Letter in the Financial Times 10 January, 2024: Give Parthenon marbles a one-way ticket home

One of your predictions for 2024 (FT Report, December 30) is that Britain will return the Parthenon marbles to Greece, albeit via a loan agreement rather than a full return.

You are probably right but I don’t think it is so much a question of if, but only when the marbles will eventually return to their home country. However, the idea of a temporary loan is not the solution.

The sculptures are far too fragile to be shipped between the two countries on a frequent basis. It is a forgone conclusion that it will have to be a one-way ticket.

The Elgin marbles have been well cared for by the British Museum but circumstances have changed. It is now widely acknowledged that the new Acropolis Museum is the appropriate home for the sculptures. This is also backed by a large majority of the British population.

Put it another way. The Parthenon marbles have been on loan to Britain for more than a century and now the time has come to return them to their country of origin.

Angus Neill Art Dealer, London 

Professor Paul Cartledge's  letter to the Times, was published on Saturday 01 December.

Sir

It is good to know that Louis de Bernières (letter, Nov 30) is a philhellene, but his assertion that Lord Elgin took the marbles with Ottoman permission is doubly untrue. There is no verifiable documentary evidence to support the claim that what Elgin did was officially authorised nor did he merely take what he had removed and sold to the British government. Your headline 'Surrendering the Elgin Marbles to Athens' is also unfortunate: this is not a matter of war but diplomacy, and the only Marbles in question are those removed from the Parthenon, not the entirety of the Elgin collection of marble sculptures now in the BM.

Paul Cartledge
(Vice-Chair, British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles)

And on Sunday with Michael Portillo, fast forward to 1:07:30 to catch the discussion on the Parthenon Marbles. Paul wore a Thalassa tie, the same creators of the tie worn by King Charles III at COP28. Paul's tie isn't woven with the motif of the Greek flag but has the letters of the Greek alphabet. 

Earlier in the week Paul also spoke on NTD, a New York-based, global television network as well as Ta Nea: "Britain is isolated on the issue of the Parthenon Marbles. Greece's request for reunification will remain on the table, as it has been for more than four decades since it was submitted to UNESCO. We will continue our campaign and urge Greece to continue to ask the trustees of the British Museum to do what is right: return the sculptures, but not as loans, to their natural environment, the Acropolis Museum."

Page 24 of the Times, Letters to the Editor, 13 May 2025, a BCRPM letter:

Dear Sir

Re: Nicholas Cullinan’s interview in The Times on Saturday.  

Along with the majority of the British public (according to a recent survey), we hold that the Parthenon Sculptures in the British Museum are part of a unique work of international significance and should be reunited with those remaining in Athens. There they are displayed in full view of the building for which they were originally carved.  It was dismaying to read the implications of the Director’s description of the sculptures as “…talismanic objects of this museum.”  It has been proved that no official permission was granted to Elgin to remove the sculptures, all prized with enormous violence from the face of the temple. These stolen goods were then shipped to the UK for decorating Elgin’s own home.  A talisman is something that brings good luck.  How can stolen goods bring good fortune to any institution?[ The Times did not print these two lines]

Simply in terms of diplomacy, we believe it would be a tragic error to position these disputed sculptures at the centre of the “reimagining” of the Museum.  This re-imagining should surely be excited rather by the prospect of showing off wonderful objects never seen before in the UK, promised by Greece once returned. Greece is one of our strongest allies and it is surely not the time to insult that friendship.  

We hope that talks vis a vis some mutually constructive arrangement continue and will have a positive outcome for both countries. 

Yours sincerely,

Victoria Hislop FRSL, Prof Paul Cartledge, Janet Suzman DBE (British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles). 

On Saturday, the Times Magazine's five page interview with Dr Cullinan, the director of the British Museum was an enlightening read. BCRPM met with Dr Cullinan earlier this year and we came away looking forward to a new era at the British Museum, not least as the museum prepares to reimagine its spaces.

Meanwhile talks between Greece and the BM continue because the devil is in the detail. Plus 12 days ago, Sir Chris Bryant, the Minister for Creative Industries, Art and Tourism reminded Alberto Costa and others in a Westminster Hall debate that without an amendment to the Museum Act, all the BM can do is lend the sculptures to Greece for a stated period and ensure their return. 

"I have read articles where people in Greece say that they are not interested in a loan anyway, because a loan implies that the marbles still belong to the British Museum rather than to Greece. The important point that I am trying to clarify—because I think there has been some misunderstanding—is that under existing law, it would be impossible for there to be a permanent or indefinite loan. The trustees would be required, in seeking a licence to export, to show that they were absolutely certain that the items were returning. I do not think that would be easy if they had arranged a permanent or indefinite loan—the point being that we would have to change the law. The immediate question that the hon. Member may ask is whether we are intending to change the law. We have no intention to change the law.

There are provisions in the 1963 Act for temporary loans, and my understanding is that the chairman of the British Museum has been in some discussions. We have not been party to those discussions, but he has briefly outlined some of the issues that have arisen, both to me and to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. I am not aware of any further developments in that area in recent months. "