Actors Simon Callow, Janet Suzman, Bill Nighy and West Wing star Stockard Channing will read a poem decrying the plundering of the Parthenon Marbles.

They will perform Lord Byron's satirical verse The Curse of Minerva, which denounces Lord Elgin for stripping the 2,500-year-old sculptures and friezes from the Greek monument - later selling them to the British Government.

Sunday's event is in the room at the British Museum where half of the surviving Parthenon sculptures have been housed for the past 200 years.

Ham & High: The Elgin Marbles have been held by The British Museum for 200 years after Lord Elgin sold them to the British governmentThe Elgin Marbles have been held by The British Museum for 200 years after Lord Elgin sold them to the British government (Image: .)

Hampstead resident Dame Janet is Chair of campaign group The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles which demands that the artefacts are returned to the Acropolis Museum where a 50-metre stretch of the frieze is already kept.

The British Museum has refused, arguing that their acquisition of the marbles was found to be lawful by the Parliament Select Committee. In January they called for a "new Parthenon partnership with colleagues in Greece," and said "constructive discussions are on-going."

Ham & High: The marbles were taken from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin who later sold them to the British government. The Greek government formally asked for their return in 1982.The marbles were taken from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin who later sold them to the British government. The Greek government formally asked for their return in 1982.

But while they enjoy "a good professional relationship with the Acropolis Museum" and are "wholeheartedly committed to respectful collaboration..to sharing and lending the collection for the benefit of the widest possible audience," they say successive Greek governments have "refused to acknowledge the Trustees' title to the Parthenon Sculptures". 

Oscar-nominated Nighy, Highgate actor Simon Callow, and Primrose Hill resident Baroness Joan Bakewell will also read from the 1811 poem alongside Anglo-Greek actor Ann Savva. It was written shortly after Byron was given a tour of the Acropolis by Lord Elgin's agent, and imagines the goddess Minerva arriving at the monument and denouncing the act of desecration.

Ham & High: Hampstead resident Dame Janet Suzman is chair of the BCRPM which campaigns for the return of the Elgin MarblesHampstead resident Dame Janet Suzman is chair of the BCRPM which campaigns for the return of the Elgin Marbles (Image: Archant)

The BCRPM was founded in 1983 after movie star and Greek Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri formally requested the marbles' return.

Dame Janet told the Ham&High last year: "Give them back, that's where they belong. They were stolen. They were taken unlawfully. They had a miserable time in Bloomsbury, and they need to be back with their fellow gods and goddesses and the fellow gods and goddesses reside in Athens where they should be."

Ham & High: Members of the BCRPM protest at The British Museum.Members of the BCRPM protest at The British Museum. (Image: British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM))

The recital marks the latest action by the BCRPM, whose members include classical scholars, writers, celebrities, legal experts and human rights campaigners. They argue that if London’s marbles were restored to their place of origin, one of the world's greatest aesthetic masterworks, a sculpted procession of chariots, war-horses, livestock and Athenian citizens, would be restored to near-wholeness.

The Curse of Minerva will be read on June 18 at 4pm in the British Museum's Room 18. A Crowdfunder has been launched to raise the £35,000 that Parliament paid for the marbles and buy them back.