The Friends of the Benaki Museum organise for the second year the lecture in memory of Antonis Benakis.

The institution, which was inaugurated in 2024 with Dr Tasos Sakellaropoulos, Head of the Historical Archives of the Benaki Museum, as the first speaker, takes place annually on 17 January, the day of the founder’s name day, at the main building of the Museum either on Pireos Street. The criteria for the selection of the speaker are academic presence in Greece and abroad, publications and research or teaching work. The selection is made in cooperation between the Board of Directors of the Friends and the Director of the Museum. The themes are related to the main interests of Antonis Benakis, namely (a) philanthropy, (b) history, archaeology, architecture, art, small art in Greece from the Stone Age to the present day, (c) museology and (d) Hellenism in the Diaspora.

The 2025 lecture “From the Parthenon to Pentapotamia. Reflections on Greece, India and syncretism” will be held by Mr. Henry Bruce Greer Clark, author and editor of the Economist magazine and many world-class written and audiovisual media on culture, archaeology and the history of ideas, Honorary Doctorate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Member of the British Commission for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, Principal Interpreter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and holder of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Phoenix in recognition of his works on Greek history. The lecture will be given in Greek with simultaneous interpretation in English on Friday 17 January at 18.00 at the Benaki Museum Amphitheatre, 13 Pireos St., Piraeus.

After the speech, the documentary film (with Greek subtitles) From Cambridge with love: a call to mend the Parthenon’s broken treasures, will be screened.The documentary is about the views of Cambridge graduates, including the speaker, on the topical and controversial issue of the return of the Parthenon sculptures to Greece.

Free Admission