All You Need To Know About Parthenon Marbles, 200-Year-Old Debate Over Them

Talks in London on Tuesday between British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis have rekindled hopes of a deal for the repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum in 2025.

Here are some of the key facts concerning the 200-year-old debate:

What are the Parthenon Marbles?

Known in Britain as the Elgin Marbles, the 2,500-year-old sculptures for centuries adorned the Parthenon temple built at the pinnacle of ancient Athens's power at the Acropolis citadel in honour of the city's patron goddess, Athena.

It was partially destroyed during a Venetian bombardment in 1687, and in the early 1800s, workmen took friezes from the monument on the orders of the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Scottish nobleman Thomas Bruce, known as Lord Elgin.

Elgin sold the marbles to the British government, which in 1817 passed them on to the British Museum where they remain one of its most prized exhibits.

The British Museum notes that smaller Parthenon frieze collections and fragments are also in the Louvre and museums in Copenhagen, Munich, Vienna and Wurzburg.

Greek and British positions

Athens has for decades demanded the return of the sculptures, a campaign revived in the 1980s by emblematic Greek actress Melina Mercouri during her stint as minister for culture.

The Greek authorities maintain that the sculptures were looted by Elgin.

But London insists that the sculptures were "legally acquired" by Elgin.

The British aristocrat had long maintained he had received permission from the Ottoman Sultan to remove antiquities from the Acropolis.

But in June, Turkey's spokesperson at a meeting of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation (ICPRCP) said no such document, known as a firman, had been found in Ottoman archives.

Where are we at now?

The Guardian newspaper on Monday said that the talks on returning the sculptures to Athens were "well advanced".

"Sources have said that talks between the Greek foreign ministry and George Osborne, the chair of the British Museum, are moving towards 'an agreement in principle' to reunify the antiquities in Athens," the daily said.

Mitsotakis has made the repatriation of the Marbles a personal priority since coming to power in 2019.

Greek media have reported that his close confidant George Gerapetritis, now foreign minister, years ago was tasked alongside Culture Minister Lina Mendoni with seeing this through.

Mendoni on Tuesday told state TV ERT said there was a "positive climate" globally in favour of the repatriation of antiquities, but that the issue needed "time and appropriate maturation".

Three fragments of Athens's Parthenon temple, kept by the Vatican for centuries, were returned to Greece last year in what Pope Francis called a gesture of friendship.

Public opinion in Britain in past decades has steadily moved in favour of returning the Marbles.

A YouGov poll on Monday found that 53 percent of respondents said the British Museum should return the sculptures to Greece, with 24 percent opposed.

A 1963 British law prevents the museum from giving away treasures.

In October, Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said a deal could involve "some partnerships on the conservation of antiquities, the exchange of exhibits in temporary exhibitions and other joint initiatives to raise awareness of ancient Greek culture".

Officials have suggested that using the word "deposit" in a possible agreement could enable both sides to skirt the ownership issue entirely.

In 2022, when the Antonino Salinas Museum in Palermo sent to Greece a Parthenon marble fragment, the Greek culture ministry said it was "a deposit, not a loan" and would remain in the Greek capital for the next eight years.

Greece subsequently said it had reached a legal agreement with the Sicilian regional government to make the return permanent.

The Greek culture ministry in 2022 also brokered a deal to acquire 161 Bronze Age antiquities formerly in the collection of US billionaire and philanthropist Leonard Stern.

The agreement involved the artifacts gradually returning to Greece over the next 25 years after being displayed at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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