Talks over a possible return of the Parthenon marbles from the British Museum to Greece are not advancing quickly enough, the Greek prime minister has said before his meeting with Rishi Sunak this week.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis likened the British Museum’s possession of the sculptures – also known as the Elgin marbles – to the Mona Lisa painting being cut in half, saying it was not a question of ownership but “reunification”.
“We have not made as much progress as I would like in the negotiations. I’m a patient man and we’ve waited for hundreds of years, and I will persist in these discussions,” he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.
“This is not in my mind an ownership question, this is a reunification argument – where can you best appreciate what is essentially one monument?
“It’s as if I told you that you would cut the Mona Lisa in half, and you will have half of it at the Louvre and half of it at the British Museum, do you think your viewers would appreciate the beauty of the painting in such a way? Well, this is exactly what happened with the Parthenon sculptures.”
Athens has long campaigned for the return of the marble decorations taken from the ruins of the Parthenon by Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman empire then ruling Greece, in the early 19th century.
Greece built the Acropolis Museum in 2009 to house the sculptures that remained in the country, along with other artefacts, and that is where Mitsotakis wants the sculptures returned to.
“We feel that the sculptures belong to Greece and that they were essentially stolen,” Mitsotakis said. “I think the answer is very clear. They do look better in the Acropolis Museum, a state-of-the-art museum that was built for that purpose.”
Mitsotakis said he would raise the issue with Sunak on Tuesday, a day after meeting the Labour leader, Keir Starmer.
The Financial Times reported that Starmer, who represents the Holborn and St Pancras constituency where the British Museum is located, would not block a “mutually acceptable” loan deal for the sculptures.
In March, Sunak ruled out any change to a law that stops the British Museum handing the marbles back to Greece permanently, but the legislation does not prohibit a loan.
George Osborne, the former chancellor who is chair of the museum’s trustees, this month expressed hope for a deal that would allow the sculptures “to be seen in Athens”.
A British Museum spokesperson said: “Discussions with Greece about a Parthenon Partnership are ongoing and constructive.
“We believe that this kind of long-term partnership would strike the right balance between sharing our greatest objects with audiences around the world, and maintaining the integrity of the incredible collection we hold at the museum.”
