Category Archives: Heritage

Blair considered loan of Parthenon marbles to help London Olympics bid

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Then PM was advised to ‘encourage’ British Museum to agree long-term loan in return for Greek support

Tony Blair considered a “long-term loan” of the Parthenon marbles to Greece in the hope of support for a London 2012 Olympic Games bid, newly released documents reveal.

Twenty years before Rishi Sunak cancelled a meeting with the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, over the ownership question of the sculptures, Greece was lobbying Blair, the then prime minister, for a long-term loan, bypassing the issue of ownership.

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Greece would offer major treasures to UK for Parthenon marbles, minister says

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Culture minister Lina Mendoni pledges to ‘fill the void’ at British Museum should ancient sculptures be returned to Athens

Greece is prepared to part with some of its greatest treasures to “fill the void” at the British Museum if the Parthenon marbles were reunited in Athens, the country’s culture minister has said.

Speaking to the Guardian at the end of a momentous year for the campaign to retrieve the fifth-century BC masterpieces, Lina Mendoni promised that the London institution’s revered Greek galleries would never go empty.

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‘Vandalism’: outcry over plans to replace Notre Dame Cathedral’s chapel windows

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Thousands sign petition challenging Macron-backed restoration that would add contemporary design to building

A plan backed by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, to replace stained-glass windows in Notre Dame Cathedral’s side chapels with contemporary creations has been criticised as “vandalism”.

A petition has been signed by more than 120,000 people to retain the original windows. Critics say the change would destroy the architectural harmony of the historical building that was ravaged by fire in April 2019.

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Parthenon marbles should return to Athens, says Lord Frost

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Architect of Brexit calls for closer Anglo-Greek cultural ties, with sections held elsewhere in Europe also sent back

Britain should be part of a pan-European effort to bring the Parthenon marbles back to Greece, according to an architect of Brexit, who said the UK should make a grand gesture to create closer diplomatic and cultural relations between the two countries.

David Frost, a chief Brexit negotiator, called for a deal between Britain and Greece that would put the long-running dispute to bed, with the sculptures returned to Greece for the first time since the early 1800s when they were taken by Lord Elgin. At present they are in the British Museum’s collection.

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Boat-shaped church and radar station among English heritage list newcomers

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Historic England highlights ‘remarkable gems’ among 227 places added to national list in 2023

An intact second world war radar station and a 1960s church that resembles an upturned boat have joined some of England’s grandest buildings on the national heritage list.

Historic England singled out 16 “remarkable historic gems” that had been added to the list or had their entries updated in 2023. They include a 400-year-old structure regarded as England’s earliest known “modern-day car wash”, an unusually long railway footbridge, an iron age cave and a Manchester primary school that still has its flashy art nouveau tiling from more than a century ago.

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Cuttings from felled Sycamore Gap tree showing signs of growth, says National Trust

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Famous tree was cut down from its spot on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland in September

Salvaged seeds and cuttings from the felled Sycamore Gap tree are showing positive signs of being able to grow and provide “new descendants”, the National Trust has said.

The world famous tree was cut down from its spot on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland in late September. Police continue to investigate the felling. A man in his 60s and two men in their 30s, who were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage, remain on bail.

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Leaning tower in Bologna to be saved as city announces €4m repair project

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Work to be carried out on Garisenda tower in new year after area around it was cordoned off due to collapse fears

Officials have announced plans to repair one of two 12th-century towers in the Italian city of Bologna after the area around it had to secured last month over fears its leaning could lead to collapse.

The city said the €4.3m (£3.7m) project to shore up the Garisenda tower – one of the Two Towers that look out over central Bologna, providing inspiration over the centuries to painters and poets and a lookout spot during conflicts – would proceed in January and February.

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Marbles row leaves diplomats reassessing Sunak’s strategic grip

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Cancellation of meeting with Greek PM has Europeans wondering how Cameron will work with No 10

The Greek foreign minister, Giorgos Gerapetritis, was attending a two-day Nato summit in Brussels on Tuesday when he received an unexpected message from the British delegation. The foreign secretary, David Cameron, was hoping the minister might be available for an unscheduled meeting. There was much to discuss on migration, as well as the relief operation in Gaza. There was one condition from the UK: that there be no cameras.

Gerapetritis readily agreed, and one can only assume it took only an un-minuted raised eyebrow from Lord Cameron for the former prime minister to distance himself discreetly from Rishi Sunak’s bizarre decision to cancel a scheduled Downing Street visit with his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, set for 12.30pm on Tuesday.

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Sunak says retaining Parthenon marbles is matter of law as he denies ‘hissy fit’

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PM reaffirms stance after George Osborne suggests snub to Greek counterpart was result of ‘petulance’

Rishi Sunak has denied having a “hissy fit” over the Parthenon marbles row and has said they cannot be returned to Greece “as a matter of law”.

The prime minister this week accused his Greek counterpart of using a trip to London to “grandstand” over the issue of the ancient Greek sculptures.

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British Museum ‘will continue Parthenon marbles talks’ despite fallout

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Institution’s chair, George Osborne, says the row opened Rishi Sunak up to a ‘devastating line of attack’ from Labour

Rishi Sunak opened up a “devastating line of attack” from Labour by snubbing his Greek counterpart this week, according to the British Museum’s chair George Osborne, who said the row had encouraged the institution to press ahead with talks over loaning the Parthenon marbles to Athens.

Osborne said: “That is, I think, something worth exploring. And we can go on doing it whether or not Rishi Sunak meets the Greek prime minister or not. In fact, if anything, things have been rather clarified by this week. We obviously know we’re not going to get any particular support from the Conservative government.”

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Sunak accuses Greek PM of ‘grandstanding’ over Parthenon marbles

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Prime minister escalates row with Athens counterpart in first public comments after cancelling their meeting

Rishi Sunak has intensified his diplomatic spat with his Greek counterpart, accusing Kyriakos Mitsotakis of using his recent trip to London to “grandstand” over the issue of the Parthenon sculptures.

The prime minister told MPs on Wednesday he had cancelled a planned meeting with Mitsotakis in London on Tuesday because the Greek prime minister had reneged on a promise not to use the trip as an opportunity to advocate for the sculptures’ return.

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V&A director says museum trustees ‘infantilised’ amid row over Parthenon marbles

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Tristram Hunt says trustees should be able to ‘make case’ for items to be retained or returned to countries of origin

Museum trustees should be able to “make the case” whether items in their collections should be retained or returned to their countries of origin, but instead were being “infantilised” and “hidebound” by legislation, Tristram Hunt, the director of the V&A, has said.

He was speaking as a diplomatic row between the UK and Greece over the future of the Parthenon marbles, held at the British Museum, blew up this week after Rishi Sunak abruptly cancelled a meeting with the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

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Michael Gove delivers apology to Covid victims and their families for ‘mistakes made by government’ – UK politics live

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Levelling up secretary breaks away from evidence at Covid inquiry to apologise for ‘errors I and others made’

Gove breaks away from the line of questioning to issue an apology.

I want to take this opportunity, if I may, to apologise to the victims who endured so much pain, the families who’ve endured so much loss, as a result of the mistakes that were made by government in response to the pandemic.

And as a minister, responsible for the Cabinet Office, and who was also close to many of the decisions that were made, I must take my share of responsibility for that.

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Greek PM bemoans lack of progress on return of Parthenon marbles

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Kyriakos Mitsotakis to raise issue of ‘reunification’ of sculptures when he meets Rishi Sunak this week

Talks over a possible return of the Parthenon marbles from the British Museum to Greece are not advancing quick enough, the Greek prime minister has said before his meeting with Rishi Sunak this week.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis likened the British Museum’s possession of the sculptures – also known as the Elgin marbles – to the Mona Lisa painting being cut in half, saying it was not a question of ownership but “reunification”.

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Keir Starmer open to return of Parthenon marbles, reports say

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Labour leader gives strongest hint yet of support for loan deal with Greece if his party wins next election

The Greek government has been assured by Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour party, that in the event of electoral victory next year he will not block a prospective arrangement to return the Parthenon marbles to Athens.

Speaking through aides before talks in London with the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Starmer gave his strongest hint yet of his support for a loan deal that would see the antiquities return to the country where they were carved 2,500 years ago.

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Unesco under fire for failing to prevent evictions at Angkor Wat temple site

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Amnesty says heritage body has ‘fallen short’ in its responsibility to thousands of families thrown off the complex in Cambodia

Unesco has “fallen short of its responsibility to uphold and promote human rights” amid mass evictions at Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temple complex, Amnesty International has claimed in a new investigation.

The Cambodian government has used “intimidation, harassment, threats and acts of violence” to remove about 10,000 families from the world heritage site, the report said. In an unusual move, Amnesty also named Unesco as a “responsible actor”, arguing that the UN body was made aware of alleged human rights abuses for months but did not investigate or acknowledge them.

Additional reporting by Keat Soriththeavy

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Irish woman inspired to return African and Aboriginal antiquities by Guardian article

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Isabella Walsh has contacted embassies and consulates to repatriate 10 objects that her father wanted to be returned

An Irish woman has been inspired by the Guardian to return her late father’s collection of 19th-century African and Aboriginal objects to their countries of origin.

Isabella Walsh, 39, from Limerick, has contacted embassies and consulates in Dublin and London to repatriate 10 objects, including spears, harpoon heads and a shield, after she read about other cases in the newspaper.

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‘Success stories’: Historic England adds several sites to risk register but removes 203

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Hotel that inspired Charles Dickens added to Heritage at Risk Register alongside Gunpowder Plot house

Charles Dickens described it as an enormous, labyrinthine tavern that was “known far and wide” and famous for its stone statue of an animal “distantly resembling an insane cart-horse”.

He was a regular guest at the Great White Horse Hotel in Ipswich, Suffolk, and was so captivated by the place that it helped inspire him to write his first novel, The Pickwick Papers.

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Half of Britons can’t name a Black British historical figure, survey finds

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Exclusive: majority of British people found to have ‘shockingly little’ knowledge about Black British history

More than half of Britons know so little about Black British history that they cannot name a single historical figure, a survey has revealed.

The researchers found that the UK knows “shockingly little” about Black British history. While 75% of British adults surveyed acknowledged that they did not know “very much” or “anything at all” about the subject, more than half (53%) could not recall any Black British historical figures and only 7% could name more than four.

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Glasgow museum says its £3m Auguste Rodin sculpture is missing

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Plaster sculpture bought by Glasgow Museum from the artist in 1901 is ‘unlocated’

A statue by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin, part of his famous Les Bourgeois de Calais group, is currently “unlocated” in Glasgow’s art collections, museum officials have said.

The plaster sculpture, bought by Glasgow Museums from the artist in 1901, was exhibited in Kelvingrove Park from 25 June to 30 September 1949, according to Glasgow Life, the organisation in charge of many of the Scottish city’s cultural venues. But since then, it seems to have been lost.

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