Greece demands the United Kingdom return the Parthenon marbles displayed in the British Museum

In early March, it was British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson said so United kingdom He is the legal owner of the Parthenon Marble located in The British Museum. They refused again, as at other times throughout history, Greece’s request to return what belonged to them. However, during an interview with the British newspaper “The Telegraph”, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greek Prime Minister, expected that Greece They will demand the return of the 2,500-year-old sculptures Athena. Mitsotakis He claims his place should be Acropolis Museum.

The prime minister stressed that the marble pieces were “stolen in the nineteenth century” and he was ready “to reach an agreement with the British Museum to send, as a loan, other cultural treasures that remained in the Greek state.” The eternal controversy goes back nearly 200 years and Greece He asked several times to return the “Elgin Marble”, as it was Archaeologist British Thomas Bruce Elgin who pulled them out of the country between 1801 and 1805.

In March of this year, Boris Johnson
He argued that the sculptures were ‘lawfully acquired by Lord Elgin, according to the laws in force at the time and have been the legal property of the trustees of the British Museum since their acquisition’, but
Ministry of Culture The Greeks believe that Elgin I used illegal tactics to steal the coins.

UNESCO support

Mitsotakis insists that if Britain decided to ignore the petition, it would be “a somewhat outdated approach, given the context of everything that is happening in terms of returning cultural treasures”.

employment ParisThe Greek Prime Minister praised the statues of Parthenon It is in Acropolis Museum, in their real home. “But part of this group is still in exile in London, and so this influence cannot be fully appreciated,” Mitsotakis recalls. In addition, he recalled that the Intergovernmental Committee of UNESCO They unanimously decided that “they have a duty to return the Parthenon sculptures directly to the Government of the United Kingdom.”

Controversy with the British Museum

The British Museum in London is one of the most visited museums in the world in recent years. Usually receives up to six million Annual visitor in the regular season. But this place, which contains one of the most wonderful collections of objects in the history of mankind from all over the world, has been examined because of the origin of these treasures.

Treasures such as the Parthenon Marble, the Moise from the Chilean Easter Island, the Persian Gold Bracelet, the Bronze Head of Anahid and the Diamond Sutra, among many others, should be
Return to their original places.