The Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, was in Warsaw for the Informal Council of Ministers of Culture of the European Union. Before the opening of the Council, Lina Mendoni had a working meeting with the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Hanna Wróblewska.

Lina Mendoni expressed her satisfaction for the positive and collegial climate of cooperation that has developed between the two countries, which favours the further strengthening of cultural relations. Focusing on the issue of the repatriation of illegally exported cultural goods, the Minister of Culture raised Greece’s national demand for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures in Athens, thanking her Polish counterpart “for the firm support of the Polish government to the Greek request, as expressed by your Prime Minister Donald Tusk in his meeting with our Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis a year ago here in Warsaw”.

Hanna Wróblewska emphatically reiterated the support of the Polish government to the Greek request for the final reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures in Athens. Lina Mendoni raised the issue of the return of 76 Greek Jewish relics to the Jewish Museum of Athens. The Culture Minister said “we recognize the bureaucratic difficulties required in the repatriation process. However, it is very important for Greece and the Greek Jewish community that these relics are returned to their place of origin. The preservation of historical memory is our duty to the Greek Jewish communities, to the relatives of those who were murdered in the crematoria, and to future generations. I know that your side has the same approach.”

Hanna Wróblewska responded positively, recognising the importance of returning cultural treasures to their place of origin as an act of historical and cultural justice. The aim is to complete the return of the relics within 2025. The religious Jewish relics, which are currently kept at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, were found in Lower Silesia. The actions for the documentation of the religious relics, which legitimize their return to Greece – both those already completed and those in progress – were presented to the two ministers by Piotr Rypson, Director of Cultural Heritage of Poland, and Zanet Bettinou, Director of the Jewish Museum of Greece.

Lina Mendoni discussed the possibilities of exchanges and cooperation in the field of cinema, exchange of contemporary art exhibitions and handicrafts, for which the Polish Minister expressed her great willingness.

As part of her programme, the Minister of Culture visited the Jewish Historical Institute, where she was guided by the Director of the Institute, Dr Michal Trębacz, through the archive of Emanuel Ringelblum. At the Institute he had the opportunity to see some of the 76 Greek-Jewish relics. Subsequently, Lina Mendoni met with the Director of the Warsaw Museum of Modern Art Joanna Mytkowska, who expressed her admiration and desire for cooperation with the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens.

The Minister of Culture was accompanied by the Ambassador of Greece to Poland Niki Kaba, the Director of International Relations and European Union of the Ministry of Culture George Kalamantis, the Director of the Jewish Museum of Greece Jeanette Bettinou and officials of the Ministry of Culture.