Greek Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni responded harshly to an interview by the UK’s Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, Oliver Dowden who said it was impossible for the Parthenon Marbles to return to Greece, claiming his statements proved he had no real arguments.
“Statements by the British Minister of Culture suggest that the quiver with the arguments, which are supposed to justify the stay of the Parthenon Sculptures in London, has been emptied,” said the Minister of Culture.
Mendoni used a saying carved onto the Parthenon by a Brit in her retort to Dowden: “As for the argument for the alleged rescue of the Sculptures by Elgin – as they could have been destroyed by others if they had not been stolen by the Lord – we will remind Mr. Dowden what a compatriot carved on the Acropolis at the time of the looting of the Parthenon “Quod non fecerunt Gothi, hoc fecerunt Scotti” (what the Goths did not do, the Scots did)…
The UK Culture Secretary said in the Times interview that if the British had not removed the sculptures, they would have been destroyed during the brutal Nazi Occupation of Greece during the Second World War.
“Would they have survived the Nazis rampaging through Athens during World War II… It is a slightly trite argument but there is a truth,” Dowden stated.
