The return of the Elgin Marbles to Greece

The British Museum is in “constructive discussions” with the Greek government regarding the return of the Parthenon Sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles.

The ancient artefacts, which date back over 2,500 years, were removed from the Parthenon temple in Athens in the early 19th century by British diplomat Lord Elgin, who was serving as ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which controlled Greece, at the time. The Greek government has long called for the permanent repatriation of the sculptures.

Last week, The Telegraph reported that an agreement had been reached between the museum’s chairman, former chancellor George Osborne, and Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, which will allow the antiquities to be repatriated as part of a “cultural exchange”.

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What deal has been struck?

According to the Telegraph’s sources, the agreement reached with Greek officials is effectively a loan agreement that would allow the Elgin Marbles to be transferred from London to Athens. And this could happen “sooner rather than later”.

The deal discussed between Osborne and Greece would allow some of the marbles to be sent to Athens on a “long-term loan” in exchange for Ancient Greek treasures to be loaned to the British Museum. This, however, would not be a permanent exchange as UK law prevents the permanent removal of the marbles.

The British Museum is currently the custodian of around half of the 160-metre (525-foot) frieze that adorned the Parthenon, but any exchange is “unlikely to entail the full complement of marble frieze scenes, metopes (carved plaques), and statues”, said The Telegraph, and will most likely start with a “small token loan”.

Why are the marbles so controversial?

The sculptures’ presence in the UK rather than their original homeland of Greece has been an ongoing subject of debate for decades. The UK government and the British Museum maintain that the acquisition of the marbles was legal, but supporters of their return and successive Greek governments have challenged this claim and do not recognise the British Museum’s ownership of the treasures.

According to the British Museum, it first received a formal request for the return of the marbles in 1983. It also argues that while “media coverage has referred to Greek government requests to borrow the sculptures” it has “never” received a loan request from Greece.

What has changed now?

The deadlock now seems likely to loosen thanks to the efforts of Osborne and Mitsotakis, hastened by changes in “the public mood” and the “role of museums in society”, argued The Guardian.

“The whole discussion about cultural restitution has become hotter generally and I think the wider public, outside the museum’s portals, are starting to think quite differently about it,” said the paper’s chief culture writer, Charlotte Higgins. She added that a re-evaluation of the function of museums in the modern world means such institutions now feel they have a duty to become “sites of reconciliation and atonement”.

The Times also argues it has become “increasingly difficult” for the British Museum to argue the Greeks are unreliable custodians of their cultural treasures – an argument it has long relied upon to justify its stance – since the opening of the “superb” Acropolis Museum in 2009, designed to provide a permanent home for the marbles in Greece.

Further pressure was put on the British Museum in December when Pope Francis ordered the return of three pieces of the Parthenon Sculptures the Vatican had held for more than 200 years.

Is this the end of the dispute?

The agreement is not likely to resolve the long-running dispute over the legal ownership of the ancient artefacts, with the Greek government likely to continue its efforts to gain full ownership.

Meanwhile, it appears that even if the British Museum was willing to cede ownership of the marbles, it would be impossible to do so under UK law. The British Museum Act 1963 prevents the institution giving away artefacts in its collection.

The prospect of the return of the marbles has caused dismay in some quarters of the British press. Over “six million visitors a year from across the globe enjoy the Elgin marbles at the British Museum, compared with less than a third that number at the Parthenon museum in Athens” , argued The Spectator’s Zareer Masani. If the marbles are sent to Greece, “countless visitors lose the chance to admire a historic artefact which we have long protected”, added CapX’s William Atkinson. “For all mankind, Britain must keep the Marbles,” he concludes.

However, contends The Guardian, “if one day in the not-so-distant future, the empty space in the airy Acropolis museum for the remaining parts of the sculptures may finally be filled” there is “no need to worry” that the British Museum will become “an empty husk of its former self. There are literally millions of other objects – many with their own conflicted histories – that it can display,” said the paper.