Aristidis Baltas

The restored Archaeological Museum of Kos was inaugurated by Culture Minister Aristidis Baltas and the regional governor of southern Aegean Giorgos Hatzimarkos.
The museum is a very important piece of culture, a jewel for the island of Kos and for Greece that is handed over to the people fully restored and upgraded, 60 years after its establishment in 1936 by the Italians.

One of the Athens Acropolis’ finest and best-preserved korai – the archaic statues depicting young women – will be exhibited at the Roman Courtyard of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg on Friday.

The statue, which leaves Greece for the first time, is travelling to Russia in the framework of a cultural exchange program organised for the Year of Greece and Russia 2016.

Greek director Vangelis Theodoropoulos was appointed as the new artistic director of the Hellenic Festival.

Renowned  Belgian multidisciplinary artist, stage director and choreographer Jan Fabre has been chosen as artistic director of the annual Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Culture Minister Aristidis Baltas announced.

His proposals concerning the festival will be announced at a joint press conference during his forthcoming visit to Athens.

While Greek government through Culture Minister Aristidis Baltas says that it no longer mulling legal action to get back Parthenon marbles antiquities claiming that it has slim chances winning, the UN General Assembly adopts the Resolution on “Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin with express reference to the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

A unique ‘archaeological’ scuba park featuring 26 well-preserved underwater shipwrecks open to visitors in the Gulf of Evia will be created, following an agreement reached on Wednesday between Attica Regional Authority governor Rena Dourou, Marathon Mayor Ilias Psinakis, Lavrio Mayor Dimitris Loukas and Culture Minister Aristidis Baltas.

The Greek government appears to have changed its  course concerning the acquisition of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum in London. Culture Minister Aristidis Baltas on Tuessday said the government is no longer mulling legal action ot win back Greek antiquities but would instead kick-start a diplomatic campaign to repatriate the 5th century BC statues.

The Culture Minister presented for public consultation a draft bill that will align the Greek legislation with European directives on the return of archaeological objects which have been illegally removed from the countries of origin.

Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) Education Minister Nikos Filis is under fire for his comments during an interview on Monday refuting the Pontic Genocide followed by conservative New Democracy deputy Miltiadis Varvitsiotis’ revelations that high school students are no longer being taught about this dark chapter in recent history.

Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens addressed a letter to Culture Minister Aristidis Baltas, called for the Greek government to extend its plans for the restoration of former Fethiye mosque in Athens’ Monastiraki area with the simultaneous restoration of a pre-existing Orthodox Church on which the mosque was built.