A deal to send the Elgin Marbles back to Greece from the UK was brought closer after Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis met UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London, said officials involved in the talks.
Following the get-together on December 3, British Museum chairman George Osborne told the Political Currency podcast on December 5:”Essentially, as the chair of the trustees, we’re looking to see if we can come to some arrangement where, at some point, some of the sculptures are in Athens, where they were originally sited and, in return, Greece lends us some of its treasures.
“And we’ve made a lot of progress on that,” he added.
On the same day, Professor Irene Statamoudi, who has advised the Greek culture ministry during the Elgin Marbles talks, told BBC Radio 4‘s Today programme: “A deal is close.”
The marbles are ancient Greek sculptures from the Parthenon and other structures from the Acropolis of Athens that were removed to Britain in the early 1800s.
Conservative Party critics of Labour Party leader Starmer attacked the news, which followed an October agreement to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. It was “another sell-out by Starmer”, claimed former Conservative leadership candidate Robert Jenrick on X on December 2, while Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride told Sky News on December 3 the artefacts “belong in the British Museum”.
“The Prime Minister should be standing up for Britain, our heritage, and our world-class cultural institutions instead of giving in to pressure from campaigners who detest British history,” Shadow Culture Minister Saqib Bhatti also told Sky News on the same day.
A clause in the 1963 British Museum Act prohibits items being removed from the institution’s collection.
The return of the Elgin Marbles therefore could instead take the form of a long-term loan, although the Telegraph reported Starmer’s officials were also exploring whether a “loophole” in the Charities Act 2022 allowed museums to dispose of artefacts if there was a “moral obligation” to do so.
Talks over shipping the sculptures back to Greece were “well advanced”, the Guardian‘s Athens correspondent reported on December 2.
Mitsotakis and Greece’s foreign minister George Gerapetritis have held “private meetings” with British Museum officials, including Osborne, on “two or three occasions” in 2024, according to a report from Sky News on December 2.
Mitsotakis has, in particular, welcomed a Downing Street statement that “those decisions are entirely for the British Museum”.
The statement indicated the UK Government would not stand in the way of any agreement the Greek Government reached with the museum, Mitsotakis said.
As many as 53 per cent of UK residents supported eventually returning the Elgin Marbles to Greece, while 24 per cent said they should remain in the British Museum, a poll by YouGov released December 2 disclosed.
The developments came as Starmer’s government has faced broader public-opinion headwinds.
Only 26 per cent of UK residents believed Starmer was doing a good job as Prime Minister, an Ipsos poll released December 3 showed.
Only 19 per cent were pleased by the Labour Party’s record in government five months after being voted in.
The progress towards a deal on the Elgin Marbles under Starmer made for a sharp contrast with former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s previous Conservative government.
Sunak cancelled a November 2023 meeting with Mitsotakis – a day before it was to take place – after the Greek PM compared the Marbles’ current location with “cutting the Mona Lisa in half”.
A Conservative party official said at the time in response to the cancelled meeting: “The Elgin Marbles are part of the permanent collection of the British Museum and belong here.
“It is reckless for any British politician to suggest that this is subject to negotiation.”
