Greece’s Culture Minister Lydia Koniordou has asked Britain open negotiations over the repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles, the set of classical sculptures held in the British Museum that were stripped from the Parthenon by a British diplomat in the 1800s.
Koniordou has sent an official letter to her counterpart in England, inviting him to Greece to open discussions about the sculptures’ return to Athens, where a spot has been reserved for them at the Acropolis Museum.
The Greek Ministry of Culture shared the news on their official website.
The marble statues, known also by many as the “Elgin Marbles” after the man who took them from Greece and brought to England, once adorned the perimeter of the Parthenon in Athens.
The return of the statues is one of the longest running cultural heritage disputes on the planet, with their removal from Athens being denounced by some almost immediately in the 1800s.
The works were removed by a Scottish nobleman named Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin in the early 19th century when Athens was under Turkish rule. He claimed he had authority from the Ottomans, who were the rulers of Greece at the time.
A British government spokesperson said: “The Parthenon sculptures are the legal property of the British Museum. They are free of charge to view and are visited by people from all over the world. Decisions relating to their care are taken by the trustees of the British Museum, free from political interference.”
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