Greece’s prime minister hinted in an interview at a possible solution to the long-running and bitter dispute with England over the Parthenon Marbles, iconic artifacts that were removed from Athens two centuries ago and now reside at the British Museum. But he refuses any resolution that would recognize British ownership of the works by calling their trip to Greece “on loan”, he said.
“We will never acknowledge that these sculptures belong, legally belong to the British Museum”, Kyriakos Mitsotakis told The Associated Press in an interview during a recent election campaign in the Greek city of Volos.
“I would not like to comment publicly on the discussions we had,” Mitsotakis said. “I would just say that we are, without changing … our fundamental position on the ownership of the sculptures, we are trying to explore a possible win-win proposition that would work for both parties.”
A spokesperson for the British Museum told Artnet News in January that the two sides were working on a solution in talks that the museum deemed “constructive.” Negotiations related to works exhibited in both London and Athens.
This statement came after the Telegraph reported that the president of the museum, George Osborne, had drafted a historic agreement with Greece to possibly return the treasures as part of a “cultural exchange” which would in fact be a “loan agreement”.
When questioned recently, Mitsotakis refused any resolution referring to the exhibition of the works in Greece as a “loan”.
“No, no,” he said. “That word ‘ready’ is not part of… what I consider to be a win-win solution.”
The issue was suspended during Mitsotakis’ election campaign. “If we were re-elected,” he said, “I’m looking to pick up the momentum and build on the progress we’ve made.”
Created between 447 and 432 BC. AD, artwork once adorned the frieze of the great Temple of Athena at the Parthenon, much of which was destroyed in a siege in 1687. Britain’s Lord Elgin removed many of the surviving works in the beginning of the 19th century, while Greece was under Ottoman rule. Greece claims that the removal took place under occupation and was illegal.
Officials at the British Museum, where the works have been housed since 1816, have historically dismissed such claims, and British law prohibits the return of British Museum artifacts.
Other institutions have been more accommodating to calls for Greeks to return. In December, Pope Francis ordered the Vatican Museums to return three marble fragments of the Parthenon in what he called a “donation” to the head of the Greek Orthodox Church.
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