Cultural heritage
Researcher Christina Dounia’s chance visit to 39 Mitropoleos Street at the time when workmen were throwing bags of archives out of a listed building revealed that our cultural heritage sorely lacks protection. According to exclusive reports printed in Kathimerini yesterday – and which were not commented on by the Ministry of Culture – the building had until recently been occupied by various literary and arts clubs under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture’s House of Letters and Fine Arts. The documents were discarded as part of a renovation following the return of the building to its owners. As was proved, the decision to evacuate the building was issued in 1999 and the Culture Ministry had repeatedly warned the clubs about this. However, neither the ministry nor the clubs took any interest in transferring the documents, which were stored in the building. As a result, these were sent for recycling. The accidental disclosure was followed by attempts by the ministry and the clubs to lay the blame on each other. The former claims that the clubs had been warned in time, while the latter insist that the ministry should have found an alternative storage area for the documents. The incident reveals the lack of coordination in ensuring the collection, classification and maintenance of the sources containing Greece’s history. Some of the clubs that were hosted in the building are now defunct. Others are still active but it seems that their directors are not interested in humble work such as classification. For its part, the Culture Ministry, rather than intervening to rescue the important documents, washed its hands of them by giving the archives away for recycling. This is a typical combination of public and private indifference as the apathy of the clubs exceeded that of the ministry. It is one thing to criticize the State for lack of coordination and concern, but one cannot expect it to protect archives that the clubs have themselves amassed only to abandon them later on. If the State wishes to preserve Greece’s historical sources, it has to fulfill both its coordinating and subsidizing role. Club representatives, on the other hand, must show a sincere interest and not be confined to sterile criticism of the State.
