A senior Greek minister expressed “cautious optimism” that an agreement could be reached over the Parthenon Marbles Wednesday, after officials this week hinted at ways to break the two-century deadlock.
“There is a cautious optimism about a possible cooperation, which will include other aspects, the main one of course being the reunification of the sculptures,” government spokesman and cabinet minister Pavlos Marinakis told Athens 9.84 radio.
British authorities say the sculptures, on display at the British Museum, were legally acquired in 1802. Greece maintains they were looted when the country was under Ottoman rule.
Marinakis said a deal could involve “some partnerships on the conservation of antiquities, the exchange of exhibits in temporary exhibitions and other joint initiatives to raise awareness of ancient Greek culture”.
On Monday, officials addressing a conference on the Marbles in Athens suggested that a way out of the impasse would be to sidestep the issue of who owns the Marbles entirely.
Prominent Greek jurist Nikos Alivizatos told the Parthenon Project conference that using the word “deposit” in an agreement could enable both sides to skirt the ownership issue.
In 2022, when the Antonino Salinas Museum in Palermo sent to Greece a Parthenon marble fragment, the Greek culture ministry said it was “a deposit, not a loan” and would remain in the Greek capital for the next eight years.
Mitsotakis, who has personally campaigned for the project for years, last week pointedly noted that Greece was not asking for a “return” of the Parthenon Marbles.
“We’re talking about the reunification, not the return,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told CNN last week.
“This is going to happen at some point, I’m sure about that. We’re having discussions in good faith with the museum.”
“We’ve waited for 200 years, but this is certainly something I sense an urgency in trying to address this issue, and it’s certainly very high up my personal agenda,” Mitsotakis said.
Parthenon Project last year commissioned a YouGov poll showing that some 64 percent of Britons support the return of the Marbles.
Source: AFP
