The Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia (GOCSA) have called for the Parthenon Marbles to be returned to their rightful place in Greece.
In a GOCSA press release, the Community said it will be giving its “full and unwavering support towards Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that works tirelessly on this issue until absolute and complete justice is served.”
Full Statement in English:
Two hundred years have passed since the sculptures of the Parthenon were taken away from their rightful place to be carried and placed in the British Museum.
Millions of people visit the Greek treasures in the UK paying an entry fee, which means a lot of money has been collected all these years to end up in the treasuries of Britain.
We believe that we have waited quite long enough for the Greek sculptures to be returned to where they belong.
A story that has been repeated in history so many times, a story about conquerors – trespassers and looters who did not respect the cultural heritage of a people to whom this is an “ancestral heritage”. Heritage that is not an individual property but the rightful property of an entire people, property that must receive respect and international protection, recognition and preservation and must be returned to where it belongs: To the Greek people!
The Annual General Meeting of the Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia convened on 28 November 2021, knowing what the historical reality is, insists that the time has come – and out of principal – for Britain to show the required understanding and accept the just request of Greece, of the Greek people and their respective governments to return the sculptures of the Parthenon to their rightful place, in Greece, where they were made and presented to the Greek people by the first highly-skilled sculptors almost three thousand years ago.
At the same time, the members of the Community express their full and unwavering support towards Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that works tirelessly on this issue until absolute and complete justice is served. We are and will remain in solidarity with Greece until final vindication.
