Human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin Clooney, fresh from her marriage to Hollywood heart-throb George Clooney last month, is heading to Athens to advise the Greek government in its battle to repatriate the ancient Elgin Marbles statues from Britain. The Lebanese-born Alamuddin will meet Greece’s Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Culture Minister Konstantinos Tasoulas alongside her boss Geoffrey Robertson, their Doughty Street Chambers said on Thursday.
“Mr Robertson and Mrs Clooney were first asked to provide legal advice to the Greek government on this matter in 2011. They will be holding a series of meetings with government officials during their stay,” the chambers added in a statement. The pair will be in Athens from October 13 to 16. The Marbles are a set of ancient Greek sculptures taken to London after being removed from the Acropolis in Athens by a British aristocrat, Lord Elgin, while Athens was under Ottoman control in the 19th Century. Greece has sought their return from the British Museum for decades, to no avail.
In March, George Clooney backed their return to Greece while promoting his film The Monuments Men. The Trustees of the British Museum maintain that the marbles legally belong to the museum. Greece says it is no longer an issue of ownership and that it would accept them back as a permanent loan.To do so, the Greek government would first have to relinquish its claim to them, the British Museum says.
Alamuddin, who is based in Britain, has represented former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko at the European Court of Human Rights and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in extradition proceedings. She also advised former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan on the conflict in Syria.
Laste month the world’s most famous bachelor, George Clooney, broke a vow to remain single on and married Alamuddin during a weekend of lavish celebrations in Venice.
Kentucky-born Clooney, who shot to stardom in the television series ER, had vowed never to remarry after his 1993 divorce from actor Talia Balsam and is said to have made a $100,000 bet with Michelle Pfeiffer that he would stay single.
Clooney has also led campaigns to highlight the plight of refugees in Darfur, Sudan, and is expected to donate the fees earned from selling rights to the wedding photos to that cause.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 12th, 2014.
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