Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has urged Britain to revive negotiations over the return of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece, after reports that talks with the British Museum have reached an impasse.
Mitsotakis wrote Thursday in The Guardian that a deal could still be reached through “political will and courage.” However, he rejected any agreement that would require Greece to recognize British Museum ownership or accept the Parthenon Sculptures as a loan.
The intervention came after The Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday that negotiations had effectively stalled, with no talks currently under way and Athens not expecting them to resume in the near future. The British Museum, however, has maintained that its position has not changed and that it remains open to a negotiated solution.
The museum says its trustees can lend the sculptures under certain conditions, including recognition of the institution’s ownership. Greece rejects that condition and wants the sculptures permanently reunited in Athens.
Mitsotakis rejects the Bayeux model
The immediate dispute has centered on the British Museum’s recent suggestion that the agreement allowing France’s Bayeux Tapestry to be displayed in London could provide a model for the Parthenon Sculptures.
British Museum Director Nicholas Cullinan said the 10-month loan demonstrated how international cultural partnerships could work, although he stressed that there was no fixed template for a future agreement. Mitsotakis rejected the comparison.
France lent the Bayeux Tapestry as an intact work that will return to France intact. The Parthenon Sculptures, by contrast, are parts of an ancient monument whose surviving elements are divided between Athens and London.
“We cannot accept any arrangement that would require us to recognise the British Museum’s ownership of the sculptures, or a scheme that would mean we ‘borrow’ parts of our own monument,” Mitsotakis wrote.
He said Greece’s objective remains the permanent reunification of the sculptures in Athens, where the Acropolis Museum was designed to display them in relation to the Parthenon.
The Greek government resumed direct discussions with the British Museum in 2021 after decades of diplomatic efforts to secure the sculptures’ return. Mitsotakis said his government had held detailed discussions with the museum’s leadership in recent years.
Why Britain holds the sculptures
The dispute concerns sculptures removed from the Parthenon in Athens by Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, between 1801 and 1805.
The British Museum says Elgin obtained permission from Ottoman authorities to remove the sculptures and that Parliament legally acquired his collection in 1816. Greece disputes the legality of their removal and has repeatedly demanded their return. The museum has held them for more than two centuries.
Greece made a formal request for their permanent return in 1983. The dispute has since been raised through international channels, including UNESCO, while Athens opened the Acropolis Museum in 2009, providing a dedicated setting for the sculptures.
The two sides remain divided over ownership. The British Museum has said its legal position prevents a permanent transfer of objects in its collection under the current framework, although it can consider loans. Greece has refused to accept a loan arrangement that would recognize British ownership.
British law remains a barrier
The British Museum’s position is also shaped by the British Museum Act 1963, which restricts the circumstances under which objects can be permanently removed from the museum’s collection.
In a written parliamentary response on Sept. 10, the UK government said it had made no assessment of the merits of changing the law and had no plans to amend it to allow the permanent transfer of the Parthenon Sculptures.
That leaves the central disagreement unresolved: Greece is seeking permanent reunification without recognizing British Museum ownership, while the museum’s existing legal framework governs what its trustees can do with objects in the collection.
Mitsotakis’ appeal comes as reports of stalled negotiations have renewed attention on whether Britain and Greece can find a new basis for talks. The British Museum has said its discussions with Greece remain constructive and ongoing.