A museum in Austria plans to send two pieces of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.
In a press conference held yesterday May 2, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg announced that the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna was in “technical discussions” with the Acropolis Museum about “mutual loans of the Parthenon frieze”.
“I’m hopeful the talks can move forward very quickly and the marbles will be on display in Athens,” Schallenberg said. “The common objective”, he added, “is to contribute to the understanding of its universal importance for European cultural heritage”.
Representatives of the Kunsthistorisches Museum did not immediately respond to a request for further details about the “mutual loans”.
Standing on the podium with Schallenberg was Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, who expressed his “deep satisfaction” with the deal. “This, for us, is of enormous importance,” he said.
Although the Kunsthistorisches Museum has only two small fragments of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon, the institution’s repatriation comes at a crucial time for Greece as the country seeks to reunite the remaining pieces of the curly which once enveloped the Parthenon temple.
In 2021, the Antonino Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum in Palermo, Sicily, announced plans to flip its own small section of the marbles to Greece on a four-year loan. Last December, Pope Francis ordered the Vatican to return three additional marble pieces. (They were officially handed over at a ceremony in March.)
But those deals are minor compared to the one Greece is trying to strike with Britain, which has the largest collection of Parthenon marbles outside the objects’ country of origin. The carvings were removed in the early 19th century, when Greece was under Ottoman rule, by order of Scottish nobleman Lord Elgin. They have been kept in the British Museum since 1832.
Greek officials say they hope Austria’s decision will revive repatriation talks with Britain. For decades, Greece has demanded the return of the so-called “Elgin Marbles”, but Britain has never agreed. In recent months, the two countries have engaged in “constructive discussions” on a potential dealbut this stay awayaccording to recent reports.
“This, we believe, will create the momentum,” Dendias said earlier this week. “We can use in our discussions in London.”
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