CULTURE AND MIGRATION

122 Culture and migration: a path towards cultural integration of refugees and migrants Syria” announced its then director, Neil MacGregor, “and one day it will go back”. 217 He did not explain why the museum was holding objects illegally removed from Athens which the Trustees and government were determined would never go back, despite the importance of their reunification with the Parthenon – not only to Greece, but to the world. 218 Certain objects are so intrinsic to the identity of a nation that their acquisition by another state or individual as a result of conquest, occupation or illicit trade is a violation of the right of a state to exist. 219 The British Museum cannot today deny that the Parthenon Sculptures would be curated to the highest standards at Athens, and it has never denied that the Acropolis Museum is the optimum environment for any collective and integrated display of the objects. 220 According to Marlen Godwin of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, these figure has been stranded in the grandest Refugee Centre - the great British Museum. 221 Of course, our study does not imply that the case of the return of the Parthenon sculptures should be brought to the European or International jurisdictions on the grounds of the refugee law. But we cannot underestimate the fact that the analogies between refugees and the return of the Parthenon sculptures are more than enough. REFERENCES Bories C.: Le Patrimoine Culturel en droit International. Éditions A. Pedone, 2011. Clair W. St. : Lord Elgin & The Marbles. Oxford University Press, 1998. Clair W. St. : Lord Elgin & The Marbles. Oxford University Press, 2003. King D.:“The Elgin marbles”. Hutchinson, 2006. Robertson G. QC, Prof. N. Palmer QC, A. Clooney: “The Case for Return of the Parthenon Sculp- tures”. 31 July 2015. Vrettos Th.: Υπόθεση Έλγιν (=The Elgin case). Ενάλιος, 1998. archaeologists, so they ransacked ruins, smashing up sculptures in the hope of finding mythical gold nuggets inside the ancient statues. Idem, p. 241-242. 217. K. Burgess: “British Museum guarding antiquity looted in Syria”. The Times, 5 June 2015. Available at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/british-museum-guarding-antiquity- looted-in-syria-bq92pnzvq2f [30.01.2020]. 218. G. Robertson QC, Prof. N. Palmer QC, A. Clooney “The Case for Return of the Parthenon Sculptures”. 31 July 2015, p. 7. 219. C. Bories: Le Patrimoine Culturel en droit International. Éditions A. Pedone, 2011, p. 423. 220. G. Robertson QC, Prof. N. Palmer QC, A. Clooney “The Case for Return of the Parthenon Sculptures”. 31 July 2015, p. 54. 221. Γ. Ανδριτσόπουλος: "Γυρίστε πίσω τους κλεμμένους θησαυρούς" (Turn back the stolen treasures). ΤΑ ΝΕΑ, 10.02.2020, and British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. Available at: https://www.parthenonuk.com/latest-news/476-bp-or-not-bp- protest-08-february-2020