“We believe this type of long-term partnership will strike the right balance between public use, sharing our greatest objects with audiences around the world, and maintaining the integrity of the museum’s collection,” the spokesperson continued. on the one hand the permanent position of the British institution and on the other triggering questions regarding what exactly means a “partnership” with Greece for the Parthenon Sculptures, through which they might be bathed in the Attic light following more than 200 years…
“No comment,” he replied to “ET.” the general director of the Acropolis Museum Dr. Nikolas Stampolidis regarding the placement of the representative of the British Museum. But let’s see what we know so far, in view of tomorrow’s trip of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to London, which is likely to restart the issue of reuniting the Parthenon Sculptures with his new British counterpart, Keir Starmer.
The Greek side has expressed in every way the red line, that is, it excludes the case of borrowing, as this would recognize Britain’s ownership of the Glyptos. “We cannot accept neither ownership, nor occupation, nor jurisdiction from the British Museum”, the Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni has stated repeatedly, clarifying the position of our country. The new government of Keir Starmer and the Labor Party declares – according to recent foreign reports – that they will not block a loan agreement between the two countries, while there is no intention to change the law of the British state “British Museum Act, 1963″ which prohibits ” detachment’ of the museum’s collection.
Is the possibility of “collusion” being sought in a different way with solutions that satisfy the demands of both countries? Whatever the answer to this question, two issues are certainly in the ongoing discussions at the negotiating table: First, the majority of international public opinion is in favor of the return of the Sculptors to Greece and, second, the climate of the modern era, the question of the return of the Parthenon Sculptors, is a question of social ethics in the context of modern international conventions that dictate the return of cultural goods to their countries of origin that have been removed illegally or by procedures of questionable legality.
To be returned, say 64% of the British
64% of Britons agree that the Parthenon Sculptures should be returned if other unique Greek artefacts are borrowed, according to a poll by the Parthenon Project, which promotes the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures through a “win-win” solution. “We are proposing a cultural cooperation agreement under which the Sculptures will be returned to Greece permanently and other Greek artefacts will travel to London,” noted the founder of the “Parthenon Project” Yiannis Lefas at the beginning of last month in a scheduled meeting with a small group journalists. At that time, in fact, the issue of the return of the Sculptors was fueled by the intervention – confirmation regarding the non-existence of a firman and the illegal appropriation of the Sculptors by Lord Elgin, before they ended up in the British Museum, by the head of the anti-trafficking antiquities department of Turkey’s Zeynep Boz at the UNESCO intergovernmental commission.
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