Monday, June 23, 2008

Greece Fails to Take Care of its Own Cultural Property

The nationalistic Greek government has made a big show of seeking repatriations of artifacts from museums abroad. Yet, as this article indicates, it is doing a poor job of taking care of its major archaeological attractions at home: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/23/greece.heritage/print

There has been other embarrassing news about Greek cultural officials recently, including corruption charges and a suicide attempt by a former minister.

What gives? A cynic might suspect that the Greek government's "chest thumping" on repatriatons may at least in part be an attempt to create a diversion from real problems at home.

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