Graduate shows 2016: architecture graduate Kit Stiby Harris has proposed relocating the "fake" Parthenon from Athens to the British Museum in London.
This would allow the 2,500-year-old structure to be reunited with the Elgin Marbles ? decorative stone sculptures from the Parthenon's facade that are controversially kept at the London museum ? while raising money to fund projects in cash-strapped Athens.
The provocative graduation project, titled Athens is a Ruin, The Parthenon a Fake, went on display at the Royal College of Art in London this week as part of Show RCA 2016. It proposes a long-term loan of the famous building in return for a substantial fee.
"Following a field trip we conducted two years ago, we realised that austerity has made Athens ? previously a city based around the world's most famous ruins ? a ruin itself," said Stiby Harris, a graduate from the RCA's school of architecture. Kit Stiby Harris has proposed relocating the Parthenon from Athens to the Bloomsbury Acropolis in London
"The city that has come to symbolise the cradle of western civilisation also now represents the failures of Europe," he said, referring to the economic crisis that has crippled Greece.
"Why don't the Greek government lend their half of the marble sculptures, along with the demountable Parthenon, to the British Museum for a considerable sum of money over a period of 20 years"" he told Dezeen.
"The funding from that long-term l...