Greek PM urges UK PM to return Elgin Marbles permanently

Mitsotakis said he was "surprised at the recent suggestion from the museum that the Bayeux Tapestry loan might provide a template for an agreement over the Parthenon sculptures", adding: "I do not believe it does.""Greece cannot accept any arrangement that would require it to recognise the British Museum's ownership of the sculptures, or a scheme that would mean we 'borrow' parts of our own monument," he wrote.Instead, he urged Burnham to stand by his previous comments on the sculptures and find a way of returning them for good.This would be a "decisive step", Mitsotakis said, that would "reunite the sculptures and transform a historic dispute into a unique act of cultural friendship".Back in 2023, several years before he returned to government and became prime minister, Burnham said the sculptures should be returned to Greece with "no strings attached". For years, he supported a change in the law to allow for this. But last month, he told the Financial Times that "ultimately it's an issue for the British Museum", adding that "legally that's where that issue rests".Bloomberg via Getty ImagesMany of the Elgin Marbles originate from the Parthenon in AthensBritish ambassador Lord Elgin was granted permission by the Ottoman Empire, the governing authority in Athens at the time, to remove some of the marble statues in the early 19th Century.