Greek PM urges Burnham to return Elgin Marbles permanently

The Greek prime minister has called on Andy Burnham to find the "political will" to send the Parthenon sculptures back to Greece. Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote in the Guardian that returning the classical treasures, also known as the Elgin Marbles in the UK, would "send a powerful signal" but would require "courage". The sculptures have been on display in the British Museum since the 19th Century, though Greece has long disputed the legality of their removal. Mitsotakis and his government have previously held talks with the British Museum about the sculptures, but the two have so far failed to reach an agreement, with Greek authorities seeking their permanent return. Mitsotakis said he was "surprised at the recent suggestion from the museum that the Bayeux Tapestry loan might provide a template for an agreement over the Parthenon sculptures", adding: "I do not believe it does." "Greece cannot accept any arrangement that would require it to recognise the British Museum's ownership of the sculptures, or a scheme that would mean we 'borrow' parts of our own monument," he wrote. Instead, he urged Burnham to stand a way of returning them for good. This would be a "decisive step", Mitsotakis said, that would "reunite the sculptures and transform a historic dispute into a unique act of cultural friendship". Back in 2023, several years before he returned to government and became prime minister, Burnham said the sculptures should be returned to Greece with "no strings attached". For years, he supported a change in the law to allow for this. But last month, he told the Financial Times that "ultimately it's an issue for the British Museum", adding that "legally that's where that issue rests". Many of the Elgin Marbles originate from the Parthenon in Athens British ambassador Lord Elgin was granted permission , the governing authority in Athens at the time, to remove some of the marble statues in the early 19th Century. They were created between 447BC and 432BC to decorate the Temple of Athena - what is now known as the Parthenon, in the Acropolis in Athens. After an 1816 parliamentary select committee deemed Elgin's actions legal, the sculptures entered the British Museum collection . The Greeks dispute their removal was lawful and the demands to return the statues have been vocal. The Parthenon gallery in the Acropolis Museum in the Greek capital was deliberately designed with spaces left for the sculptures in the British Museum. Back in 2023, George Osborne, then the museum chair, told the BBC he was looking for a "more co-operative arrangement" after "quite a bitter disagreement" with the Greeks for more than 200 years.