At the heart of the tensions between London and Athens is a sensitive issue: Greece is trying to get the UK to return the Parthenon friezes on display in the British Museum. The years of debate have had another failed attempt following the UK Culture Secretary’s recent decision refusing to return the pieces to their country of origin.
The President of the British Museum “will not return them. That is not his intention. He has no intention of doing this,” Minister Michelle Donelan said firmly in an interview with BBC News this Wednesday (11). “I was very clear: I don’t think so [as peças] should go back to Greece,” he continued.
The statement put an end to expectations raised among Greeks last week after The Telegraph newspaper on 4 March termed the Frisians as part of a “cultural exchange”.
The origin of the information has become questionable as the British Museum is prohibited by law from making its collection accessible.
London claims that the 75meterlong frieze detached from the Parthenon and one of the famous caryatids of a small ancient temple on the Acropolis both key pieces of the London Museum were “legally acquired” in 1802 by British diplomat Lord Elgin, who donated them to the British Museum sold. Greece, for its part, claims the pieces were “looted” while the country was under Ottoman occupation.
Parthenon Marbles on display at the Museum in London
Image: Portal
“Pandora’s Box”
The British minister does not hide her fears that the return of these frescoes will open “Pandora’s box” and force the UK to return other works bought or looted around the world. “[Estas peças] They belong in the UK where we have looked after them for a long time,” Donelan told the BBC. Already on the News Agents podcast, she added that the idea of ”100year loans” is absolutely not provided for in the legislation”.
British Museum London
Image: reproduction
However, the Greeks tend to keep this discussion going: in the Acropolis Museum, a room left empty still awaits the return of the Parthenon sculpture.
On Monday (10th), a Greek government spokesman admitted that negotiations with the British Museum were “not easy”. “We’ve come a long way, we’ve made a few steps forward, and the effort continues,” he revealed. “The goal is the final return” of the friezes, the spokesman stressed, because Greece “recognizes neither ownership nor ownership [destas obras] from the British Museum,” he added.
Woman looking at original Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum
Image: Dylan Martinez
In the course of antiracism and historical revisionism movements, the pressure on Western museums to return works has increased in recent years, especially to return works acquired during the colonial period to their countries of origin.
Pope Francis
In August, a museum in Glasgow, Scotland, handed over to India seven works of art looted from holy sites during 19thcentury colonization, marking the first return by a British cultural institution.
Last December it was Pope Francis’ turn to send the archdiocese of the Orthodox Church in Athens, Greece, three pieces of the Parthenon that had been in the Vatican Museum for centuries.
The Parthenon in Athens, Greece
Credit: sborisov/Getty Images/iStockphoto
On the other hand, residents of Easter Island in the Pacific continue to demand that the British Museum return the Moai Hoa Hakananai’a, a 2.4 meter high, four tonne monolith. The piece was removed from the island without permission in 1868 by navigator Richard Powill, who offered it to Queen Victoria.
(With information from AFP)