Greece's prime minister says his country will not accept a deal that means recognising the museum's ownership or borrowing parts of its own monument.
Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has turned down a British Museum proposal that the Bayeux arrangement could open the way to lending the Parthenon Marbles.
Nicholas Cullinan, who runs the museum, said recently that the Anglo-French agreement which brought the Bayeux embroidery to London could serve as a model for a loan of the sculptures. The embroidery depicts the Norman invasion of 1066 and the Battle of Hastings. Its display opened in the museum’s Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery, and visitors have until 11 July 2027 to see it.
Writing in an opinion piece, Mitsotakis said nobody would think it sensible to cut the Bayeux work in half and show one part in London and the other in Bayeux. That, he argued, is exactly what was done to the Parthenon sculptures, whose surviving pieces are now mainly divided between London and Athens. He wants them seen together, in view of the monument they were carved for. He pointed to the Acropolis Museum, built in Athens for that job, where plaster casts stand in for the pieces kept in London.
“Greece cannot accept any arrangement that would require it to recognise the British Museum’s ownership of the sculptures,” he wrote. He also said Greece would not agree to a scheme in which it borrows parts of its own monument. The museum says the British Museum Act 1963 stops it from returning the marbles.
Mitsotakis urged Andy Burnham, who became UK prime minister in July, to “find the political will” to give the sculptures back. Burnham said recently that the question is in the end one for the British Museum, and that legally that is where it sits. He added that he was “all in favour of using British cultural diplomacy”. As Labour leader he has previously backed returning the marbles to Greece.
The sculptures have been in the British Museum since 1817. Lord Elgin, a Scottish nobleman then serving as ambassador to the Ottoman court, had taken them from the Parthenon on the Acropolis. Mitsotakis says they were removed illegally. The museum’s trustees reject the claim that they were stolen, saying Elgin acted with the full knowledge and permission of the authorities in Athens and London at the time. Speaking on the radio in 2022, George Osborne, who chairs the museum, said there was a “deal to be done” over sharing the marbles with Greece.
Mitsotakis says Greece cannot accept any arrangement that recognises the British Museum's ownership or means borrowing parts of its own monument.
Visitors have until 11 July 2027 to see the display.
The museum says the British Museum Act 1963 stops it from returning them.
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