UK Vs Greece: The Ongoing ‘Parthenon Marble Row’ (image- twitter/britishmuseum)
The row between the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Greek Prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has deepened over the past few weeks. The diplomatic bond between both the countries were tattered when the Greek demanded the custody of ancient Parthenon marbles.
Recently Rishi Sunak cancelled a scheduled meeting with his Greek counterpart sparking a diplomatic row over the status of the 25,000-year-old Parthenon sculpture being housed in the British museum. Though the Greek has demanded for its immediate return, the British museum as well as the United Kingdom has refused to do so.
Mitsotakis expressed his disappointment in Sunak’s decision to cancel the meeting and said in a release, “Greece’s positions on the issue of the Parthenon Sculptures are well known”. And he was expecting to discuss the matter with his counterpart along with other major challenges including Gaza, Ukraine, climate crisis and migration”. But he has confirmed that this will not affect their long-term relationship. “It is a relationship with historical depth”.
As per Bloomberg report, the decision to cancel the meeting came after Mitsotakis told the British broadcaster BBC that the sculptors were stolen and should be returned.
The treasured sculpture, also known as Elgin Marbles in UK, has been display in the museum since 19 century. A spokesperson for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport defended the institution’s retention of the sculpture by titling the British Museum as the “museum for our common humanity”, while speaking to BBC.
The Parthenon sculpture consists of more than 30 ancient stones from Greek dating back more than 2000 years. They are originally part of the temple dedicated to Goddess Athena. 17 pedimental figures along with 15 panels are placed in London. The 75-meter-long panel exhibits the scenes from Greek mythology, mainly depicting the birthday of Athena. Though the work survived despite all historical wars, in 1687, the masterpiece was blown up by a Venetian army resulting in the loss of many works. As per the British Museum, only 50% of the work survived and half of it is situated in the Athens and the rest in London.
Parthenon sculpture holds great importance and has been admired for millennia. The work was executed by top artists for a single building project meant to celebrate the Athenian glory.
After the destruction of the piece, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Lord Elgin shipped the sculpture to UK and the sculpture joined the museum in 1816.
Meanwhile, Athens has asked for the permanent return of their stolen treasure since their independence and accused Elgin of theft. Recently in 2019, Athens placed a proposal suggesting that they are willing to loan antiquities to the British museum in return for temporarily exhibiting them. In December 2022, Greek said it was in talks with the UK over the repatriation of the sculptures to Athens but a deal was not imminent.
While, the British museum says the sculpture can only be acquired legally through a loan request. But the works will be called back when a major event takes place. So first Athens will have to acknowledge the institution’s legal ownership of the works, which was ruled out by Greece Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, on the official website of the museum, it says that it “has called for a new Parthenon partnership with colleagues in Greece and constructive discussions are on-going”.
