British organizes a fashion show in front of the Parthenon marbles. Greece doesn't like it

Irritation in Greece over the British Museum ’s decision to hold a fashion show in front of the Parthenon marbles stored at the London museum. The fashion show was held Saturday, Feb. 17, during London Fashion Week and it was organized by British fashion house Erdem, with models walking in front of the sculptures that Athens would like to see returned. Designer Erdem Moralioglu, founder of the brand, reportedly chose the Duveen Gallery, or the Parthenon Marbles Gallery, as a tribute to Maria Callas: “I wanted the fashion show in this space because it embodies her Greekness,” he told Vogue.

Greece, however, did not like it. “Zero respect,” thundered Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, who has long fought for the marbles removed by Lord Elgin in 1801 and brought from Athens to London to return to the Greek capital. “By organizing a fashion show in the rooms where the Parthenon sculptures are exhibited,” Mendoni said, “the British Museum again demonstrates its lack of respect for the works of Phidias. The directors of the British trivialize and insult not only the monument but also the universal values it conveys. The conditions in which the works are displayed and stored, at the Duveen Gallery, are steadily deteriorating. It is time to let these stolen and abused masterpieces shine again in the light of Attica.”

The British press, however, rallies around the British and recalls that in 2021 Christian Dior paid Greece about 700,000 euros to get permission to hold a photo shoot on theAcropolis, then added an additional 200,000 euros for lost income. However, Mendoni responded to these remarks as well, pointing out that no fashion show was held at the Acropolis, but there was only a photo shoot, and that the fashion show was held at the Panathenaic Stadium. In addition, Dior’s shoot featured a collection inspired by ancient Greece and created in collaboration with Greek artists. And with the models “motionless, just like statues,” Mendoni pointed out. In contrast, the “fashion show at the British Museum was held in the Duveen Gallery, in an enclosed space, in the presence of dozens of guests. The Parthenon sculptures were merely decorative, as the collection had no thematic connection to Greek antiquity. The Parthenon sculptures were only used as a backdrop, and thus their universal value, which the British Museum claims to be so concerned about, was completely downplayed.”

Already in 2017, Greece had turned down a fashion show on the Acropolis: in that case, it was Gucci that requested permission for the défilé, which was, however, deemed incompatible with the site by the Central Archaeological Council of Greece, which rejected the offer despite the Florentine fashion house putting the sum of two million euros on the table.

Pictured is Erdem’s fashion show in front of the Parthenon marbles.

British organizes a fashion show in front of the Parthenon marbles. Greece doesn't like it

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