Archinect - News

Pope Francis announces return of Parthenon fragments in a potential precedent-setter

2022-12-20T18:39:00-05:00

Pope Francis will send back to Greece the three fragments of the Parthenon Sculptures that the Vatican Museums have held for two centuries, in the latest case of a Western museum bowing to demands for restitution of artifacts to their countries of origin.

The bequest was labeled a “donation” from the Vatican by Pope Francis, who also called it “a concrete sign of [his] sincere desire to follow in the ecumenical path of truth.”

The British Museum, meanwhile, is also reportedly in talks with Greece to return parts of its argued-over trove of Elgin Marbles as early as next year. A timeline for the Vatican's return to the Acropolis Museum has not yet been verified by either party.

Previously on Archinect: The British Museum is under fire after refusing Parthenon Marbles 3D scan

‘Temple of Boom’ adorns Parthenon replica with optical illusions and floral motifs

2022-11-25T14:14:00-05:00

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne, Australia has unveiled a new installation that celebrates and explores the role of The Parthenon in global cultures. Titled Temple of Boom, and designed by Melbourne-based architects Adam Newman and Kelvin Tsang, the installation sees a one-third scale replica of the famous Greek site adorned with floral motifs, optical illusions, and other designs.

Photo credit: Sean Fennessy

Situated in the NGV Garden, the scheme will host a gradually-changing set of large-scale artworks and murals painted by local artists in three phases between November 2022 and August 2023. The ever-changing artwork within the installation is intended to invite audiences to “consider the effect of time on all architecture.”

Photo credit: Sean Fennessy

The artwork series will begin with floral motifs and optical illusions by artists Drez, Manda Lane, and David Lee Pereira. Themes within the artwork range from bold murals sitting at the intersection of abstract ...

The British Museum is under fire after refusing Parthenon Marbles 3D scan

2022-04-04T12:16:00-04:00

The British Museum is facing legal action from one of the UK’s leading heritage preservation organisations over its refusal to allow the 3D scanning of a piece in its Parthenon marbles collection. The Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA) said it would serve an injunction against the museum imminently, raising the stakes in the dispute between the two.

The 269-year-old institution is said to have refused a request from the Oxford-based Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA) that would have reproduced a metope from the Acropolis’ south-facing facade for an important proof of concept. The scans are supposed to allow for a robotic replication process that can manipulate the original Pentelic marble material to “sub-millimeter” accuracy, according to the IDA.

Previously on Archinect: The UK is once again declining to change its stance on the Parthenon Marbles following a UNESCO statement

“Our aim is to give people a chance to see just how extraordinary a copy can be,” the Institute’s executive director Roger Michel told the Guardian. “Copies [of the Parthenon sculptures] in the past have been low-quality plaster casts. This will be orders of magnitude better. It will help people see and feel the potential of this technology in ways mere words can’t describe.”

The IDA nevertheless attempted last week to create a 3D scan using an “iPad ...

The UK is once again declining to change its stance on the Parthenon Marbles following a UNESCO statement

2021-10-06T16:43:00-04:00

The fate of the British Museum’s heavily contested Parthenon Marbles (also referred to as the Elgin Marbles) has once again come under clout after the UK decided to reject UNESCO’s request to reassess its position on repatriating the 2,500-year-old relics to their country of origin.

The UK is continuing on their insistence that the marbles were acquired through a legal means in the form of a contested firman granted to their namesake the Earl of Elgin by the Ottoman Empire around 1801.

The UN’s cultural arm had issued a statement at a recent ICPRCP meeting outlining its position that the dispute indeed constitutes an “intergovernmental issue” and not, as both the government and museum claim, an institutional one that can be sorted out “independently of the government and free from political interference,” according to UK officials.

Previously on Archinect: Brexit could force British Museum to return Parthenon Marbles to Greece

“The Museum is a unique resource for the world: the brea...

Architectural photographer Danica O. Kus captures Bernard Tschumi's nostalgic Acropolis Museum in Athens

2020-05-18T17:39:00-04:00

Designed by Bernard Tschumi, the Acropolis Museum building was completed back in 2009. Housing numerous structures from Greek antiquity, the museum is located at the foot of Acropolis of Athens, an archeological site that still contains many ancient buildings, including the Parthenon.

Architectural photographer Danica O. Kus pursued this project as a personal endeavor. "I was inspired by the buildings' design whcih permits natural light to flow into the galleries and illuminate the sculptures," she told Archinect. "My passion for photography led me to investigate buildings not only as an architectural object but also to explore the atmosphere of the inner and other space."

The building consists of three levels. The ground level holds the main entrance and presents a view down to the archeological excavations that were discovered during the building's pre-construction phase.

The second level contains the Archaic Gallery which contains the archaic and classical sculptures of the museu...

Brexit could force British Museum to return Parthenon Marbles to Greece

2020-02-18T18:39:00-05:00

As the United Kingdom works to strike new trade deals with Europe following Brexit, Greek authorities are using the occasion to try and negotiate a return of the country's long-lost Parthenon Marbles (also referred to as the Elgin Marbles).

Reuters reports that Greek officials have included new language supporting repatriation of the marbles in a document crafted by the 27 European Union nations that will envision the group's new economic and cultural relationship with the United Kingdom following its exit from the EU on January 31, 2020.

A detail view of the statuary. Image courtesy of Wikimedia user Ejectgoose.

The document, according to Reuters, seeks the “return or restitution of unlawfully removed cultural objects to their countries of origin” and comes as Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis makes a formal offer to British Museum authorities, where the marbles are currently held, to temporarily trade the Parthenon Marbles for a series of ancient Greek artifacts that "have...

'The Parthenon of Books' is constructed with 100,000 banned books at historic Nazi book burning site

2017-07-10T19:50:00-04:00

The Parthenon of Books in Kassel, Germany is part of the Documenta 14 art festival. With the help of students from Kassel University, Minujín identified over 170 titles that were or are banned in different countries around the world, and constructed the full-size replica of the iconic temple from those books, plastic sheeting, and steel.

Photo: alexgorlin

Created by Argentinian artist Marta Minujín, 74, the monumental replica of Greek Parthenon consists of 100,000 banned books and symbolizes the resistance to political repression.

The Parthenon of Books taking shape in Kassel. Photo by Rosa Ruehling