Enlarge image
Models in front of Greek antiquities at London Fashion Week
Photo: Jeff Spicer / Getty Images
Greece's Culture Minister Lina Mendoni reacted with anger to a London Fashion Week fashion show in front of the famous Parthenon frieze in the British Museum. "The decision-makers at the British Museum are insulting not only the monument, but also the universal values it embodies," the minister said in writing. The museum once again shows a lack of respect for the masterpieces of the sculptor Phidias.
The fashion show took place on Saturday at the British Museum in London, Greek broadcaster ERTnews reported. The designer Erdem Moralioglu chose the impressive exhibition location of the Parthenon frieze pieces in the British Museum for a fashion show for his brand Erdem. The collection shown is inspired by the Greek singer Maria Callas and her interpretation of the opera Medea in 1953.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, Greece has been demanding the return of several fragments of the Parthenon temple, which in ancient times was dedicated to the goddess Athena. In the Greek capital, a new museum was built below the Acropolis in 2009. The real frieze parts are exhibited there together with plaster replicas of the missing elements. The Parthenon (“Virgin’s Chamber”) is one of the most famous remaining architectural monuments of ancient Greece.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the British diplomat Lord Elgin had the best-preserved parts (the so-called "Elgin Marbles") of the Parthenon dismantled and brought to England in agreement with the then Ottoman Empire. He sold it to the British Museum in 1816. 56 of the 96 panels of the frieze have been there since then. Athens sees the marble slabs as stolen. London believes they were acquired legally.
Frieze is the sculptural decoration that runs below the ceiling and above the outer row of columns of ancient temples. Scenes from the history of ancient Athens are depicted on it.
mgo/AFP/dpa