Dear friends of Thera,
First of all, on behalf of the twin Thera Foundations and the Organising Committee of the Symposium, I would like to express our grateful thanks for the important contributions you have made to the study of the wall paintings of Thera. These contributions constitute one more important chapter in Theran studies.
As Chairman of the Organising Committee of the Symposium, I should like you to join me in expressing our thanks to the members of the Committee as well as Dr Susan Sherratt for the admirable structure of this Symposium and for all their dedicated work.
Special thanks go out to Lena Levidis and Agatha Karanika for the superb job they have done and to the able team of helpers they have assembled and who have all thus contributed to the smooth running of this Symposium.
I also want to extend special thanks to Gerasimos Constantatos for all the work, the support and the advice he has generously given us.
There is one man who deserves extra special thanks. You all know him very well by now. He is Nikos Valvis who manages somehow to be everywhere, attend to everything, all at the same time, always with a smile and always in a good natured way (πανταχού παρών και τα πάντα πληρών). His team, made up of Lazaros Livadaros, Thanasis Prekas and others, operate this centre in a most admirable way. I cannot thank them enough.
I want personally to reiterate the thanks expressed by Professor Peter Warren yesterday when he read the names in the long list of student helpers. They are the archaeologists of tomorrow and the likelihood is that some of them may be presenting papers at our next conference.
Finally, I want to thank my wife for the invaluable assistance she has so graciously offered to this Symposium. Dolla, thank you.

The wall paintings of Thera unearthed thirty years ago by Professor Spyridon Marinatos are, I believe, objects that should be classified as the oldest known European art of high artistic quality. These days we may be faced with the troublesome issue of what constitutes a work of art, as the boundaries between art, advertising, interior design and fashion photography may be blurred as never before, but I doubt whether there is anyone who has seen these paintings who would hesitate to clas-sify them as great works of art. Alecos Fassianos in his lecture has more than confirmed that.
Consequently these are objects of great value.
The question is often asked, What is value and how can it be defined?
In business, value tends to be viewed as being tangible. For instance, the monetary value of an enterprise or of an asset can be calculated from an expected stream of future earnings.
When it comes to evaluating works of art, music, cultural heritage, the environment, there are no formulas, no accepted standard tools for valuation, just concepts. Whenever great art is traded, it is traded on a willing seller/willing buyer basis, whether it be privately or at auction. Then the value and the price seem to converge temporarily in a monetary figure, but - to borrow from Oscar Wilde - some of these traders may "know the price of everything and the value of nothing".
It is not my intention to give here a dissertation on value, but I want to state and establish what I believe to be an incontestable fact: that the wall paintings of Thera represent an incalculable value in a multitude of meanings and ways. As part of the Greek heritage they have national and historical value; they have artistic value, decorative and cultural value; they are, as we have seen in this Symposium, a rich source of information for many disciplines.
Nor can the Greek state overlook the fact that it derives both tangible and intangible benefits from them. They contribute in many ways and handsomely to the Greek economy. Suffice it to say that the entrance fees of the archaeological site of Akrotiri alone earn more than $1 million a year. I have to point out that these receipts, which are paid into a state fund, are not allocated to the Akrotiri excav-ation.
Value is sometimes discovered, and more often it is created. But let us not forget that it can be very easily destroyed. So it has to be recognised, encouraged, protected and preserved. It should never be neglected, put at risk or allowed to erode, as this puts it on a path to destruction.
The wall paintings of Thera are an inherited asset. We, the Greeks of today, did not create them. They were handed to us by the visionary who discovered them. They have since been restored with loving care and have been preserved by skilled and dedicated craftsmen to the best of their abilities, and thus have become the inheritance of all the Greek people - indeed of the whole world. They are not renewable or replaceable.
And yet value can be destroyed in many subtle ways which often go unnoticed and undetected, and this destruction takes many forms. Commercialisation is one of them. Being invariably ill conceived it can take its toll in a pernicious way. The end result is that art and music are consistently prostituted by the commercial world, as great arias become Τsignature tunesΥ and familiar songs are used to sell ice cream cornettos.
As far as Theran iconography is concerned, all you need to do is to walk around the village of Phira to get a first hand account of this. As the boundaries between art and advertising become blurred, art is irreverently exploited for the purpose of commercialisation. One striking example is the hijacking of the "Fisherman Boy" which has been turned into a poster to advertise "safe sex" for prevention of AIDS.
Nothing is sacred any more. This is a symptom of our times and no doubt it will get worse. How can we protect the Theran iconography and our natural heritage - or maybe I should say, "Is it possible to protect it from banalisation and devaluation, in view of the intensity of media interest and our popular and merchandise culture?"
There <ι>is some legislation in place, designed to stop this form of destruction, but it is not at all realistic to rely on its implementation. No amount of "policing" by the state can help. The individual must learn to respect his inheritance.
No doubt there exists here some form of collective guilt which coexists with a dilution of respon-sibility, but it would help greatly if the state stopped showing, albeit unwillingly, neglect and an apparent disregard for the protection of our natural heritage.
All you have to do is to talk to the people who are at the front line, or read the newspaper reports that are constantly reporting the problems associated with our museums and our archaeological sites. The same complaints appear with sickening regularity: "Neglect by the State", "Political Inertia", "Inability of the State Mechanism to Function", "Inadequately Staffed Museums" etc., etc.. I have no doubt that these reports, which are invariably well documented, faithfully reflect the lack of consultation which leads to a sad state of affairs. The wheels of the Ministry of Culture, indeed of any government ministry, grind slowly. Bureaucracy means inertia. There are always excuses to be made, and the apologias to be heard. Lack of funds is always at the top of the list of excuses. It cannot be an excuse or a consolation to hear that Italy, for instance, has similar problems. And if it is true, no one should derive any relief by making a comparison with the worst. One should learn from the mistakes of others, not use them as excuses.
The state of affairs reminds me of the New Testament parable of the three servants and the talents that each received from their master, every one according to his ability.
As the parable goes: He who had received one talent went and digged in the earth and hid his lord"s money. He who had received two also gained another two. And he who had received five talents came and brought another five talents.
We Greeks, having received by far the most talents in the form of our national heritage, are more inclined to dig into the earth and to hide them. As museum basements and the storage space of excavation sites is filled to the brim, the comment is often heard from archaeologists that finds are better left in the ground. At least thus they will be best preserved. May some sites be so lucky as to have remained unexcavated, awaiting a better fate.

It is exactly eight years since the last International Congress on Thera and the Aegean World. In my closing remarks, I addressed two acute problems. First, the serious underfunding of the excavation of Akrotiri. And second, the problem of the museum that was built in 1974 in order to house the wall paintings, and which had never opened. Underfunding still plagues Akrotiri. As for the museum, it has by now remained closed for twenty-three years.
I understand work is currently proceeding to refurbish this same museum. Very little information is available as to how this will be achieved. It may be that the intention is to house the wall paintings there, but to the best of my knowledge the people from the excavations have not been properly consulted, and therefore the needs of the wall paintings have not been properly addressed.
You have heard during this Symposium about the importance of the architectural context. If the wall paintings of Thera are to be properly housed and exhibited, this will have to be one of the primary considerations. The refurbishment of the present museum might be an expedient and cost effective solution, but it should only be a temporary one.
As we have heard in this Symposium, on present estimate the new paintings under restoration and preservation have an area of two or three times the area of the present corpus of restored paintings. Further excavation will no doubt uncover more. Where will these be housed? Will these also have to wait another fifteen, twenty-three or maybe thirty years?
I have no doubt that I may speak on behalf of the great majority of present day Therans when I say that ALL the wall paintings of Thera should be returned to their rightful home, here on this island.

I hereby declare this Symposium closed. Thank you.