The return of the Parthenon marbles belongs to the British Museum, according to # 10 | Parthenon marbles

The return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece is up to the British Museum, Downing Street said, apparently overthrowing the British government’s long-standing opposition to the idea, reiterated by Boris Johnson as recently as March.

Johnson met Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at No.10 on Tuesday evening, Mitsotakis reiterating his offer to exchange a series of treasures that had never left Greece as rotating exhibits for the British Museum in exchange for the marbles.

Drawing on Johnson’s track record as a classic, Mitsotakis told him he was “a true Philhellene” – while insisting that the Greek government did not view the marbles issue as a “footnote”. That could be forgotten or overlooked.

A No 10 statement said that when Mitsotakis lifted the marbles Johnson “said he understood the strength of the Greek people’s feelings on this issue, but reiterated the UK’s long-held position that this issue belongs to the trustees of the British Museum “. .

However, this was not always Johnson’s opinion regarding the return of the 80-meter-sawn monumental frieze from the Parthenon in 1802 by order of Lord Elgin, then British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, who remain at London.

In an interview with the Greek newspaper Ta Nea in March, Johnson stressed that this remained the position, despite “the strong feelings of the Greek people.”

He said: “The UK government has a firm and long-standing position on the sculptures that they were legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the appropriate laws of the time and were legally owned by the trustees of the British Museum since their acquisition. “

But when Johnson’s spokesperson was asked on Tuesday what would be the message to Mitsotakis at the meeting, he said: This is not one for the UK government.

Asked about the apparent change from the UK’s previous position, he said: “The British Museum operates at arm’s length from government. It is rightly free from any political interference … Any question about the location of the Parthenon sculptures is theirs.

A Downing Street source said despite Johnson’s views, the UK’s official position has long been that any return is the business of the British Museum – whose new chairman of the board is the former Conservative Chancellor George Osborne.

The apparent change in approach is likely to reignite the wider debate on museums returning artefacts from other countries in colonial times, which British ministers have so far resisted under the mantra of ‘keep and explain’ .

Some regional museums have said they could repatriate the disputed Beninese bronzes, most of which were looted by British forces in 1897. This year, Germany said it would begin returning to Nigeria a “substantial” number of the bronzes. Beninese bronzes held in its museums.

Maintenance work at the British Museum and the pandemic kept the Parthenon marbles from being seen publicly for almost a year. The Acropolis Museum, which was specially built to house the classical sculptures at the foot of the monument in Athens, reopened in May.

Mitsotakis is particularly keen to ensure the repatriation of the sculptures, having described the UK’s refusal to engage in talks a “losing battle”.

The constant view of the British Museum is that the sculptures were acquired legally, with Elgin having received the formal consent of the Ottoman Empire to remove the section of the sculptures.

“His actions were thoroughly investigated by a select parliamentary committee in 1816 and were found to be fully legal, before the sculptures entered the collection of the British Museum by an Act of Parliament”, museum says on its website.

Activists described the government’s new stance as a diversionary tactic.

Paul Cartledge, professor emeritus of Greek culture at Cambridge University and vice-chairman of the UK Committee for the Return of the Parthenon Marbles, told the Guardian it was a “sleight of hand”.

“This is nonsense,” he said. “Even if the trustees agreed to abandon them, the final decision to overturn the 1816 law which declared the Elgin collection to be nation-owned would have to legally pass through the British parliament. There is no doubt that the pressure is mounting for true post-imperial reconciliation in the cultural sphere and Johnson is trying to escape it.

Greek media said Mitsotakis told the British leader that the marbles were “a major problem” for bilateral relations that Athens would not let go.