British Museum trying to work deal
The chairperson of the British Museum has said is it “worth trying” to work with Greece to see if the Parthenon Sculptures “can be seen both in London and Athens, while treasures currently in Greece could be seen by new audiences here.”
In his “Diaries” column in the Spectator magazine, George Osborne said that the London museum is “exploring with the Greeks whether there’s a way to solve this 200-year-old dispute” over ownership of the sculptures, which were removed from Athens by Lord Elgin from 1801 to 1812.
“The Elgin Marbles have always been controversial. Some, like that great Romantic poet Lord Byron, thought they should never have left Greece; but at the British Museum they have been admired by tens of millions of people and I believe they play a vital role in telling the complete story of our common humanity,” Osbourne said.
“We may succeed, or we may not, but it’s worth trying,” he continued. Without quoting them, he was critical of recent remarks by former UK prime minister Boris Johnson, who said that returning the sculptures to Athens would be an “infamy of infamies.”
“I read this week that that other great romantic, Boris Johnson, is worried about it. Surely that can’t be the same Boris who once wrote a column saying that ‘the reasons for taking the Marbles were good. The reasons for handing them back are better still. The Elgin Marbles should leave this northern whisky-drinking guilt culture, and be displayed where they belong: in a country of bright sunlight and the landscape of Achilles’?”
“There must be two Borises,” Osbourne concluded.
