Greece’s government believes the United Kingdom will no longer block the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Athens, after a face-to-face meeting between the leaders of the two countries Tuesday.
While publicly No. 10 Downing St. insists there has been no change in position on the ancient sculptures — custody of which has sparked years of feuding between the two countries — Greek officials were sounding bullish after the meeting between Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his recently elected British counterpart, Keir Starmer, Tuesday.
“We welcome the fact that the British government will not stand in the way if there is an agreement with the British Museum,” a senior Greek government official said.
Neither the official readout of the meeting from Downing Street nor the Greek side mentioned the ancient ornaments, stressing that the talks had focused on closer ties between the two countries.
But the same official quoted above confirmed that the Greek premier did raise the sculptures during his one-on-one with Starmer.
The marbles are part of a 2,500-year-old frieze that was removed from the Acropolis in Athens in the early 19th century by British diplomat and art aficionado Lord Elgin. Since then, they have been on display in the British Museum in London.
Campaigners — most famously the late singer and actress Melina Mercouri — have for years called for their return to Greece, and talks between the museum and Greek officials have been ongoing to discuss a potential loan arrangement.
Athens argues that they were removed illegally and wants them returned so they can be displayed alongside the rest of the Parthenon sculptures at a purpose-built museum in Athens.
The British Museum is currently banned by a 1963 law from giving the marbles back to Greece. But the law would not prohibit a loan that could see their return.
A major diplomatic row erupted last year when a meeting between Mitsotakis and Starmer’s Conservative predecessor Rishi Sunak was abruptly canceled at the last minute, after the Greek leader compared the removal of the sculptures from Athens to cutting Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” in half.
“There’s been no change to the government’s position,” Starmer’s spokesperson said Tuesday. “It’s a matter for the British Museum, there are no plans to change the law in this space.”
The spokesperson said any decisions regarding care and management of the sculptures remain an issue for the British Museum. “When it comes to the law, the government is not intending to change the law that would permit a permanent move,” the spokesperson added.
‘Red lines’
Some 53 percent of Britons favor the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece, a poll from market research company YouGov showed this week.
But any move forward is not without political peril. Conservative Shadow Culture Minister Saqib Bhatti said Tuesday that Starmer seems “set to cave in to the radical left and return the Elgin Marbles to Greece.”
Ed Vaizey, a former Conservative minister who chairs a lobbying group pushing for the return of the marbles, said Tuesday the mood music is now “much better than it was under the Conservative government.”
“Should the British Museum do this deal, the Labour government doesn’t want to be drawn into this because it’s worried about a culture war row, but it has at least made clear that it won’t stick its mitts on any deal that George Osborne wants to do,” he told the BBC.
“Each side has its red lines,” Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni told Greek state TV on Tuesday. “What has changed is that there is now an international climate that favors the return of cultural goods that have been stolen, forcibly extracted from the territory of a country, to the place of their birth. This is an ethical issue that runs through the policies of major museums and cultural policy in general internationally.”
She added: “We would not be working with this dedication, if we really did not believe that the sculptures would be returned to the Attica light. We do believe they will come back.”
Emilio Casalicchio and Noah Keate contributed to this report.
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