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ATHENS: Greece’s culture minister on Monday slammed as “provocative” the British Museum’s first-ever fundraiser that had guests dining in a gallery hosting the Parthenon Marbles.
Saturday’s star-studded ball — seen as an answer to the Met Gala — drew the likes of Mick Jagger, Naomi Campbell, Janet Jackson and Kristin Scott Thomas, in addition to London Mayor Sadiq Khan and former prime minister Rishi Sunak.
“The safety, integrity, and ethics of the monuments should be the primary concern of the British Museum, which once again demonstrates provocative indifference,” Lina Mendoni said in a statement.
The ball was far cheaper than the Met Gala. Tickets were sold privately to around 800 people, costing £2,000 ($2,685) per head, compared to the whopping $75,000 price tag for a Met Gala pass.
“Repeatedly and consistently, the Ministry of Culture has condemned the dinners, receptions, and fashion shows organized in museum spaces where monuments and works of art are exhibited.”
“Such actions are offensive to cultural assets and endanger the exhibits themselves. This is exactly what the British Museum administration did last Saturday, once again using the Parthenon Sculptures as decorative elements for the dinner it organized,” Mendoni said.
The British Museum, which boasts one of the largest permanent collections on the planet, said the ball would aim to “celebrate London’s status as one of the world’s leading cultural capitals” and become a new fixture of its social calendar.
Athens has for decades demanded the return of the priceless sculptures, saying they were looted in the early 19th century by Lord Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
London insists they were legally acquired, and successive British governments have noted that the issue is up to the British Museum to decide.
Under chairman George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor of the exchequer, the British Museum has been engaged in long talks with Greek officials on a formula that would allow the Marbles to be displayed in Athens.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has also repeatedly sought to raise the issue with his British counterparts.
In December, Osborne said the London institution was exploring an “arrangement where at some point some of the sculptures” could be sent to Athens in return for Greece lending the museum “some of its treasures.”

MANILA: Corruption has emerged as one of the main national concerns among Filipinos, a new survey showed on Monday, amid controversy over irregularities in flood control projects.

Nationwide outrage in the Philippines has grown since August as investigators uncovered massive fund misappropriation in flood prevention and mitigation projects.

An audit ordered by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. found that of the 545 billion pesos ($9.54 billion) allocated to the projects since 2022, thousands were substandard, poorly documented, or nonexistent.

Several powerful political figures have been implicated, fueling public backlash in one of the world’s most typhoon-prone countries.

The situation has catapulted concerns over corruption to the second biggest worry of Filipinos, right after the increase in prices of basic goods and services, according to a survey by OCTA Research, an independent group of Philippine academics specialized in public opinion polls.

The survey asked respondents about the most important issues that the Marcos administration must act on immediately.

“No. 1 on the list is inflation — the rise in the price of goods and services. No. 2 is really corruption … For the first time in four years, the issue of corruption has become a top concern,” Prof. Ranjit Rye, OCTA Research fellow, told Arab News.

“(The) survey reveals a record surge in public alarm over corruption as this concern enters the top five urgent national issues for the first time.”

Concerns about corruption were followed by access to affordable food items, wage increases, and poverty reduction.

The study, conducted by OCTA in late September on 1,200 respondents, showed that public concern over corruption in government surged from 13 percent in July to 31 percent in September — the highest ever recorded by the pollster.

The sharp increase came as more details about the flood prevention corruption scandal were made public.

During a Senate hearing in early September, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said that economic losses due to corruption in flood control projects may have averaged $2.1 billion annually from 2023 to 2025, mainly due to ghost projects.

The findings have ignited public outrage, with activists, former Cabinet members, Catholic church leaders, retired generals and anti-corruption watchdogs organizing numerous protests and calling for sweeping criminal prosecution.

“What we’re seeing here is a shifting public focus towards governance and anti-corruption, apart from a focus on the economic realities in the Philippines,” Rye said.

“The sharp rise in corruption concerns indicates a growing public demand for integrity and accountability in government, as adult Filipinos increasingly turn their attention from just economic concerns to other issues, such as that of governance.”