The British Museum’s deputy director has proposed a “Parthenon partnership” with Greece that could see the marbles returned to Athens after more than 200 years.
The sculptures – 17 figures and part of a frieze that adorned the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple on the Acropolis – were taken by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century when he was British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and have since been the subject of a long-running dispute over where they should go to be exposed.
In an interview with the Sunday Times Culture magazine, Jonathan Williams said the British Museum wanted to “change the temperature of the debate” around the marbles.
Williams said: “What we are calling for is an active ‘Parthenon Partnership’ with our friends and colleagues in Greece. I firmly believe that there is room for a truly dynamic and positive conversation within which new ways of working together can be found.”
The British Museum has not said it will return the sculptures, with Williams saying they are “absolutely an integral part” of the collection.
However, he said they “want to change the temperature of the debate”, adding that all countries must “find a way forward around cultural exchange at a level, intensity and dynamism that has not been thought of before”.
He added: “There are lots of wonderful things that we would love to borrow. This is what we do.”
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has repeatedly called for the Parthenon marbles to be returned to Greece, even offering to loan some of his country’s other treasures to the British Museum in return.
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Mitsotakis reiterated that Greece was open to talks, but said: “Baby steps are not enough. We want big steps.”
The director of the Acropolis Museum, Nikolaos Stampolidis, said there could be a “basis for constructive talks” with the proposal for a “positive partnership with the Parthenon”.
He added: “In the troubled days we live in, their return would be an act of history. It would be like the British restoring democracy itself.
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