The Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, was in Warsaw for the Informal Council of Ministers of Culture of the European Union. As reported by a statement from the Ministry of Culture, before the start of the Council, Lina Mendoni had a working meeting with the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of Poland, Hanna Wróblewska, in which she expressed her satisfaction with the positive and collegial climate of cooperation that has developed between the two countries and which favors the further strengthening of cultural relations. Focusing on the issue of the repatriation of illegally exported cultural goods, the Minister of Culture raised Greece's national request for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures in Athens, thanking her Polish counterpart "for the Polish government's steadfast support for the Greek request, as expressed by your Prime Minister Donald Tusk, in his meeting with our Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a year ago, here in Warsaw."
Hanna Wróblewska emphatically reiterated the Polish government's support for the Greek request for the definitive reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures in Athens. Lina Mendoni raised the issue of the return to the Jewish Museum of Athens of the 76 Greek-Jewish relics. The Minister of Culture stated: "We recognize the bureaucratic difficulties required in the repatriation process. However, it is very important for Greece and the Greek Jewish community that these relics return to their place. Preserving historical memory is our duty towards the Jewish Greek communities, the relatives of those murdered in the crematoriums, but also towards future generations. I know that your side has the same approach."
Hanna Wrόblewska responded positively, recognizing the importance of returning cultural treasures to their place of origin, as an act of historical and cultural justice. The aim is to complete the return of the relics within 2025, as the announcement of the Ministry of Culture adds. The religious Jewish relics, which are currently kept at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, had been found in Lower Silesia. The actions for the documentation of the cult relics, which legitimize their return to Greece - both those that have already been completed and those that are in progress - were presented to the two ministers by the Director of Cultural Heritage of Poland, Piotr Rypson, and the Director of the Jewish Museum of Greece Janet Battinou.
Lina Mendoni developed the possibilities of exchanges and cooperation in matters of cinematography, exchange of exhibitions of contemporary art and handicrafts, for which the Polish Minister declared herself extremely willing.
As part of her program, the Minister of Culture visited the Jewish Historical Institute where she was given a tour by the director of the Institute, Dr Michal Trębacz, of the Emanuel Ringelblum archive. At the Institute, she had the opportunity to see some of the 76 Greek-Jewish relics. Subsequently, Lina Mendoni met with the director of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Joanna Mytkowska, who expressed her admiration and desire for cooperation with the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens.
The Minister of Culture was accompanied in her meetings by the Ambassador of Greece to Poland Niki Kampa, the Director of International Relations and the European Union of the Ministry of Culture Giorgos Kalamantis, the Director of the Jewish Museum of Greece Janet Battinou, and officials of the Ministry of Culture.
SOURCE: ΕRTNEWS.GR, 9.4.2025