Greece willing to send its treasures to London to regain Parthenon marbles

New developments around the Parthenon marbles affair. In fact, last Dec. 27, the Greek minister of culture, Lina Mendoni, told the Guardian that Athens is ready to part with some of its treasures in order to obtain in exchange the marbles that Lord Elgin brought to London in 1801 (the British Museum, where they are now kept, later acquired them in 1816). “Our position is clear,” Mendoni said. “If the sculptures were to be reunited in Athens, Greece is ready to organize rotating exhibitions of important antiquities that would fill the gap.” As of yet, discussions have not mentioned specific objects (there are those in the Greek press, however, who are advancing the name of the Mask of Agamemnon), but what is important is that, for the first time, the minister has given an idea of what Athens is willing to do to get the marbles back. What Greece would send to London, Mendoni said, “would fill the void [left by the Parthenon marbles], constantly maintaining and renewing international visitor interest in the British Museum’s Greek galleries.”

Lina Mendoni’s interview follows by about a month the stance taken by the British Museum’s president, George Osborne, who in mid-November, at the annual dinner of the trustees, the museum’s trustees, called for collaboration between the British Museum and Greece to make sure that the sculptures can be admired “both in Athens and in London” and that no one has to give up their prerogatives.

Image: Parthenon Marbles, parts of the frieze at the British Museum. Photo by Paul Hudson

Greece willing to send its treasures to London to regain Parthenon marbles

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