OUR MISSION IS ...
The
restitution of the Parthenon Marbles. We want to see all existing pieces
from the monument, scattered in museums and private collections around
the world, returned to their place of origin. Athens Greece.
The Parthenon, the Temple of Athena, was built in 15 years between
447 to 432 BC by the architects Iktinos and Kallikrates, and Phidias the
sculptor. The man responsible for the project was the great Athenian
statesman, Pericles, who began a huge program of building works to give
Athens the magnificence of a great imperial city. In these few years
Greek literature, philosophy, architecture, and politics – in fact the
whole of the Greek civilisation – suddenly burst into flower.
The Parthenon is a Doric temple built entirely of white Attic Pentelic marble with a row of 46 elegant Doric columns. The internal eastern chamber or cella of the temple once housed a 12 meter-high statue of the goddess Athena wrought in gold and ivory. The Parthenon sculptures featured in the triangular pediments at each end, in the 92 metopes running around the length of the temple high up outside the building, and in the magnificent 160 by 1 meter frieze high up on the inside wall of building.
The pediment sculptures were huge statues in the round depicting the story of the quarrel between the goddess Athena and Poseidon over the naming of the city of Athens and the birth of Athena, with all of the other gods looking on in amazement. The metopes were sculptures in high relief telling stories from Greek mythology, and the frieze, wrought in low relief, represented the ancient week-long festival of the Panathenaia. It consisted of 400 human and 200 animal figures.
The first significant damage in 21 centuries occurred on 26 September
1687 when the Venetian General Francesco Morosini laid siege to Athens.
During the siege, a ball from a Venetian cannon hit the Parthenon and
blew up the roof but the majority of the sculptures fortunately remained
intact.
Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin, was a Scottish aristocrat
who had served in the British army as an officer, and as a consul before
appointed British Ambassador to Constantinople in 1799.
He took his team with him including his secretary the Rev. Dr Phillip Hunt, Sir William Hamilton and others. Before he left England he was renovating his mansion in Scotland. It was his architect, Thomas Harrison who suggested to Elgin that he take advantage of his position of Ambassador to Constantinople to take with him artists and painters to make architectural drawings and plaster casts “to improve the arts in Great Britain”.
In his first trip to Europe, in 1976, Emanuel noticed so many
wonderful Greek antiquities in the various national museums. He thought
“So why are they here? They should be in Greece”.
Later he saw the Parthenon Temple in Athens and learned of the exquisite statues which once adorned it. The Parthenon Marbles sitting forlorn in foreign lands must be returned home to Greece. It became an obsession with him.
At the 1981 national Convention of AHEPA the first committee in the world dedicated to the return of the Parthenon Marbles was established with the support of AHEPA. In subsequent years Emanuel lectured on the Parthenon Marbles and the case for restitution throughout Australia, the USA, Greece and New Zealand. In 1984, Melina Mercouri, then Minister for Culture in the Greek Government, put him in touch with the newly formed British restitution committee and Emanuel have supported them and worked together with them since that time. He went to New Zealand in 2000 and formed a new committee to represent that country in our combined worldwide effort to press for the just return of the ancient treasures to Greece.
Why all this effort?
"You must understand what the Parthenon Marbles mean to us. They are our pride, our sacrifices, a noble symbol of excellence. They are a tribute to the democratic philosophy. They are the essence of Greekness." EMANUEL JOHN COMINO AM
The Parthenon
The Parthenon is a Doric temple built entirely of white Attic Pentelic marble with a row of 46 elegant Doric columns. The internal eastern chamber or cella of the temple once housed a 12 meter-high statue of the goddess Athena wrought in gold and ivory. The Parthenon sculptures featured in the triangular pediments at each end, in the 92 metopes running around the length of the temple high up outside the building, and in the magnificent 160 by 1 meter frieze high up on the inside wall of building.
The pediment sculptures were huge statues in the round depicting the story of the quarrel between the goddess Athena and Poseidon over the naming of the city of Athens and the birth of Athena, with all of the other gods looking on in amazement. The metopes were sculptures in high relief telling stories from Greek mythology, and the frieze, wrought in low relief, represented the ancient week-long festival of the Panathenaia. It consisted of 400 human and 200 animal figures.
Monument Vs Men
And Then Came Elgin
He took his team with him including his secretary the Rev. Dr Phillip Hunt, Sir William Hamilton and others. Before he left England he was renovating his mansion in Scotland. It was his architect, Thomas Harrison who suggested to Elgin that he take advantage of his position of Ambassador to Constantinople to take with him artists and painters to make architectural drawings and plaster casts “to improve the arts in Great Britain”.
A man with a Mission...
Later he saw the Parthenon Temple in Athens and learned of the exquisite statues which once adorned it. The Parthenon Marbles sitting forlorn in foreign lands must be returned home to Greece. It became an obsession with him.
At the 1981 national Convention of AHEPA the first committee in the world dedicated to the return of the Parthenon Marbles was established with the support of AHEPA. In subsequent years Emanuel lectured on the Parthenon Marbles and the case for restitution throughout Australia, the USA, Greece and New Zealand. In 1984, Melina Mercouri, then Minister for Culture in the Greek Government, put him in touch with the newly formed British restitution committee and Emanuel have supported them and worked together with them since that time. He went to New Zealand in 2000 and formed a new committee to represent that country in our combined worldwide effort to press for the just return of the ancient treasures to Greece.
Why all this effort?
"You must understand what the Parthenon Marbles mean to us. They are our pride, our sacrifices, a noble symbol of excellence. They are a tribute to the democratic philosophy. They are the essence of Greekness." EMANUEL JOHN COMINO AM
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