Greece’s prime minister has announced that his government is exploring a “win-win” solution to one of the world’s most complex cultural heritage disputes: The fate of the Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum. But exclude any transaction that includes the word “loan”.
“We will never admit that these sculptures are the legal property of the British Museum,” he said. Kyriakos Mitsotakis In an interview during an election campaign stop in the central Greek city of Volos, he added, “But again, we have to be constructive and we have to be innovative if we want to find a solution.”
Government Mitsotakis He has had talks about ancient sculptures, which form an essential part of the collections The British Museum. In February, the head of the museum announced that the talks had been “constructive” and that the UK and Greece were working on an agreement to display the sculptures in both London and Athens.
“I don’t want to comment publicly on the conversations we’ve had. I’ll just say that without changing our core position on ownership of sculptures, we’re trying to explore a potential win-win proposition.” Mitsotakis.
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to the question if Greece He might consider returning the sculptures on loan, Mitsotakis was adamant. He said, “No, no.” That word ‘loan’ It’s not part of what I consider a win-win solution.”
Greece He has spent decades fighting to get the statues back The Parthenonwhich adorns the upper part of Acropolis of Athens. A 160-meter-long frieze flanks the building’s outer walls The ParthenonDedicated to Athena, the goddess of wisdom.
The frieze and other sculptures were carved between 447 and 432 BC, and remained largely intact until the temple, which was being used as a gunpowder store by the Turkish garrison, was blown up during the siege of 1687.
British diplomat Lord Elgin He removed about half of the remaining works in the early nineteenth century, when Athens was still under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. It has been in the British Museum since 1816. Greece claims that it was illegally acquired during the period of foreign occupation. The British authorities refused repeated requests for return.
Mitsotakis He stated that although the issue was “in the background” during the campaign leading up to the Greek elections on 21 May, “If we are re-elected, I hope to pick up the momentum and build on the progress that has been made.”
Amid the global debate over the return of cultural property, Greece has already reached two agreements that involved returning to Athens 2,500-year-old marble fragments of Parthenon sculptures from European museums.
in january, Vatican Museums Three small parts of the carvings were returned in a “donation” of Pope Franciscowhile another arrived in Athens on loan from a museum in Palermo (Sicily). he Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna is in talks to bring back two more fragments.
he Acropolis Museum Athens houses an exhibition dedicated to marble sculptures, where missing parts have been replaced with plaster casts. Other fragments have been found in Paris, Copenhagen, Munich, Würzburg (Germany) and Vienna. Mitsotakis Met last november with King Charles III, but he said he did not address this issue. “I will never put Your Majesty in a difficult position. I fully respect his role,” he said.
Source: AP
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