The British government on Wednesday expressed the hope of a speedy return to Greece of the Parthenon friezes, on display at the British Museum in London, including in the form of a long-term loan recently mentioned by the British press.
“I’ve been very clear on this: I don’t think they should go back to Greece,” Culture Minister Michele Donelan told the BBC about the thorny issue at the center of tensions between London and Athens.
Greece has been asking for the return of a 75-meter frieze detached from the Parthenon for decades, as well as one of the famous caryatids of the Erechtheion, a small ancient temple also on the rock of the Acropolis, both key pieces of British architecture. Museum.
No loan over 100 years
London claims the sculptures were “lawfully acquired” in 1802 by British diplomat Lord Elgin, who sold them to the British Museum. But Greece maintains that they were “plundered” while the country was under Ottoman occupation.
The president of the British Museum, George Osborne, “is not going to return them. It is not his intention. He has no desire to do so,” he swept with the Minister of Culture, Michele Donelan. on the podcast news agentsthe minister considered that the idea of 100-year loans was “not at all in the spirit of the legislation.”
On Monday, a Greek government spokesman admitted that negotiations with the British Museum “were not easy”. “We have come a long way, we have taken steps (forward) and the efforts continue,” he said.
“The objective is the definitive return” of the friezes, this spokesman insisted, because Greece “does not recognize the possession or ownership (of these works) by the British Museum.”
Other relevant jobs
In recent years, pressure has increased, following anti-racism movements, for Western museums to return works, particularly those obtained during the colonial period, to their country of origin.
In August, a museum in Glasgow, Scotland, handed over to India seven works of art looted from holy sites during colonization in the 19th century, a first for a cultural institution in the UK.
On the other hand, inhabitants of Easter Island in the Pacific continue to demand from the British Museum the return of the moai Hoa Hakananai’a, a monolith 2.4 meters high and weighing four tons. It had been taken off the island without authorization in 1868 by the navigator Richard Powill who had offered it to Queen Victoria.
Source: BFM TV
