The Festival of Arts 2015 in Adelaide will host fourteen replica pieces of the Parthenon Marbles, including one Caryatid thanks to a collaboration by the Hellenic Studies Foundation (HSF) and the Greek government.

“After collaborating with the Greek government in October 2015 we managed to secure fourteen replica pieces – including one ‘Karyatis’ – to be displayed for 100 days during the Festival of Arts 2015 hosted by the Adelaide Festival Centre, which is South Australia’s principal performing arts venue,” said Harry Patsouris, one of the HSF’s directors.

In this way, Australian audiences will be able to envision the sculptures removed from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin from 1801 to 1812 that are now being held at the British Museum.

The HSF in Australia first entered the decades-long debate concerning the return of the ancient Greek Parthenon Marbles around a year ago with a social media campaign. Over this time there have been over 70,000 supporters on Facebook an the HSF’s hashtag #ReturnTheMarbles has generated international interest.