British government excludes any return from leaves of Parthenon in Greece

The Minister of Culture, Michelle Donelan, denied any project to restore the ancient treasure preserved at the British Museum.

by Roxana Azimi

The hope of a next return to Greece of the Parthenon friezes held by the British Museum was quickly extinguished. Cutting short the information relayed on January 3 by Daily The Telegraph , the British government has denied any project to restore this ancient treasure, 75 meters long, claimed for decades by the Greek authorities. “I was very clear on this subject: I do not think they [friezes] should return to Greece, decided the Minister of Conservative Culture, Michelle Donelan, in an interview with the BBC, Tuesday January 11. They belong to the United Kingdom, where we have taken care of them for a long time. “

In his eyes, these sculptures were legally acquired in 1802 by the British diplomat Lord Elgin, before being sold to the British Museum. “The purchase is, in fact, legal, but we can object that Greece was then under Ottoman occupation, however, specifies the French archaeologist Jean-Paul Demoule, recalling that the new museum of the acropolis opened in 2009 has 2009 From the outset planned Place des Marbres d’Elgin, occupied for the moment by casts whose summary character is a call for replacement by authentic parts. “

At the beginning of December 2022, the Greek daily TA Néa said that secret negotiations on this subject have been held for more than a year between the two countries. The president of the British Museum, George Osborne, a former chancellor of the Echiquier of the government of David Cameron, would have maintained himself at least twice with the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The same month, Pope Francis also gave an example by announcing the restitution to the Orthodox Archbishop of Athens of three fragments of the Parthenon preserved by the Vatican museums. On January 3, The Telegraph engaged by ensuring that George Osborne was about to conclude an agreement with Athens for the return to Greece of these fragments as part of a long -term loan of a hundred years.

No unequivocal position

“It is certainly not his intention,” refuted Michelle Donelan, believing that the position of George Osborne had been “misinterpreted”. For her, this restitution would constitute an unfortunate precedent by opening “Pandora’s box”. The British Museum is already in the viewfinder of Nigeria, which claims the return of 900 Benin City bronzes that the London museum holds. But a law of 1963, written in the wake of independence in Africa to protect itself against complaints from the freshly released colonies, drastically frames the possibilities of transfer by the museum.