The Parthenon friezes are at the heart of one of the longest cultural disputes in the West.
The restitution of these sculptures, “
stolen
” according to the Greek authorities by Lord Elgin in the 19th century, is once again on the menu of discussions between London and Athens.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis meets Boris Johnson at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday, November 16.
For the Greek Prime Minister, this question must be settled at the intergovernmental level and does not fall under the competence of the British Museum, whose friezes are one of the jewels.
In support of the Greek claims, a recent incident which undermines the English arguments.
Leaks in the roof of Gallery 17 of the British Museum, room where the treasures of the Parthenon are displayed, have raised fears for the conservation of the pieces.
This will be one of the new arguments made by the Greek prime minister, according to the Guardian.
“
It's very important to him.
Our arguments are very strong.
Now is the time to have a dialogue in good faith,
”a connoisseur of the matter told the English newspaper.
Read also At the British Museum, water leaks threaten the Parthenon marbles
The restitution of the marbles has been one of the sea serpents of Greek-British relations for nearly two centuries. But Kyriakos Mitsotakis seems to have made it a priority. As soon as he came to power in 2019, the Greek Prime Minister assured him that he was ready to deliver priceless objects that had never left Greece in exchange for the return of the Parthenon frieze.
In a speech at Unesco on Friday November 12, Kyriakos Mitsotakis declared that there was "
no better time than now
" to return these treasures, long considered the most significant link, symbolically, between the Greeks. and their ancestors. “
The UK should enter into a good faith dialogue with Greece. And I invite them to do so. After all, this year marks the 200th anniversary of Greece's War for Independence. There could be no better time than now to reunite the missing part of the Parthenon sculptures - in their birthplace - in Greece,
”he said.
For almost a year now, many rooms in the British Museum, including some of the Greek and Assyrian art galleries, have been closed to the public due to maintenance work.
This undermines the traditional argument of a better conservation of works in London than in their country of origin.
For its part, Athens has just inaugurated its brand new Acropolis Museum, where the pieces of the Parthenon still in Greece are kept and where the space was designed to accommodate the 75 meters of frieze held by the English (on the 128 still preserved today).
Read also Parthenon marbles: Unesco calls on the British Museum to review its position
Removed from the Parthenon in 1802 by Lord Elgin, Ambassador of Great Britain to the Ottoman Empire which then controlled Greece, the set of marbles includes, in addition to two-thirds of the Panathenaic frieze, fifteen metopes and some twenty d elements of the two pediments of the temple, but also several sculptures removed from the other buildings of the Acropolis. In debt, Lord Elgin sold his collection for 35,000 pounds to the British State in 1816, or half of the sums involved to ensure their dismantling in Greece and their transport to London.
Numerous polls have repeatedly shown that the vast majority of Britons approve of the return of the sculptures.
Asked by the Greek newspaper
Ta Nea
earlier this year, however, Boris Johnson said: “
The British government has a strong and long-standing position on the sculptures, namely that they were legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the laws in force at the time and that the administrators of the British Museum have legally owned them since their acquisition,
”arguing that restitution was not on the agenda.
