Campaigners call for end to ‘covert’ deal to return Parthenon marbles to Greece | British Museum
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss, historian David Starkey and former Wales Secretary John Redwood, the British Museum’s return to Greece’s Parthenon marbles to Greece is reported to be part of a “secret” campaign.
Letter, Viewed by Sky NewsCulture Secretary Lisa Nandy and British Museum reportedly sent to the Board of Trustees to Keir Starmer.
The letter was organized by the hard -right campaign group Great British Pac, directed by Conservative activist Claire Bullivant and former reform assistant leader Ben Habib.
He calls for an end to any negotiation to risk Parthenon statues or legal difficulties, also known as Elgin marbles.
In the letter, the campaignists say that they claim as a “secret negotiation ve and refer to an accelerating campaign to remove Elgin marbles from the British Museum”.
Parthenon or Elgin, marbles are the ancient Greek statues that once decorated the temple in the Acropolis in Athens. Between 1801 and 1815, although there was no supportive document, he was abolished by the Ottoman Empire Ambassador Lord Elgin, who claimed that he had permission to receive them. The sculptures were purchased by the British Museum in 1816, but their rightful ownership has been discussed since the 1980s.
Last year, two months after Labour’s election victory, Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapethrit said he believed that an agreement was “relatively close” to Guardian. The negotiations between Athens and British Museum began in 2021.
Previously, a cultural partnership between the two countries could be supported by any possible agreement, statues returned to Athens and re -met with other pieces exhibited in the Parthenon Galleries of the Acropolis Museum in exchange for famous artworks in the exhibitions in London.
Responding to reports on the Great British PAC letter, Oxford University Professor of Archeology Professor Hicks said: “The accusation of a secret and accelerating campaign seems to be aimed at the delegation of trustees assigned to the public, but it is actually the structure, financing and identity of the great British PAC.
“Perhaps those who signed can explain exactly who and what this group and who pays. This letter is a scary and desperate cultural warrior exercise in the field of intimidating and intimidation developed by undefined political actors.”
“International loans have been a normal part of the operation of museum exhibitions for more than a century. To give an example, the British Museum itself will be the recipient of a high -profile loan from France, many of which will exhibit the Bayeux goblen. He will question that he cannot make permanent feedbacks.
“And some of them, including me, ask why national museum managers and board of trustees did not call for a change in the laws of the 1960s. But the legality of lending to the EU nation would be really strange.”
British Museum spokesman said: “Discussions about a Parthenon partnership with Greece continues and constructive.
“We believe that such long -term partnership will open the right balance between sharing our biggest objects with the audiences in the world and maintaining the integrity of the incredible collection we hold in the museum.”
