It is only a matter of time, namely a few days, as everything shows, to complete the final procedures for the return and official placement in the Acropolis Museum of the three fragments of the Parthenon that Pope Francis “gifted” to the archbishop. Jerome last December. According to the information, the Greek side proposed the last ten days of March for the ceremony of receiving and integrating the three fragments in the Acropolis Museum. However, well-informed sources from the Holy See said yesterday in “K” that the best date for the reception ceremony is Friday, March 24th. A representative of the Pontifical Dicastery for Christian Unity is expected to attend the ceremony.

In addition, last night he left for the Vatican, led by the Minister of Culture. Lina Mendoni, the Greek mission responsible for signing the agreements for the transfer of the three fragments and the corresponding protocols for their delivery and receipt. K’s sources report that the agreements and protocols on the implementation of the donation of Pope Francis of Greece will be signed today at 11.30 am by the father and the representative of the Vatican, Cardinal Vergets. The director of the Vatican Museums, Barbara Ghiata, and the general director of the Acropolis Museum, Nikos Stampolidis, will sign a protocol on the transfer of the fragments on behalf of the two institutions.

Mr. Stampolidis will also take over the arrangements for the immediate repatriation of the three fragments, which could take place in the coming days (perhaps tomorrow or Thursday). Insurance and transportation of antiquities have already been entrusted to an Italian company.

The most important date for the reception and integration ceremony of the three fragments at the Acropolis Museum is Friday 24 March.

Fragments

Of the three fragments, two depict male heads, and one of them (from the southern metopes of the Parthenon) belongs to a bearded centaur, and the other (located on the northern frieze of the temple) belongs to a young “boatman” carrying boats with offerings in the Panathenaic procession. The third fragment (placed by archaeologists on the western pediment of the Parthenon) depicts a horse’s head. As read on the website of the Vatican Museums, three antiquities fell into their collections at the beginning of the 19th century. Two male heads were sold to museums in 1803 by the sculptor Ferdinando Lisatroni (not to mention how they fell into his hands), and the head of a horse, removed from the Parthenon a year after Morosini’s bombardment, passed to the Doge of Venice, Marcantonio. Giustiniani and, according to their website, was acquired by the museums in 1823.

On December 16, 2022, Pope Francis announced that, as a “tangible sign of his sincere desire to follow the universal path of truth,” he is returning the fragments to Archbishop Jerome. The Pope’s statement mentioned that the decision to return the antiquities rested unilaterally with the Holy See, and its general spirit testified to the desire of the pontiff not to set a precedent that would affect other countries with requests for the repatriation of objects.

Consultations between the Ministry of Culture and the Acropolis Museum with the Vatican began even before the return of the Fagan fragment (which returned to Greece in June 2022), and the Ecumenical Council played a supporting role in the entire process and in the final decision of Patriarch Bartholomew, who, at a meeting with the Primate of the Roman Catholic church in November last year, expressed a request for the return of specific three antiquities.