Greece offers Britain the return of the Parthenon statues in exchange for other antiquities
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The Minister of Culture of Greece, Lina Mendoni, proposed to provide the British Museum with exhibits of Hellenic treasures in the future in exchange for the return of the marble sculptures from the Parthenon.
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The return of the Parthenon marbles, which are kept in the British Museum, has been publicly debated by Greece and Britain for decades. Greece considers them illegally stolen, and the British side is looking for a profitable solution to the issue of artifacts.
Mendoni voiced her proposal to provide Britain with exhibitions of antiquities in an interview with The Guardian.
“Our position is clear. If the sculptures are reunited in Athens, Greece is ready to organize rotating exhibitions of important antiquities to fill the void“, the Minister of Culture of Greece said.
She expressed her belief that any artefacts that Greece would provide to Great Britain, “will constantly renew the interest of international visitors to the Greek galleries of the British Museum“.
The dispute over the Parthenon marbles
The debate over the need to return the sculptures from the Greek Parthenon, which are in the collection of the British Museum, has been ongoing between Great Britain and Greece for decades. The marble statues have been there for over 200 years: in 1801 they were ordered to be cut down by the British ambassador to the former Ottoman Empire, Lord Elgin, and in 1816 they were brought to Britain.
The British Museum has long claimed that it is the full-fledged custodian of the ancient artifacts, because the relics were allegedly saved from destruction by Elgin with the permission of the Ottoman Empire, which then ruled Greece.
| Photo: British Museum |
However, Greece claimed that the permission given to Elgin by the empire was invalid because the decision was made by the Ottoman occupiers without the approval of the Greeks.
In 2016, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the bringing to the country of the Greek collection, a bill was registered in Britain to return the marble sculptures of Greece. The bill was initiated by Liberal Democrat Mark Williams. “In 1816, the government authorized the acquisition of incredible Greek sculptures. It is time to do an honest deed, to take away the right from a 200-year-old mistake“, he said then.
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| A fragment of marble sculptures from the Parthenon. Photo: British Museum |
At the beginning of 2023, the British Museum and Greece began negotiations to return the Parthenon marbles, but they did not lead to anything. In August, Greece renewed its calls for the return of the sculptures from Britain.
In November 2023, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview with the BBC that his country wants to return the marbles to their proper place in the Acropolis museum, which was built to house the Parthenon sculptures. He also compared the British Museum’s storage of the Parthenon marbles to “cutting the Mona Lisa in half”. Following these statements, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak canceled the planned meeting with Mitsotakis.
Read also: The Pope returns the Parthenon statues from the Vatican collections to Greece
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