Athens, Greece – A British Museum trustee confirmed the institution was in talks with the Greek government over the disposition of the Parthenon marbles, but told Al Jazeera an agreement could be elusive.
“There is certainly movement, but it is exaggerated,” said Mary Beard, professor of classics at the University of Cambridge and an administrator since 2020.
“I think something is actually happening… There have been discussions between (board chairman George) Osborne and (Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos) Mitsotakis,” she told Al Jazeera.
The Marbles are architectural sculptures removed from the Acropolis of Athens in 1801 by Lord Elgin, when Greece was under Ottoman rule, and on display at the British Museum since 1817.
Greece claims that they constitute inseparable parts of the monument and must be returned.
“There is a real desire to do something. After 200 years, surely we can get to a place better than where we are,” Beard said. “Is the problem going to be solved? I am not sure.”
There was excitement last July, when the British Museum told the Sunday Times it was offering to discuss a “deal” over the Marbles with Greece.
“The British Museum chose to say that it was discussing (with us) and trying to find a solution,” said Eleni Korka, honorary director general of antiquities and cultural heritage at the Greek Ministry of Culture and a key negotiator since the Greece has made its agreement public. quest to bring the Marbles back to 1981.
“This kind of public statement has never happened before. It’s only last year. Have they changed their policy? Were they forced to do so? Korka told Al Jazeera.
But a statement from the British Museum last November dashed hopes of a quick deal.
“We respect the law and we will not dismantle our large collection,” said a spokesperson – a reference to a 1963 law which prohibits the British Museum from disposing of any part of its collection.
The British Museum has offered to loan the sculptures to the Acropolis Museum in Athens, built in 2009 to house them.
Greece refuses to apply for a loan because it would involve ownership of the British Museum, and it insists on an outright return.
But Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who faces elections this year, is gently raising hopes.
Last month he told students at the London School of Economics that there was progress and “a sense of momentum”.
In early January, British Museum sources told media that there had been “constructive discussions” with Greece over the return of the Marbles.
Mitsotakis told the Greek president that his government had made “very systematic and discreet” efforts to repatriate the Marbles.
But Michelle Donelan, the UK’s culture minister, once again dashed hopes, telling BBC Radio 4 that the sculptures “have their place here in the UK”.
Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni described the ongoing negotiations as “difficult but not impossible”.
Asked if Greece would consider a loan, she said the country was sticking to its red lines.
“The fact that the (Greek) prime minister and the culture minister have made it clear that there can be no progress without the property issue being resolved means that things are not going well,” Korka said.
Controversial from the start
Elgin’s removal of the sculptures was controversial from the start.
The British House of Lords debated in 1816 whether he had actually obtained permission from the Ottoman government, which then dominated Greece.
Elgin himself implied that the marbles had been removed inappropriately, as the lords’ main concern was whether he had used his influence as imperial ambassador to Constantinople to obtain a permit that benefited him personally.
“Did the authorization specifically refer to the removal of the statues, or was that left to discretion? » asks the commission of inquiry.
Elgin replies: “No, it was carried out by means of these general authorizations granted; in fact, a permission issued by the Porte for any of the remote provinces is little more than an authority to make the best possible deal with the local authorities.
Elgin’s fellow philhellene, Lord Byron, lamented the removal of the Marbles and excoriated Elgin in The Curse of Minerva: “So let him stand, through ages yet unborn, / Statue fixed on the pedestal of contempt!” »
The British Museum claims that Elgin “obtained a license” to “draw, measure and remove figures”. But critics say he expanded the measure to remove far more than expected.
“Among the bribes Elgin allegedly gave were 100 pounds to the Kaimacam (district governor) in Constantinople to release the second shipment (of marbles), and an amount to the Disdar (commander of the fortress) at Athens equal to 35 times its annual income. salary. Elgin documented all of his expenses because he was funded by his in-laws,” Korka said.
The British people appear to have come out in favor of restitution.
A survey by the Economist in 2000 found that two-thirds of British MPs would vote for the return of the Marbles if a motion was tabled.
A Sunday Times survey last August found that 78 percent of Britons would return the Marbles, and a poll this month by the Evening Standard found that a clear majority of 53 percent of Britons were in favor of their return – more than the majority who voted for Brexit.
“There is a very significant shift in the UK in public opinion and among individuals who have an opinion on the matter, from across the political spectrum, who are now openly advocating for the reunification of the marbles, recognizing their unique,” Mitsotakis said.
But Elgin is not entirely vilified, even in Greece.
“It is true that the removal (of the marbles) saved them from war and destruction,” says Manolis Korres, a world-renowned archaeologist from the Acropolis, who has devoted half a century to the study and the restoration of the Parthenon and other buildings.
Turkish occupiers burned a six-story marble column from the Temple of Zeus to make ash, a component of the concrete used to build the Monastiraki Mosque in 1758. A similar fate befell a nearby temple dedicated to the river god Ilissos 20 years later.
The Greeks also caused damage. “There are other monuments that were completely pulverized during the Greek War of Independence,” says Korres. “The Thrasyllos monument was blown up in 1827, the last year of the revolution. It was blown to pieces. Elgin had taken the statue of Dionysus, which is now in the British Museum and was thus saved.
But Korres agrees that the Marbles must now return.
“Their possession by another museum is not morally supportable. The question of legality is moot; 200 years ago, slavery was also legal.
The British Museum displays “a parochial, phobic, colonial attitude” that cannot last, Korka said.
“If at the beginning of this process I believed the beads would come back 100 percent, I now believe it 1,000 percent…The question is when.”
