2023-11-27 22:03:37
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wanted to insist on the return of the famous Parthenon frieze from Great Britain at a planned meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. “They just look better in the Acropolis Museum, a state-of-the-art museum built for this purpose,” Mitsotakis told the BBC yesterday. Mitsotakis accused Sunak of canceling today’s meeting in London.
“I express my anger that the British Prime Minister canceled our planned meeting just hours before the scheduled date,” Mitsotakis said in a statement. A spokesman for Sunak rejected the account and said there were no plans to return the sculptures. At the same time, Sunak’s office declined to give the reasons for canceling the meeting.
Greece has been trying for returns for years
Mitsotakis previously said that having more than half of the artworks in the British Museum in London was like the Mona Lisa being split in two and each half being displayed in a different location. Greece has been trying for decades to return 56 pieces of frieze that are in the British Museum in London.
The components of the 75 meter long frieze were cut off the outside of the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis in Athens at the beginning of the 19th century on behalf of the then British ambassador Lord Elgin and brought to Great Britain in agreement with the then Ottoman Empire.
Athens sees the marble slabs as stolen. London believes they were acquired legally. The friezes have been a point of contention between the two countries for decades. In January, the British government ruled out a permanent return to Greece following media reported on a loan agreement.
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