The Italian news agency Ansa, on a telegram, refers to the intensification of contacts aimed at returning to Athens of those located in the British Museum. “The entire international debate on the return of the Parthenon sculptors to Greece, resumed thanks to Italy, especially Sicily, which, in 2022, opened the way”, writes Ansa. And he adds: “At the initiative of then councilman of the district of Sicily on cultural matters, Alberto Samona, three years ago it was decided that the ‘Fagan fragment’, which was at the Salinas Museum in Palermo, as part of the archaeological collection of the then British consul Robert Fagan (owned, however, in the eastern frieze of the Parthenon), should return to his place, at the Acropolis Museum”. The return was made possible thanks to direct dialogue with the Minister of Culture, Lena Mendoni and the collaboration of the Director of the Acropolis Museum, Nikolaos Stampolidis with the then director of the Salina Museum, Katerina Greco. “Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis thanked Italy and Sicily for returning the fragment and after a year, the Holy See, on the initiative of Pope Francis, donated three more fragments of the Parthenon, which were kept in the Vatican Museums,” writes Ansa. In a post with which he comments on the latest developments and reproduced by the Italian news agency, Alberto Samona stressed: “The day is near when the Parthenon sculptures will finally return to Athens. I can say, with some pride, that thanks to our move, the international debate on the return to their home, the sculptures removed from Phidias’ work, gained new momentum. The path we must take in a world full of conflict and divisions is – precisely – international cooperation and partnership in the name of culture, which always carries a message of dialogue and peace.”
Ansa: The day is coming when the Parthenon sculptures will return to Athens
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