Nobel prize winners sign international appeal to protect Greek monuments and artifacts from austerity and privatization

The Greek Culture Protection petition is reportedly the brainchild of constitutional lawyer George Kasimatis. Effectively it is an effort to go beyond petitioning the Greek state and appeal to the authority of UNESCO to enforce international treaties for the protection of cultural heritage to which Greece is a signatory.

The petition has already reportedly already received the backing of several high profile cultural figures including Nobel prize in Literature winners Nadine Gordimer, Dario Fo and Günter Grass, the U.S.linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky, and Greek director Costa-Gavras among many others.

The appeal notes the ‘devastating effect’ the economic turmoil is having on Greece’s cultural heritage. The budget of the Ministry of Culture has been more than halved in only 3 years, causing serious problems for the countries 250 organized archaeological sites and 19,000 designated monuments and sites.

“The State authorities can't implement any more projects concerning the effective protection, conservation, and presentation of monuments and sites. Research and excavations are being abandoned. Museums are closed or shut down entire halls because of shortage of guards. Clandestine excavations, pillage and illicit trafficking of cultural property increased by 25% the past 3 years,” writes an explanatory note of the appeal.

Furthermore the appeal eyes with alarm the prospect of privatizations of Greek archaeological assets which it says are unconstitutional. According to the Greek constitution and Archaeological Law, archaeological sites and artifacts are national property belonging to all Greeks. “The privatization and commercialization of public assets affects this heritage dramatically and weakens its protection and conservation due to the lack of necessary funds.”

Furthermore the authors note that the troika-mandated cuts in Greece’s cultural budgets violates UNESCO international treaties to which Greece is a signatory, “The policy of severe cuts affecting cultural budgets in Greece and in other countries is not in conformity with the relevant UNESCO Treaties.”

The appeal therefore calls upon the Director General of UNESCO to use the organisation’s authority via international conventions to ensure that Greece’s archaeological wealth does not become one more sacrifice on the altar of austerity, damaged irreversibly by cutbacks and privatizations. It also asks that the possibility of fund-raising campaigns be launched through the international organisation.

In a not-so-subtle jibe at Greece’s troika of lenders (the European Commission, ECB and IMF) the petition asks that UNESCO, “Remind Member States and International (Financial) Organizations that cultural heritage, cultural goods and services are vehicles of identity, values and meaning, and must therefore not be treated as having commercial value and should not be considered as objects of privatization. Further, Member States have the sovereign right to formulate and implement policies aimed at the protection and promotion of the cultural property.”

Cultural property which, if used correctly, the authors believe can help Greece weather its crisis, “as a repository of knowledge, as a driver of economic growth, and as a symbolic force for stability and meaning, to address the challenges of an increasingly complex world.”