US actor/cast member Matt Damon and his wife Luciana Barroso arrive for the UK premiere of The Monuments Men at Leicester Square, in London. The movie releases in British theaters tomorrow.

London Evening Standard/London


Boris Johnson yesterday hit back at George Clooney after the Hollywood star suggested London should return the Elgin marbles to Athens.
The fate of the 2,500-year-old sculptures have been fiercely debated ever since they were removed from the Parthenon 200 years ago. They now reside at the British Museum.
Clooney spoke out after directing and starring in his new film The Monuments Men, which tells how millions of artworks stolen by the Nazis were rescued and returned to their owners.
At a press conference in London on Tuesday, he said returning the marbles was “probably the right thing to do”, and he was backed by his co-stars Matt Damon and Bill Murray.
But yesterday the mayor said: “Someone urgently needs to set Clooney right. Here he is plugging a film about looted Nazi art without realising that Goring himself had plans to plunder the British Museum.
“And where were the Nazis going to send the Elgin marbles? To Athens! This Clooney is advocating nothing less than the Hitlerian agenda for London’s cultural treasures. He should stuff the Hollywood script and stick to history.”
The friezes and sculptures were removed from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, from 1801 to 1812. He later became bankrupt and sold them to the British government for £35,000.
Clooney said the issue was first raised by a Greek journalist in Berlin on Saturday: “I do think it’s worth having an open discussion. It was one of a hundred questions at a press conference, a Greek reporter asking me about the marbles, and I just said I thought it was probably a good idea if they found a way back at some point.”
Murray agreed, saying they had had “a very nice stay here” but now should be returned.
The comedy’s stars were in Leicester Square for the movie premiere on Tuesday night, where they were joined by John Goodman, Jean Dujardin and Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville.
Clooney told how he managed to have plenty of laughs on set with the cast despite being director, adding: “I’ve done it a few times now but these guys are fun because they’re friends of mine, so I really enjoyed their company.
“We based it on all those old films that we like, like The Great Escape and films like that, because we wanted to have a little humour in it too.”