where events has been organized for a whole week from May 15 to 24. The main events will take place on Monday, May 18 at 7 pm.
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ATHENS, May 17 (Xinhua) -- Museums in Greece marked the European Museum Night and International Museum Day during this weekend with a ...
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CHICAGO, IL – Over 700 of the city’s Greek-American and Philhellene community members attended the National Hellenic Museum’s (NHM) annual Gala held at the impressive Field Museum Saturday May 9th. A collaboration between the two museums announced at last year’s gala will complement the anticipated exhibit “The Greeks: From Agamemnon to Alexander the Great” […] The post NHM Hosts Gala, Celebrates Collaboration with Field Museum appeared first on The National Herald.
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Greece has backed off a threat to sue the United Kingdom for the return of the Elgin Marbles, a set of sculptures dating to 400 B.C. that were removed ...
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Greece has backed off a threat to sue the United Kingdom for the return of the Elgin Marbles, a set of sculptures dating to 400 B.C. that were removed ...
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The Greek restitution case is romantic, sure, but doomed – and false. Imagine the chaos if all countries, from Italy to Turkey, started demanding treasures back“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” wrote Tolstoy in Anna Karenina. It’s the same with the relationships between museums and the treasures they hold. Works of art in museums all belong to a single category of disinterested universal value, until someone asks for them back. Then suddenly their history is scrutinised, and each time that history is unique, tangled, painful.Greece’s demand for the return of the Parthenon sculptures, popularly known as the Elgin marbles, from the British Museum is one such story. It has just entered a new phase, with the Greek government’s decision not to persist with legal action to get the 5th-century BC masterpieces back. I predict this is the start of a slow retreat, a gradual acceptance by Greece that it will never be able to reverse the history that began when Lord Elgin shipped these sculptures from Athens in the early 19th century. As the British Museum has proved with its terrific current exhibition of Greek art, it can and does display these works as part of humanity’s heritage, a global property, and therefore no one’s. Related: Greece drops option of legal action in British Museum Parthenon marbles row Continue reading...
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This year the Greek Week Council sponsored a new service event to collect items of need for Story County organizations. The Volunteer Center of ...
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HONOLULU (AP) — An international investigation into antiquities looted from India and smuggled into the United States has taken authorities to the Honolulu Museum of Art. The museum on Wednesday is handing over seven rare artifacts that it acquired without museum officials realizing they were ill-gotten items. Agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will take the items back to New York and from there, eventually return them to the government of India. U.S. customs agents say the items were taken from religious temples and ancient Buddhist sites, and then allegedly smuggled to the United States by an art dealer. The dealer, Subhash Kapoor, was arrested in 2011 and is awaiting trial in India. Officials say Kapoor created false provenances for the illicit antiquities. Last year, an antique sculpture was handed over to Indian diplomats at a Manhattan ceremony. The investigation is dubbed "Operation Hidden Idol," involving four arrests and the recovery of thousands of pieces worth $150 million. Agents are hailing the Honolulu museum for being the first U.S. institution to publicly and easily cooperate with the investigation. When agents informed the museum that a 2,000-year-old terra cotta rattle might have found its way into its collection, museum officials identified six other Indian pieces, said Lou Martinez, a spokesman for ICE in New York. Martinez stressed there's no culpability on the museum's part, as it wasn't aware of the items' provenance when it received them as gifts and purchased them between 1991 and 2003. "Looting is a serious problem in the art market and all buyers of art, including museums, need to be mindful that some antiquities have been illegally obtained," said Stephan Jost, director of the Honolulu Museum of Art. "Over the past several years, American art museums have become progressively more rigorous in vetting the history of objects they acquire. Clearly the museum could have done better in the past." In addition to the rattle, the objects include figurines, architectural fragments and tiles. It's very rare for evidence to come to light to show a museum has items that were illegally obtained, said James Cuno president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust. "Claims might come from time to time but most often those claims are based on just interest or the construction of national identity," he said. "If evidence is provided that's convincing, no museum will resist." He cited an example from about 10 years ago when Italian police uncovered evidence revealing some items were improperly removed from Italy. The U.S. museums where some items ended up returned them, he said. Repatriation has become more common in the past couple of decades, said Malcom Bell, a professor of Greek and Roman art and archaeology at the University of Virginia. He said that as a general rule of thumb, museums and art collectors avoid purchasing items exported without clear and valid documentation before 1970 — the year of a United Nations cultural agreement targeting trafficking in antiquities. "Transparency is important and if the Honolulu museum has been open, that's probably to be applauded," he said. __ Follow Jennifer Sinco Kelleher at http://www.twitter.com/JenHapa .
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The British Museum has turned down a request by Greek authorities for a process of mediation, facilitated by Unesco, on the subject of the Parthenon Marbles that are currently on display in London.
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The Greek government’s request for the Parthenon Marbles’ return to Greece, which is being facilitated by UNESCO, was once again denied, via two letters sent to the organization by the British government and the British Museum. This, of course, has led to another dead-end in discussions regarding the matter. In their letter to UNESCO, dated March 25, the British Museum curators addressed their letter to Assistant Director-General for Culture Alfredo Pérez de Armiñán. “After full and careful consideration, we have decided respectfully to decline this request. We believe that the more constructive way forward, on which we have already embarked, is to collaborate directly with other museums and cultural institutions, not just in Greece but across the world. The British Museum admires and supports the work of UNESCO, fully acknowledging the importance of its unique ability, as an intergovernmental agency, to address the serious issue of the threats to, and the destruction of, cultural heritage around the world.” Furthermore, “the British Museum, as you know, is not a government body, and the collections do not belong to the British Government. The Trustees of the British Museum hold them not only for the British people, but for the benefit of the world public, present and future. The Trustees have a legal and moral responsibility to preserve and maintain all the collections in their care, to treat them as inalienable and make them accessible to world audiences. In pursuit of this aim, the Trustees would want to develop existing good relations with colleagues and institutions in Greece, and explore collaborative ventures, not on a government-to-government basis but directly between institutions. This is why we believe that the UNESCO involvement is not the best way forward. Museums holding Greek works, whether in Greece, the UK or elsewhere in the world, are naturally united in a shared endeavor to show the importance of the legacy of ancient Greece. The British Museum is committed to playing its full part in sharing the value of that legacy for all humanity,” they wrote. Meanwhile, the British government also addressed a letter to Alfredo Pérez de Armiñán noting their respect for UNESCO’s work in preserving cultural heritage and “providing a forum for the resolution of international disputes.” “The issue of the Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum has been the subject of much discussion over the years both within the Committee and elsewhere, and while the UK is not formally a member of the Committee, officials from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the British Museum have regularly attended and sought to assist the Committee in its work,” the letter stated. However, while the British government wishes to cooperate with UNESCO, they clearly state that they cannot agree to the Greek government’s request for the return of the Parthenon Marbles since they “were legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the laws pertaining at the time and the Trustees of the British Museum have had clear legal title to the sculptures since 1816.” “We have seen nothing to suggest that Greece’s purpose in seeking mediation on this issue is anything other than to achieve the permanent transfer of the Parthenon sculptures now in the British Museum to Greece and on terms that would deny the British Museum’s right of ownership, either in law or as a practical reality. Given our equally clear position, this leads us to conclude that mediation would not carry this debate substantially forward,” the British government added The full letter can be found here and here.
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