For "Zawass" read Zahi Hawass.
Zawass said that the countries involved were sending a strong message to the world, showing that they are prepared to fight together for their lost heritage. Each country has suffered alone, especially Egypt, and we will fight together, he said. The representative for Greeces Ministry of Culture, Elena Korka, agreed, noting that this conference demonstrates the importance to many countries of joining forces. This is not a question of legality but rather one of good will, and this cannot be summed up in a paragraph of a legal document, she added. Greece has spent thirty years asking London for the return of marble from the Parthenon taken by Lord Elgin in 1800 and currently housed in the British Museum. During todays meeting, it was agreed that a conference is to be held every year and a list of countries involved in the initiative is to be drawn up and announced in about a month. A helping hand may come from a change to the Unesco Convention, which bans the export and the possession of antiquities stolen after 1970, although participants in the conference would like the date to be moved back, giving them a legal way of obtaining exhibits purloined earlier.
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