A right-wing Greek newspaper launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after his abrupt cancellation of talks with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Sunak snubbed Mitsotakis just hours before the pre-planned meeting after the Greek Prime Minister raised the repatriation of ancient historic artefacts .
Its crazy how they can somehow justify taking and owning those
And how culturally insensitive they can be to constantly refer to them by the name of the guy who stole them.
I wouldn’t focus too much on that. I studied in a Greek-medium public school, and the sculptures were always referred to as “Elgin Marbles” in history textbooks produced by the Greek Ministry of Education. Same for journalism and public discourse in Greek.
Diligently correcting the term to “Parthenon sculptures” is a recent cause.
Id almost want them to still be referred to by Elgin’s name but in remembrance of him as a thief, more of an accusatory nuance.
But yeah if people who these rightfully belong to want them to not be referred to by the name of the person who took them, that is the way to go.
For clarity, I’m in favour of changing the terminology to highlight the historical injustice.
I just thought it’s important to admit that it’s a recent change of linguistic preferences even in the most official Greek publications. Indeed, up to the last couple of years, the adjectival “Elgin” was used in Greek as an accusation of theft, not a recognition of ownership.