George Clooney returns to the charge of the Parthenon marbles: in a letter to a group of scholars, the actor and director who has always been committed to human rights, asked that London return to Athens the precious sculptures that adorned the temple in the classical age built by Pericles on the Acropolis.
"There are many objects of historical value that should be returned to their rightful owners. None are as important as the Parthenon marbles", wrote the protagonist of "Monuments Men" to Janet Suzman, the chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.
Friezes and metopes were removed from the Acropolis two centuries ago by Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin and the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, who sold them in 1816 to the British Museum for 35,000 pounds of gold at the time.
Since then the sculptures have been at home in a museum gallery where they are usually identified as "Elgin Marbles".
The controversy landed on the Greek newspaper "Ta Nea" and re-launched in the US by "The Art Newspaper".
It is not the first time that Clooney takes to the track for the restitution cause.
He did so in 2015, a year after the theatrical release of his film about the allied officers who saved monuments and works of art in Italy during the Second World War, claiming that "the Parthenon was divided in half and a some point these halves will be united again ".
At the time, the actor's wife, Amal Alamuddin Clooney, was working as a legal advisor to the Greek government to get the marbles back.
Athens had ultimately rejected the Anglo-Lebanese lawyer's suggestion to take the case to the International Court of Justice fearing an irrevocable "no" from the judges in The Hague.
In recent years, the Greeks have favored the diplomatic channel, proposing the mediation of UNESCO.
This offer was rejected by the British Museum.