In the continued pursuit for the return of the Parthenon marbles, Greece is prepared to offer the UK some of its other treasures in exchange for the fifth-century artefacts.
Greece’s Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni spoke to The Guardian following a significant year for the campaign, promising that if the marbles were to return to their homeland, the British Museum will be compensated.
“Our position is clear,” she said. “Should the sculptures be reunited in Athens, Greece is prepared to organise rotating exhibitions of important antiquities that would fill the void.”
She did not specify if any particular artefacts or works had been requested by London, saying that the discussions have not extended to “specific artefacts.”
However, the trained archaeologist did share that Athens will go long way to make sure the museum’s Greek galleries stay full, saying anything sent in exchange would be a crowd-puller.
“They would fill the void, maintain, and constantly renew, international visitor interest in the Greek galleries of the British Museum,” Mendoni said, though she cautioned that “any agreement and all its particulars, would have to be in accordance with the Greek law on cultural heritage”.
Discussions of a cultural exchange were first raised in 2019 when Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the New Democracy party won power.
One of the treasures many speculate could be sent to Britain as compensation is Agamemnon’s Mask – the gold funerary mask is described by some historians as the “Mona Lisa of prehistory”.
This is a shift from the bitter fighting usually seen in this long running dispute, with both sides now speaking of “partnership” and a “win-win” solution, meanwhile British Museum chair George Osborne has appeared keener to find a resolution than any other chair of the past.
