I'm just going to say it: every time news about the Parthenon Marbles comes up, I'm shocked we're still talking about it. That getting them back to Greece is still a topic of discussion. I hope to be proven wrong one day but I just cannot see Britain sending these valuable pieces to Greece, period. At least not without massive political pressure--and I am sure that with Brexit, the EU has better things to demand of Britain than the return of these antiques. But there is news again--of a sort.

The Parthenon in Athens, Greece.

It seems that the reunification of the Parthenon Marble with the monument itself is part of the issues that archaeologists from around the world will talk about in the Palazzo dei Congressi in Florence under the auspices of the Italian Ministry of Tourism. In the conference that started on Sunday and will last a total of three day, the Greek Minister of Culture Lydia Koniordou stated that 'in a changing and challenging world, it is important to inspire to our youth the interest for the importance of cultural'.

The issue has gone since 2016 into a diplomatic path rather than a legal one. Before the conference, Mrs. Koniordou sat on a round-table coordination meeting with the 25 international committees for the return of the Parthenon Marbles, where the new Italian committee also presented its new president, the archaeologist Louis Godart.

On another but somewhat related note: the Parthenon has been voted the most beautiful building in the world by the architects of Bussiness Insider. The first place ranking was explained as follows by Imani, the founding architect of Tara Imani Design:

"It's the quintessential beautiful architectural form. The Doric order, the use of entasis [a slight curve in columns] to make sure the columns didn't look spindly from a distance...the siting on a hilltop — it gave us our initial ABCs of architecture that we keep trying to use and improve upon today."

So say we all!