‘They put a chimpanzee mask on the statue of Andreas Papandreou’

Imprisoned then exiled by the Metaxa dictatorship; possible member of pro-democracy military conspiracy ASPIDA; imprisoned then exiled by the Colonels’ junta; author of Democracy at Gunpoint; founder of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK); founder of the National Health System; leader of a government of deficit and debt, patronage and clientelism, and rousfeti (reciprocal favouritism); leader of a government of budgetary control; not guilty of state embezzlement (thanks to his lawyer, his son’s austerity-minded finance minister Evangelos Venizelos); the most popular prime minister since the restoration of democracy…

Olympic Museum robbery: a professional heist for stuff that was not in the museum…?

The story is everywhere – TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, NGOs, blogs… – and this blog is getting even more hits for the objects’ descriptions and photographs than it is for the account of their robbery. But with all of the investigation and scrutiny, the evidence is confusing; and the state is confused.

photo records of the 77 archaeology artefacts stolen from Olympic Museum, Olympia, Greece

I have explored the case of the Olympic Museum robbery; and translated the Greek Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s notice, and the descriptions (and dimensions) of the stolen artefacts. Here, I have reproduced the photographic records of the objects missing from the museum in Olympia.

translation: English-language descriptions of 77 artefacts stolen from Museum of the History of the Olympic Games

I have discussed the robbery of the museum in Olympia, and posted photo records of the missing objects, elsewhere. Here, I have translated the Greek Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s appeal for information, and the descriptions (and dimensions) of the stolen artefacts. (Hat tip, To Irakliotiko Steki, who posted a plain-text copy of the Greek-language list; I have copied-and-pasted it below.)

damage in protests in Greece; police inactivity, 13th February 2012

Protest continues; and political destruction continues likewise, as does police inactivity. Following the national 12th February protests and riots, there were local actions.

robbery at Olympic Museum, Olympia, Greece

Two gun-toting and hammer-wielding, masked men overpowered and tied up the Olympia Museum’s only (female) guard; then the two thieves stole ‘dozens of artefacts‘ from the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games. The incident has forced the Greek Minister of Culture to resign.

I will update it further later.

record of unprecedented damage and destruction in protests, riots in Greece, 12th February 2012

Media and crisis manager Stratos Safioleas (@stratosathens) judged last night’s destruction ‘unprecedented‘. Here, I have gathered together as many of the events as I could, listed in order of place: so far, Agrinio, Athens, Corfu, Herakleion, Patras, Thessaloniki, Trikala and Volos.

Moreover, I’ve grouped them by target as well: parliamentary/party/bureaucratic property; police property; banks; other commercial property; cultural venues; media organisations; personal private property; and other objects.

The destruction has been blamed on anarchist protesters, and on agents provocateurs; and I will try to probe this, and the destruction of cultural property, in detail in another post. But my analysis suggests that banks were the primary targets for destruction (even ahead of politicians’ offices). Still, there are many as-yet-undocumented incidents; there were at least 170 acts of destruction in Athens alone. I would be very grateful for any further information.

Update (16th February 2012): rioters ‘torched’ the entrance of the Numismatic Museum and smashed the windows of a Greek Resistance memorial. These are ugly acts of cultural violence; it is fortunate that the arsonists’ ignorance is only equalled by their incompetence.

Aidonis watches basketball while Athens burns (article translation)

There are crowds and blocs, protests and riots in the street; a cinema, a bank, and many shops have burned. Greek police have run out of tear gas and had to order more. Now tear gas can be tasted inside parliament. Yet Greek MP Eva Kaili has had to bollock her colleagues for watching basketball instead of taking part in the debate on the memorandum that will decide if Greece suffers further austerity measures and serfdom, or bankruptcy and collapse.(1)

10 signs of disintegration in Greece; and its archaeology and looting crisis

Last night, impotently watching Greece implode, I tweeted the most immediate signs of disintegration in Greece. Here, I explain and source those signs; then I show the consequent crises of archaeology and looting.

Malatya Municipality destroyed Armenian cemetery chapel because it had hut for guard against its destruction?

On 3rd February 2012, Malatya Municipality ‘damaged’ an Armenian cemetery. In fact, it ‘accidentally [yanlışlıkla]‘ bulldozed the cemetery chapel. According to the head of the chapel’s funders (1), Hosrof Köletavitoğlu, the Municipality wrecked the chapel just when the builders were ‘about to finish it’.

Remarkably, Malatya Mayor Ahmet Çakır’s excuse was that the Municipality ‘only [sadece]‘ wanted the earthmovers to demolish the guard hut (which was built to protect the chapel from damage or destruction).