UK should never return Elgin Marbles to Greece for this key reason

I believe there is a degree of media spin on what Chris Bryant declared. The minister has rightly praised the lending activities of the British Museum, which have always been numerous and well-known.

But, as with the recent case of the Ashante gold, the borrowing institution must acknowledge the British Museum’s ownership of the items and guarantee their return at the end of the loan.

What the Minister is hinting at is our willingness to lend items from the Elgin Collection to whoever is willing to offer those guarantees, which is nothing new.

What is preventing a loan here is not the BM; it’s the Greeks’ attitude. 

Greek Culture Minister Mendoni stated once again this January in the Hellenic Parliament their government’s position to refuse a loan against attacks from the opposition, which accused the Mitsotakis government of being soft on a forty-year-old fundamental policy held firmly by governments of every colour.

Contrary to the disingenuous way Mr George has posed the written question, this is not a legal issue but a political-ideology one. The Greeks obstinately refuse what is abundantly clear to historians and legal experts: that by giving Lord Elgin permission to remove the Marbles from the Acropolis, the Ottoman Empire acted well within its rights, disposing of a public asset from a place under its internationally recognised sovereignty. We have no right to second-guess their lawful actions.

Until the Greeks accept that the claim to the Marbles was born thirty years after their removal as part of a nation-building narrative set by the first German rulers of the newly created state, there will be no solution to this impasse.

On our side, we should not be giving away important elements of our cultural history just to satisfy another country’s nationalistic fantasies; this is not culture, and museums should have no part in it.