The United Kingdom will hold formal talks with Greece regarding the possible return of the Parthenon marbles, which have been in the British Museum since 1816. No dates have been set for the meeting, which was proposed by the British Minister of Arts, Stephen Parkinson, to Greece on 29 April. UNESCO declared Historic agreement on May 17 before World Museum Day.
Also known as Elgin Marbles, the contested sculptures were stripped from the Acropolis in 1801 by Lord Elgin while Greece was under Ottoman occupation and deposited at the London Foundation. Created between 447 BC and 432 BC, the ensemble consists of marble slabs, figures, and friezes depicting a procession celebrating the birthday of the Greek goddess Athena.
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The United Kingdom is known to have resisted calls from successive Greek governments to return the sculptures, asserting that they had been obtained by legal means. Last March, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated that his government had no plans to move business out of England.
But scrutiny of this position has deepened amid an increasing number of European and North American institutions returning objects taken during colonial periods from their home countries. The Benin Bronze Collection, a collection of objects looted by British forces from the Kingdom of Benin in 1897, has been at the forefront of the repatriation wave.
Last September, UNESCO’s advisory board called on the UK to “reconsider its position and move forward in an honest dialogue with Greece”. The British Parliament has said that because the museum operates independently of the British government and can make decisions regarding the works in its collections, it must decide the fate of the Parthenon Marbles.
In a statement following a proposal by UNESCO, Greece’s Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, said the issue was “of an intergovernmental nature – in contrast to the claims from the British side that it concerns the British Museum – and essentially that Greece has a valid and legal claim to demand that the sculptures be returned to their place of birth.” “.
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