The President of the British Museum, george osborneheld this week a “secret” conversation with the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakisin which they addressed the repatriation of the parthenon marbles of Athens, the newspaper “The Times” reported this Saturday.
The former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, appointed head of the London museum in June last year, met the Greek leader at a hotel in the wealthy Knightsbridge district of the British capital on Monday, the newspaper reported.
Mitsotakis, who during his visit to the United Kingdom was received by the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunakand the king Charles IIIhad held “exploratory talks” with Osborne last November, as revealed by the Greek press.
The new meeting in Knightsbridge, whose sole aim was to discuss the return of the 2,500-year-old sculptures, has raised expectations that progress will be made towards resolving the bitter dispute between the UK and Greece.
Athens has been demanding the pieces for years and expressly built in 2009 a new Acropolis Museum to demonstrate that it has a suitable place to house this archaeological treasure.
The sculptures, known as the elgin marblesoccupy a prominent place in the British Museum, which has an extensive collection of pieces from ancient Greece and other ancient cultures, as well as possessing the largest display of objects from Pharaonic Egypt outside of Cairo.
The Parthenon marbles were acquired by the Scottish aristocrat Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of Elgin, between 1801 and 1805, when he was ambassador to the Ottoman court in Istanbul -occupied by Greece-, and later sold to the United Kingdom, transactions that Greece has described as as “plunder”.
Source: Lasexta
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