Greece has lent Italy a statue of the goddess Athena, which will be displayed at a Sicilian museum for four years, in return for Rome’s long-term loan to Athens of a fragment of the Parthenon Sculptures.
The ancient marble work was found during excavations near the Parthenon Temple, dedicated to the goddess of wisdom, and belongs to the Acropolis Museum.
Meanwhile, under an agreement made in January, the fragment will stay in Athens for a maximum of eight years but the ultimate aim, Italian and Greek officials said, is its “indefinite return” to Greece.
Greece hopes that the loan of the Italian fragment will boost its campaign for the return from London of the British Museum's part of the Parthenon Sculptures.
Around half of the surviving 5th century BC works were taken in the early 19th century by a British diplomat, Lord Elgin, and remain in London despite repeated Greek requests for their repatriation. It has led to a heated dispute between Greece and the UK over the status of the sculptures, a 160-metre frieze that ran around the outer walls of the Parthenon.
Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, speaking in Palermo, described the works in London as “the proceeds of theft” by Elgin.
“Greece recognises no rights of ownership or possession” to the works by the British Museum, she said. The deal with Italy showed a "path that London can follow”, she said.
The British Museum says that the sculptures were legitimately acquired by Elgin from Turkish authorities when Greece was still under occupation by the Ottoman Empire.
The Italian fragments were formerly in the collection of 19th century British diplomat Robert Fagan before being purchased by the University of Palermo after 1818.
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
PULITZER PRIZE 2020 WINNERS
JOURNALISM
Public Service
Anchorage Daily News in collaboration with ProPublica
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Staff of The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
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Brian M. Rosenthal of The New York Times
Explanatory Reporting
Staff of The Washington Post
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National Reporting
T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi of ProPublica
and
Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker and Lewis Kamb of The Seattle Times
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Feature Writing
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LETTERS AND DRAMA
Fiction
"The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
Drama
"A Strange Loop" by Michael R. Jackson
History
"Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America" by W. Caleb McDaniel (Oxford University Press)
Biography
"Sontag: Her Life and Work" by Benjamin Moser (Ecco/HarperCollins)
Poetry
"The Tradition" by Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press)
General Nonfiction
"The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care" by Anne Boyer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
and
"The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America" by Greg Grandin (Metropolitan Books)
Music
"The Central Park Five" by Anthony Davis, premiered by Long Beach Opera on June 15, 2019
Special Citation
Ida B. Wells
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela
Edited by Sahm Venter
Published by Liveright
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The flights
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Skeleton Coast Safaris’ four-day adventure involves joining a very small group in a private plane, flying to some of the remotest areas in the world, with each night spent at a different camp. It costs from US$8,335.30 (Dh30,611); www.skeletoncoastsafaris.com
FIGHT INFO
Men’s 60kg Round 1:
Ahmad Shuja Jamal (AFG) beat Krisada Takhiankliang (THA) - points
Hyan Aljmyah (SYR) beat Akram Alyminee (YEM) - retired Round 1
Ibrahim Bilal (UAE) beat Bhanu Pratap Pandit (IND) - TKO Round 1
Men’s 71kg Round 1:
Seyed Kaveh Soleyman (IRI) beat Abedel Rahman (JOR) - RSC round 3.
Amine Al Moatassime (UAE) walk over Ritiz Puri (NEP)
The Lowdown
Kesari
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
Produced by: Dharma Productions, Azure Entertainment
Directed by: Anubhav Singh
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Parineeti Chopra
