“We learn to pick our fights in multilateral diplomacy, and [the return of the Parthenon Sculptures] was worth fighting for,” sums up one of Greece’s unexpected allies. Egyptian diplomat Maged Mosleh is speaking for the first time about the battle fought – and won – by Greece at the UNESCO Intergovernmental
Achieving an agreement for the permanent return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece by the British Museum “is difficult, but not impossible,” said Culture Minister Lina Mendoni in Parliament on Monday, reiterating the government’s stance that she says “remains national, unanimous, consistent and clear.”
In the last few months there have been encouraging signs that what Cavafy might have termed “mia kapoia lysis” to the vexed question of the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Athens might be found.
Greece will continue to demand the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Athens and their reunification with the Parthenon, Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said on Friday, responding to recent comments by her British counterpart that returning the sculptures would “open a can of worms.”
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday dismissed reports of an imminent repatriation of the Parthenon sculptures known in Britain as the Elgin marbles.
Politics is, as they say, the art of the possible. Nevertheless, sometimes politicians turn their backs on the attainable, especially if it does not help them politically and gives points to their opponents.
There is indeed a basis to the opposition’s fear that the government will use a possible return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece in its pre-election campaign to garner votes.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has expressed his confidence that the Parthenon Sculptures, currently exhibited at the British Museum, will be returned to Athens.
Negotiations for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures are ongoing, government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou said on Monday.
Last week, there were several stories in some British and American media implying that an agreement over cultural exchanges between Greece and the United Kingdom is imminent and that it would involve the loan of part of the Parthenon Sculptures held in the British Museum.
What is all this business with the Parthenon Sculptures all of a sudden? Is it the barrage of foreign reports, each presenting its own version of developments and inside information?
The Parthenon Sculptures were in the limelight again this week after a series of publications, mostly in the British press, rekindled the debate about their return to their homeland in Athens from the British Museum in London.
Any answer to whether an agreement is possible on the issue of the Parthenon Sculptures is unlikely to be correct.
The Parthenon Sculptures could be “homeward bound,” according to the lead article in the London “Times” on Thursday. The editorial said there were “signs” that the British Museum’s chairman, George Osborne, may be close to announcing a compromise that will allow the sculptures to return to Athens on an open-ended loan.
The British Museum said on Wednesday it was holding “constructive discussions” with Greece over the Parthenon Sculptures amid renewed speculation that the 2,500-year-old marbles could soon be returned to Athens.
Sources within the Culture Ministry have dismissed a report by Bloomberg on Tuesday that the British Museum and Athens’ Acropolis Museum are nearing a deal that would see the Parthenon Sculptures returned to Greece over time as part of a cultural exchange.
