Refuting the arguments

Lord Elgin "saved" the Marbles from a worse fate by removing them to safety in Britain

In fact, the Marbles that Lord Elgin did not bring back to Britain and which remained  in Athens, have survived remarkably well and have recently benefited from cleaning using state of the art laser technology. In contrast, the Marbles retained in London were scrubbed with wire brushes in the 1930s by British Museum staff in a misguided effort to make them whiter.

Lord Elgin "legally" acquired the Marbles and the British Museum subsequently "legally" acquired them from him for the British Museum

In the absence of unequivocal documentary proof of the circumstances under which Lord Elgin removed the Marbles, the legality of Britain's acquisition of them will always be in doubt. More importantly, the fact that permission to remove them was granted not by the Greeks but by the Ottoman forces occupying Greece at that time undermines the legitimacy of Elgin's actions and thus by extension Britain's ownership. 

Lord Elgin's removal of the Marbles was archaeologically motivated

Lord Elgin's expressed intention was always to transport the Marbles to his ancestral seat in Scotland where they would be displayed as trophies in the tradition established by aristocratic collectors returning from the Grand Tour. Nobody with genuine archaeological interest in ancient Greek sculpture would ever have countenanced the disfiguring of such a beautiful and important ancient monument in the way Lord Elgin did.

The Greeks are unable to look after the Parthenon Marbles properly

The New Acropolis Museum in Athens is a world-class museum with first-rate conservation and curatorial expertise. It is the most appropriate place in the world in which to display the Parthenon Marbles. Its proximity to the ancient monument would return to them some measure of their architectural significance. While they remain in London, this aspect of their importance is steadily being erased from the cultural memory. 

It is impossible to restore the Parthenon and thus the aspiration towards 'reunification' is a false one

Restoration of the structural fabric of Parthenon temple continues apace. However, the aspiration has never been to return the frieze, pediment and metopes to  the original building but rather to reunify them within the New Acropolis Museum where they can be properly appreciated and understood, and preserved for posterity.

The Marbles are better off in London where they can be seen in the context of other world cultures

Research on museum visitors has concluded that the average visitor does not make meaningful connections between the randomly acquired objects held by encyclopedic museums. Indeed, given the choice between viewing the Parthenon Marbles within the artificial contexts applied to them by British Museum curators and experiencing them in the city of Athens from which they originate, the overwhelming evidence is that the majority of the public would prefer to see them returned to Athens.

The Marbles belong to "the world", to all of us, and should therefore be left where "everyone" can enjoy them

Now that Athens has a world-class, state-of-the-art museum in which to house the Marbles, there is no longer any justification for assuming that London is the best place for the people of the world to enjoy them. Since its opening, the New Acropolis Museum has enjoyed huge visitor numbers.

If the British Museum agreed to return the Marbles to Athens, it would "open the floodgates", leading to the denuding of the world's encyclopedic museums

There is no evidence that museums would be denuded if each request for repatriation were treated on its own merits. For European and North American museums to suggest that they would be denuded is tantamount to admitting that the majority of their collections were dubiously acquired, which is not the case. The great encyclopedic or 'universal' museums in London, Paris, Berlin, New York and elsewhere are all subject to the laws laid down within internationally agreed legal instruments such as the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the safeguarding of cultural property. Refusing to return the Marbles sends the wrong message at a time when a more ethical approach is required over disputed cultural property.

The Marbles are too important a part of the British Museum collection to allow them to be given up

The most important part of the British Museum's work in the future will be the fostering of creative cultural partnerships with other nations. These can lead to groundbreaking exhibitions such as the Terracotta Army from China and Moctezuma from Mexico. Returning the Parthenon Marbles would open a new chapter in cooperative relationships with Greece and enable visitors to the British Museum to see new objects loaned by Greek museums. Refusal to return them is hampering this process. The Parthenon Marbles display in the Duveen Galleries at the British Museum could be displayed as high-quality casts. The decision to return the Marbles to Athens would be seen as the British Museum leading the way in enlightened cultural diplomacy, the benefits of which would be diverse, long-term, and far-reaching.

The Marbles can only be "loaned" to Athens if the Greeks agree to concede Britain's legal ownership of the sculptures

Attaching such a precondition to a dispute over cultural property has been widely viewed as insulting and condescending and reminiscent of a colonialist approach to international relations. Seemingly intractable cultural disputes require both parties to adopt a spirit of open-minded generosity and to enter into discussions on equal terms and with no preconditions.

"The Elgin Marbles are no longer part of the story of the Parthenon. They are now part of another story." (Neil MacGregor, Director, British Museum)

It is not the role of museums to rewrite history to further their own ends. As their correct name makes clear, the Parthenon Marbles are, and will always be, integral to the story of the Parthenon, one of the finest cultural achievements bequeathed to us by the ancient Greeks.

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