The Elgin Marbles controversy centers on a collection of ancient Greek marble sculptures originally part of the Parthenon temple in Athens, removed by Lord Elgin, then British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, in the early 19th century.

Around 1801-1812, Elgin supervised the removal of about half the 160-meter-long Parthenon frieze and other sculptures, shipping them in 170 crates to Britain.

While Elgin claimed to have obtained permission from the Ottoman authorities, no definitive documentary evidence has been found to corroborate this, which has fueled the dispute.

The British Parliament purchased the sculptures in 1816, and they have been housed at the British Museum since, becoming some of its most renowned artefacts .

Greece claims the marbles were effectively stolen during Ottoman occupation and are a vital part of its cultural identity and heritage.

The Greeks emphasize their desire to reunite the sculptures with the remaining pieces still in Athens and to exhibit them in the Acropolis Museum, an ultramodern facility designed to display the Parthenon marbles in their historical context.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has repeatedly pressured the UK government for their return, offering to lend other Greek artifacts to the British Museum in exchange and highlighting cultural diplomacy benefits for the UK in a post-Brexit world .

The UK government and the British Museum assert that the marbles were legally acquired under the laws and context of the period and have been properly preserved and shared globally as part of a universal collection.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and opposition leader Keir Starmer have expressed reluctance to change the British Museum Act 1963, which prohibits deaccessioning objects from the museum’s collection except under limited circumstances.

Recent discussions have faced setbacks, including the cancellation of a planned meeting between Sunak and Mitsotakis in late 2023 due to disagreements over the public discussion of the marbles.

The Elgin Marbles controversy centers on a collection of ancient Greek marble sculptures originally part of the Parthenon temple in Athens, removed by Lord Elgin, then British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, in the early 19th century.

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Greek PM reiterates demand for British Museum to return Parthenon statue, British PM cancels meeting, sparking diplomatic row
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in an interview with the BBC on Sunday, reiterated that the authorities want the British Museum to return some of the statues that were “stolen ” from the Parthenon Temple.
What we want you to know is
Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis, in an interview with the BBC on Sunday (26), described the Parthenon shrine as part of the statue group in Greece, part in the United Kingdom, like the "Mona Lisa smile" torn in half and asked Britain to return it.
British Prime Minister David Sunak then called the meeting a "temporary cancellation" hours before the meeting, prompting discontent from Mitsotakis, Greek officials and the public, calling it a "diplomatic crisis."
In an interview with the BBC on Sunday, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reiterated that the British Museum wants to return some of the “stolen ” statues from the Parthenon Temple. Subsequently, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, hours before the meeting with Mitsotakis, a temporary resolution to cancel, sparking a diplomatic dispute between the two countries.
BBC, British authorities claim that Sunak cancelled the meeting because Mitsotakis broke his promise to "not talk about the statue".
Mitsotakis, however, said it was Greece ’ s consistent and public stance to demand the British Museum return of the statue, saying in a statement: “I would like to express my dissatisfaction with the temporary cancellation by the United Kingdom just hours before the meeting. ”
The Greeks worked for hundreds of years to return the statue of the Parthenon.
The controversial statue is one of a group of marble statues used to decorate the Parthenon Temple in the ancient Greek city of Athens, also known as the Elgin Marbles.
In the 19th century, the British diplomat to the Ottoman Empire, the 7th Earl of Elgin, secretly removed the stone carvings and brought them back to Britain for collection in the British Museum.
At that time, Elgin claimed that he had taken the stone carvings with the permission of the Ottoman Empire and therefore had legitimacy.
However, the Greek authorities do not think so.
Since 1983, the Greek government has been trying to coordinate with the UK to ask them to return the stone carvings. In 2022, UNESCO also intervened to facilitate talks, but to no avail.
Therefore, the issue of the return of the stone carvings has become the core issue and exchange condition of many negotiations between Greece and Britain, including of course the meeting originally planned by Sunak and Mitsotakis.
Statues of the Parthenon Temple are mainly located in Athens and the British Museum.
In an interview with the BBC on the 26th, Mitsotakis described: "The scattered statue is like tearing the famous painting" Mona Lisa's Smile "in two parts and giving it to two museums." He called on the British authorities and the British Museum to return the "stolen" stone carvings and work together so that people can enjoy the statue "in its place".
Because of these remarks, Sunak temporarily announced on Monday night that he would cancel his meeting with Mitsotakis on Tuesday.
According to the Guardian, the British government said that the content of Mitsotakis ’ interview with the BBC violates the commitment of the two countries to “not talk about the return of stone carvings ” agreed in 2021.
The Greek authorities immediately denied the claim, and Mitsotakiston said that Greece ’ s position on asking Britain to return the statue was well known and reiterated during his tenure as prime minister.
The conversation should have been about the climate crisis, the Israeli-Kazakh conflict, the Russian-Ukrainian war, the British and Greek immigration plans, and the Parthenon statue.
After Sunak cancelled the talks, the British offered to have Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden attend, but Mitsotakis refused, and the two sides did not meet.
UK has no plans to amend the British Museum Act
The New York Times reported that in the past two years, the Greek government and the British Museum have repeatedly held "delicate negotiations" over the return of the statue, but the two sides have yet to reach a consensus.
According to the report, the Greek authorities want the British Museum to return all the Parthenon stone carvings, in exchange for which the Greek Museum will regularly select artefacts for display in the British Museum.
For its part, the British Museum agreed to "borrow" some of the Parthenon stone carvings and other exhibits from the Greek government for a short period of time. If Greece "returns" on schedule, the British Museum will "lend" more stone carvings.
Mitsotakis also mentioned in an interview with the BBC that the outcome of the negotiations at this stage is not as good as he expected, but he considers himself a man of perseverance and said: "Greece has waited for hundreds of years, we can wait more."
“I ’ m going to stand firm and be willing to continue negotiations.
A British government spokesman told The Guardian they were concerned that the return of stone carvings to Greece could create a “slippery slope ” that could trigger a wave of returns of disputed artifacts from other collections.
In addition, the British Museum Act 1963 states that the British Museum may not return its collections to its homeland.
According to the BBC, the British government has no plans to amend the decree, which means that the British authorities are unwilling to violate the decree and return the stone carvings to Greece.
The return of the stone sculpture is a matter of British election and diplomatic relations.
Evangelos Kyriakidis, head of the Greek Agency for Monuments and Estates, told Euronews that the Greek government attaches importance to the statues of the Parthenon temple because they are not only important monuments, but also a symbol of Greek national strength.
Kiriadis uses the metaphor of "the jewel of the crown of the king of England in Greece" to argue that the issue of the statue group is a matter of sovereignty.
The New York Times pointed out that the news of the cancellation of the meeting in Sunak immediately triggered the dissatisfaction of politicians of the Greek political party and caused a wave of criticism on social media, with many accounts condemning it as a diplomatic incident and a mini-diplomatic crisis between Greece and the United Kingdom.
The Guardian also quoted a Greek government spokesman, accusing Sunak of using the issue of the return of stone carvings with Greece to divert attention from Britain's internal affairs.
The spokesman said more bluntly that Sunak ’ s decision has the potential to damage Britain ’ s reputation in Europe, which is divided after Brexit.
A senior EU official also told The Guardian that cancelling the prime minister ’ s meeting and then sending the deputy prime minister to meet with the Greek prime minister would violate normal diplomatic procedures and damage Britain ’ s credibility.
He also said: "The United Kingdom, which wants to go global, cannot stop talking to friends about a problem that has existed for 200 years."
Another observer also pointed out that the British government is ahead of the serious refugee problem, and Greece is a member of the European Union that links Europe and the Mediterranean, which has important geopolitical significance.
Not only is there a diplomatic crisis, but the return of the stone carvings to the dispute may also bring about a domestic crisis for Sunak and the ruling party.
The New York Times reported that Britain will hold elections next year, and the ruling party is currently facing a long period of economic stagnation in the United Kingdom and divergent views on immigration policy. At this time, it has a conflict with Greece, which may make the question of the ownership of the statue an election point between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party.
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Around 1801-1812, Elgin supervised the removal of about half the 160-meter-long Parthenon frieze and other sculptures, shipping them in 170 crates to Britain.

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Content: LONDON (Reuters) - The historic Greek treasure of Elgin Marbles is nearing its return to its country of origin, 200 years after it was moved and ended up in the British Museum.
The Parthenon marble, seen as a symbol of freedom in Greece, was controversially moved out of the country by a British diplomat in a move that ignited a debate that lasted more than two centuries.
Greece has made repeated requests for the sculptures to be returned after they were controversially removed from one of the world ’ s most historic landmarks.
Prime Minister Rishi Sonak had been scheduled to meet his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday, but Downing Street canceled the arrangement and sent Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Duden instead.
The head of the British Museum, former Conservative Chancellor George Osborne, is pushing for a temporary loan to be returned to Greece, and is believed to have drawn up a deal.
But both Sonak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer say they will not support a change to the British Museum law that currently bars their return.
The museum said it was continuing "constructive discussions" about their possible return.
Gin Marble
The Algin marble is 17 sculptures that are 2,500 years old.
His pieces were part of a frieze that adorned the ancient Parthenon temple at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.
The marbles make up about half of the 160-meter-long frieze of the Parthenon Temple, which is considered one of the greatest cultural monuments in the world.
These sculptures are seen as symbols of freedom in Greece, where they are known as Parthenon marble.
British diplomat Lord Elgin removed the sculptures from the majestic Parthenon temple in the early 19th century.
At that time, he was ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which ruled Greece.
Beginning in 1801, Lord Elgin is said to have supervised the removal of the marble and shipped it to the UK in 170 boxes.
He is said to have claimed to have obtained permission from the Ottoman Empire to move the marble, but despite massive documentation from that period, nothing was found to support his actions.
In the United Kingdom, Lord Elgin received support and criticism, and sold it to the United Kingdom government in 1816 before the marble was transferred to the custody of the British Museum.
The beginning and evolution of the dispute
The controversy between Greece and Britain can be traced back to when the marble first arrived in Britain due to criticism of its removal.
In 1832, Greece gained independence from the Ottoman Empire before it began trying to recover sculptures and other works of art taken from the country.
In the early 1980s, the actress and then Greek Minister of Culture, Melina Mercury, reignited the campaign when she made it her mission to secure the return of marble sculptures.
In 1983, she met with the director of the British Museum, Dr. David Wilson, in London to demand the return of the sculptures.
She continued to press the museum and the British government until her death in 1994.
Despite other requests and high-level media coverage, no agreement was reached in the years that followed.
A new campaign
In 2009, Greece stepped up its marble recovery campaign after opening a new museum at the foot of the Acropolis Hill, hoping one day to house it.
In 2014, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney called on Britain to start talks with Greece over the return of the Elgin marble.
The lawyer, who is the wife of Hollywood star George Clooney, said: "This is an injustice that has been going on for a long time, in a world full of intractable conflicts."
In 2015, Greece ruled out any legal action against the UK over Elgin Marbles.
In May 2022, the so-called Fagan fragment — a piece showing the foot of the ancient Greek goddess Artemis seated — was permanently returned to Athens from a museum in Italy.
It was originally part of the eastern frieze of the temple dating back to the 5th century BC.
The British reaction
In 2022, there were calls to make it easier for UK museums to consider returning cultural objects, but the government rejected them.
Former Conservative culture minister Lord Vaizi also headed a new body aimed at returning Elgin marble to Greece.
The refusal came after then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the Greek prime minister during talks at Downing Street in 2021 that the sculpture issue was "a matter for the curators of the British Museum".
Then, at the beginning of December, George Osborne, the head of the British Museum, reportedly held secret talks with the Greek prime minister about the possibility of returning the marble sculptures.
Negotiations between former Treasury Secretary Osborne and Kiriakos Mitsotakis have been taking place in London since November 2021, according to the Greek daily Ta Nea.
The Greek prime minister has on numerous occasions called for the relocation of the sculptures, and even offered to lend other treasures to the British Museum in return.
A spokesman for Project Parthenon, a campaign advocating the return of marble sculptures, hailed the talks as a “positive sign ” that a“ win-win solution ” to the centuries-old debate could be reached.
Possible deal?
In December last year, Downing Street said there were no plans to change the law that prohibits the museum from disposing of objects in its collection except in very limited circumstances.
A spokesman for the prime minister said: “The Parthenon sculptures are legally owned by trustees and are practically independent of the government. ”
Last month, the British Museum issued a statement saying it would not dismantle its collection “because it tells a unique story of our common humanity, ” but added that it wanted to forge a new“ Parthenon partnership ” with Greece.
The talks in Westminster were used by former culture minister Lord Vaizi to press again for the return of the sculptures.
He said that the frieze in Athens "resembles a film that was cut in half and half of it was moved against the will of its owners to another country."
After cancelling the bilateral meeting between Sonak and Mitsotakis on Tuesday, the Greek leader said he was "disappointed".
Mr Sonak said the UK “has no plans to change our approach ” but“ did not ask him [Mr Mitsotakis] what short-term or new ideas have been put forward ”.
Starmer and Mitsotakis Meet
Opposition Labour leader Sir Kiir Starmer met Mitsotakis on Monday.
A source close to Labour leader Sir Kiir Starmer told the Financial Times he was unlikely to change the law if he won the next election.
"We are committed to the current law, but if a mutually acceptable loan deal can be agreed between the British Museum and the Greek government, we will not stand in the way."
Is the agreement possible?
The head of the National Museum, George Osborne, is understood to have drawn up a deal with Athens, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Current legislation bars the museum from legally granting treasures, but Osborne is said to be seeking to repatriate the antiquities as part of a long-term "cultural exchange."
But this loan deal is not expected to permanently end the long-running dispute.
The article was prepared from the site of (Sky News) British channel:
https: / / news.sky.com / story / elgin-marbles-what-are-they-and-how-did-they-end-up-in-the-british-museum-12779617

While Elgin claimed to have obtained permission from the Ottoman authorities, no definitive documentary evidence has been found to corroborate this, which has fueled the dispute.

The British Parliament purchased the sculptures in 1816, and they have been housed at the British Museum since, becoming some of its most renowned artefacts .

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Greek prime minister tries to broker deal for return of Parthenon marbles

Kyriakos Mitsotakis offers to loan Greek treasures to British Museum if ‘stolen’ sculptures are returned to Acropolis

The Greek prime minister has demanded that the 2,500-year-old Parthenon marbles, which he accuses Britain of stealing, be returned to Greece, and even offered to loan some of his country’s treasures to the British Museum in an attempt to broker a deal.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis told the Daily Telegraph that the sculptures, also known as the Elgin marbles, belong in the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

However, Boris Johnson has previously ruled out returning them on the grounds that they were acquired legally.

Mitsotakis said: “Our position is very clear. The marbles were stolen in the 19th century; they belong in the Acropolis Museum and we need to discuss this issue in earnest.

“I am sure that if there was a willingness on the part of the government to move we could find an arrangement with the British Museum in terms of us sending abroad cultural treasures on loan, which have never left the country.”

The marbles were removed from the Acropolis more than 200 years ago by Lord Elgin in circumstances that have spurred one of the world’s most famous cultural rows and have long been the subject of dispute.

Mitsotakis said he would raise the issue with Johnson when the two meet next week for talks that could shape future relations between the two countries.

“Refusing to discuss the topic seems to me, given the context of everything that has been happening in terms of the return of cultural treasures, to be rather an anachronistic approach,” he added.

“It would be a fantastic statement by what Boris calls Global Britain if they were to move on this and look at it through a completely different lens.”

But Johnson dismissed the appeal for their return to Greece earlier this year, telling the Greek newspaper Ta Nea: “I understand the strong feelings of the Greek people – and indeed prime minister Mitsotakis – on the issue.

“But the UK government has a firm, longstanding position on the sculptures, which is that they were legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the appropriate laws of the time and have been legally owned by the British Museum’s trustees since their acquisition.”

Greece has long called for the reunification of the sculptures, displayed in museums across Europe but mostly in London, and says it is integral to understanding the artworks in the context of the Acropolis.

Greece claims the marbles were effectively stolen during Ottoman occupation and are a vital part of its cultural identity and heritage.

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Home > News > Parthenon marbles are to remain in the British Museum

Parthenon marbles are to remain in the British Museum

The museum might yet arrange for the sculptures to be loaned. But Sunak stated that there are no plans to change the statute, which specifies that the museum can only dispose of pieces in its collection under certain circumstances.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has ruled out amending a regulation that prevents the British Museum from permanently returning the Parthenon marbles to Greece.

Sunak confirmed that they have no intention of altering the existing regulations, which limit the museum’s ability to sell or dispose of pieces in its collection except under specific circumstances.

Sunak is unlikely to break with the stances of his two predecessors, who were both against any kind of loan of the marbles to Greece.

“The UK has cared for the Elgin Marbles for generations. Our galleries and museums are funded by taxpayers because they are a huge asset to this country,” Sunak told reporters on his plane as he flew to the United States on monday

“We share their treasures with the world, and the world comes to the UK to see them. The collection of the British Museum is protected by law, and we have no plans to change it.”

Since its independence in 1832, Greece has repeatedly demanded the return of the statues known as the Elgin Marbles, which were stolen from the Parthenon temple in Athens by British ambassador Lord Elgin in the early nineteenth century, while Greece was under Ottoman domination.

George Osborne, a former finance minister and the chair of the British Museum, has been collaborating with Greece to develop a new agreement that would enable the Parthenon sculptures to be displayed in both Athens and London. The Parthenon Project, which has received support from politicians across various parties in the UK, announced on Sunday that a long-term cultural partnership agreement could potentially facilitate the return of the British Museum’s Parthenon collection to Greece.

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The Greeks emphasize their desire to reunite the sculptures with the remaining pieces still in Athens and to exhibit them in the Acropolis Museum, an ultramodern facility designed to display the Parthenon marbles in their historical context.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has repeatedly pressured the UK government for their return, offering to lend other Greek artifacts to the British Museum in exchange and highlighting cultural diplomacy benefits for the UK in a post-Brexit world .

The UK government and the British Museum assert that the marbles were legally acquired under the laws and context of the period and have been properly preserved and shared globally as part of a universal collection.

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Bring them home

At the end of August, it was reported that around 2,000 artefacts, including gold jewellery and gems, had been stolen from the British Museum over a long period of time.

Chairman of the trustees, George Osborne acknowledged that the museum’s reputation has suffered as a result of its mishandling of the thefts, which sparked outrage after it was revealed that most of the stolen antiquities may never be recovered due to the museum’s poor record keeping, raising questions about security and leadership.

For decades, the British Museum has argued that the Parthenon Marbles should not be returned to Greece since the country lacks a suitable location for their display.

The Acropolis Museum, on the other hand, has solidified its place among the world’s top ten best museums and is the go-to museum in Athens where one can readily understand why Greece is considered the cradle of Western civilization. So, why not return the Parthenon marbles to their rightful home, and how did they end up in the British Museum in the first place?

In the early 1800s, when British aristocrat Lord Elgin sailed home from Greece, he also shipped to England some of the greatest treasures of antiquity, which included a collection of Greek statues and carved frieze panels that once decorated the Parthenon in Athens.

The so-called Elgin Marbles were later sold to the British government with the approval of the Ottomans who ruled Greece at the time and became the most storied artefacts in the British Museum’s collection. They also became the subject of perhaps the world’s most notorious cultural dispute.

The British maintain that the marbles were legally acquired and they belong in a universal museum alongside other artefacts, excluding the 2,000 that were now reportedly stolen. The Greeks, on the other hand, view them as looted treasures that form the cornerstone of their national heritage.

For decades, the issue of the Parthenon Marbles has been on the agenda of the Unesco Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property (ICPRCP). In fact, it was Melina Mercouri, the Greek Minister of Culture at the time, who raised the matter of their return during the 1982 Unesco World Conference.

Although the forum ruled in favour of the cause, stating that restitution of works illegally removed from their countries of origin is a fundamental principle of people-to-people cultural relations, Mercouri’s British counterpart responded that the UK Government “could not intervene in the affairs of a private establishment like the British Museum.”

While efforts are underway to retrieve the stolen antiquities, the British Museum’s collections may never be recovered because the museum’s records only identify the collection as a whole and fail to list the individual pieces.

This is not the first time the museum’s image as a safe keeper of global treasures has been called into doubt. The poor condition of the British Museum’s western block has been recorded numerous times. Images of water leaking into the Parthenon gallery were broadcast on Greek television in 2018, resulting from a cracked glass ceiling pane. Although the glass was replaced with new fixings and no sculptures were destroyed, a leaking roof in 2021 resulted in water seeping through, once again, delaying the reopening of the Greek galleries following the pandemic.

The British Museum claimed that none of the statues had been damaged and the issue was addressed. However, for Greece, these events demonstrate that the British Museum is failing to care for the Parthenon Marbles, reinforcing the country’s legitimate claim that the sculptures be permanently returned to Athens.

Earlier this year, the British Museum moved closer to a landmark agreement with Athens that could result in the return of the marbles. Although existing legislation makes it illegal to give away treasures, Osborne is reportedly seeking to repatriate the Parthenon Marbles as part of a cultural exchange that would see other Greek antiques displayed at the British Museum. Over half of the British people support their repatriation to Greece.

Hundreds of statues from the Archaic and Classical periods can be found at the ultramodern Acropolis Museum. The top level is the museum’s showcase, which provides a visual link to the Acropolis and allows visitors to view both the monument and its sculptures. The majority of the Parthenon Marbles will be displayed there upon their anticipated return.

The Parthenon Sculptures were made in Greece by Greeks to honour the glory of Greece. They represent millions of people’s cultural identities. Greece is their true home. It is where they belong.

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Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and opposition leader Keir Starmer have expressed reluctance to change the British Museum Act 1963, which prohibits deaccessioning objects from the museum’s collection except under limited circumstances.

Recent discussions have faced setbacks, including the cancellation of a planned meeting between Sunak and Mitsotakis in late 2023 due to disagreements over the public discussion of the marbles.

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Press Eye / Refusal of the Parthenon Stone Sculpture
“Greek artefacts taken by the British 200 years ago set off a diplomatic storm, ” said British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was scheduled to meet Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on November 29, but was temporarily canceled on the evening of the 28th.
In view of the long-standing dispute between the two sides over the ownership of the Parthenon marble statue in the British Museum, Greece originally promised not to use the meeting to openly discuss the issue of the ownership of the marble statue, but Mitsotakis described Parthenon as "like cutting the Mona Lisa in half" during his visit to the United Kingdom. Some of the marble statues of the temple are still in London, which displeased Sunak and angered Greece at the cancellation of the meeting.
This diplomatic storm caused the differences between Britain and Greece on the ownership of the marble statue to float on the table again.
The marble statue of the Parthenon temple at the heart of the English dispute, also known in England as "The Elgin Marbles" (The Elgin Marbles), mainly from the Parthenon temple in the Acropolis of Athens, built in the 5th century BC, has a history of more than 2500 years, including some from the Treasury of atreus on Mount Mycenae. More than 3,000 years.
This collection of more than 30 marble statues depicts scenes of Greek history and mythology, originally decorated in temples, including a 75 meter long relief showing the goddess Athena's birthday parade.
In 1801, the statue was shipped to England.
The marble was shipped to England in 1801 by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin of Scotland, from the Acropolis of Athens; regarding the ownership of the stone, the Earl of Elgin insisted that he obtained permission from the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which ruled Greece at the time, to bring the stone to England, but the original of the permission letter he said had been lost, and the British Parliament at that time also gave him permission. The British poet Lord Byron accused the Earl of Elgin of robbery, but the council decided not to prosecute the Earl, and in 1816 the British government bought the statues from the Earl of Elgin and put them on display in the British Museum.
Today, the stone has been one of the most famous exhibits of the British Museum, Greece has been asking the United Kingdom to return the Parthenon marble statue since 1983, and UNESCO has also been involved in coordination with the British and Greek sides on the return of the stone statue at the request of Greece, but to no avail; in 2022, the Greek Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni publicly accused the Earl of Elgin in The removal of the statue of Parthenon by illegal means without "real legal permission" was "a blatant continuous theft".
During Mitsotakis ’ visit to Britain, the two sides are scheduled to discuss diplomatic aspects, including the situation in Gaza, the Russian-Ukrainian war, illegal immigration, and so on; former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who left in mid-November, said during a visit to the Greek island of Samos that Britain has “a lot to learn from Greece ” in dealing with immigration.
The summit has been cancelled due to return issues.
However, the lunch meeting, scheduled for 29 November, was abruptly canceled on the evening of 28 November, and Mitsotakis said that he had hoped to discuss the issue of the Parthenon marble statues in the talks, and that the Greek view of the statues was well known; he also reminded that Greece and Britain had a traditional friendship, which he had hoped to take advantage of. "People who believe they are right and righteous will never be afraid of dissent," he said in a statement.
After the British government confirmed the cancellation of the talks, Mitsotakis proposed to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, but this was rejected.
The office at 10 Downing Street said that Greece had originally promised not to use the meeting as a platform to openly discuss the return of the Parthenon marble statue, but the Greek side broke its promise and therefore believed that the two sides would not have much benefit.
The so-called "breach of promise" refers to Mitsotakis in an interview with the BBC about the Parthenon marble statue, because some of the statues are currently in the Parthenon Temple, and the other part is in the British Museum, Mitsotakis said that the United Kingdom should return the stone statue, and use "like the Mona Lisa cut in half" to describe the situation.
However, the Greek government has denied making such a promise.
The British Labour Party and the Government are in opposition.
The cancellation of the meeting caused concern in the British political and media, the Labour Party said that the decision to cancel the meeting was "deplorable", indicating that the Sunak government was "narrow minded"; the position of the Labour Party on the attribution of the Parthenon marble statue is far from being as strong as the Conservative Party, and the position of Labour Party leader Keir Starmer is that the position of the British Museum and Athens agreed that the statue could be temporarily loaned to Greece, but the Conservatives objected, fearing that if the statue was lent to Greece, it would never be returned to the United Kingdom — the British Museum was banned from disposing of its collections in 1963, so the ownership of the statue was no longer a matter for the British Museum alone, and Sunak had previously made clear that he would never support amending the law.
It is worth noting that Mitsotakis has already met with Scheer, and the Guardian quoted Greek sources as saying that Athens' assessment of the matter may also be one of the reasons why 10 Downing Street is dissatisfied with Mitsotakis, and because the Labour Party is far ahead of the Conservative Party in the polls, there is a great chance of winning the 2024 election again. It will become more and more frequent.
Prior to his meeting with Mitsotakis, Scheer expressed his support for a loan agreement to exchange the Parthenon marble statue with Athens for other ancient Greek artifacts that had not been to Britain for display at the British Museum.
However, Scheer did not intend to discuss the matter publicly, fearing that it would cause voters to resent the Labour Party, and stressed that he was opposed to amending the 1963 law that prevented the British Museum from returning the statue.
In fact, the agreement did not solve the biggest dispute between Greece and Britain over the return of the statue, which is "who exactly belongs to the marble statue of the Parthenon"; Greece naturally wanted to return the title to itself, but even if the agreement could be reached, Britain still considered the statue to be "lent" and the title to the British Museum.
Mitsotakis ’ s trip to Britain ended in haste, returning to Greece early, and both countries are still waiting to see how the dispute should end, but for the British government, which wants to establish stable relations with its European allies after Brexit, the result is clearly contrary to the goal, and in Britain, it is more about the policy differences between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party.
A Labour spokesman said: “If the Prime Minister is unable to meet with European allies who have vital economic links with the UK, it is further evidence that he cannot provide the economic leadership our country needs. ”
And the Labour Party, led by Schkeel, is ready. "
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