The Vatican and Greece have finalized an agreement to return three fragments of Parthenon sculptures that have been in the Vatican Museums’ collection for two centuries, the latest case of a Western museum giving in to restitution demands. .
The Vatican described the return as a Ecumenical “gift”. To the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Jerome II, Orthodox Christians, Not necessarily as a state-to-state transfer. However, he is pressuring the British Museum to reach an agreement with Greece over the fate of its largest collection of Parthenon sculptures.
“This morning, at 11:30, an agreement is signed for the implementation of the Pope’s donation, in the presence of the Vatican City’s Head of State, Cardinal Fernando Verges, Greek Minister of Culture and Sports. The Holy See, Lina Mendoni, and Director of the Vatican Museums, Barbara Gatta,” announced.
The fragments are expected to arrive in Athens at the end of this month, with prof And scheduled for March 24 to receive them.
According to some sources, the fragments of the Parthenon will leave the Vatican on Wednesday, heading for Greece.
The three marble pieces preserved to this day in the Vatican Museums Imagine a horse’s head It comes from the western apex of the building, where the dispute between Athena and Poseidon over the domain of Attica was represented.
The other part is a file Baby head rest, a figure present in the frieze flanking the cell of the temple: the cake-bearer presented during the procession of the Panathenaes in honor of Athena, while the other is the head of a bearded man, thought to have been located. In one of the parapets on the south side of the building, where the Centauromachy is represented.
British museums have rejected decades of pleas from Greece to return its largest collection of Parthenon sculptures, which have been a focus of the museum since 1816.
However, earlier this month, the head of the British Museum said the UK and Greece were working on a deal that would see his institution’s Parthenon marbles on display in both London and Athens.
Sculptures of the V century a. C. are mostly the remains of a 160-meter (520 ft) frieze that ran along the outer walls of the Parthenon on the Acropolis, dedicated to Athena, goddess of wisdom.
Much of the frieze and the rest of the temple’s sculptural decoration were lost in a bombing raid in the 17th century, and about half of the remaining work was removed by the British diplomat Lord Elgin in the early 19th century.
(with information from AP and EFE)
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