Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Israeli media platform: The Degel HaTorah party, which has four members in the Knesset, announces its withdrawal from Netanyahu's cabinet.
Local Syrian sources: The raids targeted the road between the village of Al-Mazra'a and the city of Sweida, where forces and factions affiliated with the Syrian Ministry of Defense are advancing.
Local Syrian sources: New raids carried out by Israeli warplanes targeted vehicles and gatherings of military factions affiliated with the new Syrian Ministry of Defense.
Local Syrian sources: Israeli raids target, for the third time, gatherings of Syrian Defense Forces military factions in the southern countryside of Sweida.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza: Gaza Strip hospitals received 120 martyrs and 557 wounded in the past 24 hours.
The Israeli Walla! website: We are running out of stockpiles, our forces are exhausted, and the lives of the captives are in danger. It is time for a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
Several wounded in an Israeli bombardment of a tent in al-Mawasi, south of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli media: Three wounded, three killed in an ongoing operation in the Gaza Strip.
Al Mayadeen's correspondent in southern Lebanon: Israeli artillery shelling targets the outskirts of the town of Shebaa
Al-Qassam Brigades: The targeting took place at the intersection of 'Street 5' with the western line north of Khan Younis

UK gov, British Museum at loggerheads over Parthenon Marbles: Docs

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: The Art Newspaper
  • 11 May 2023 16:07
4 Min Read

The British government lately declassified records uncovering that the Foreign Office was pretentious about the British Museum’s endeavors to hold the Parthenon Marbles in 1983.

  • x
  • Government, UK Museum at loggerheads over Parthenon Marbles: Paper
    One of the classical Greek sculptures (Reuters)

The Parthenon Marbles have long been at the core of the restitution debacle. While talk of their potential return from the British Museum to Greece resumed, the long narrative surrounding the artifacts is just going deeper.

The British government lately declassified records uncovering that the Foreign Office was pretentious of the British Museum’s endeavors to hold the Parthenon Marbles in 1983, as per The Art Newspaper.

The question of where the marbles should be located stepped to the fore when Greek culture minister Melina Mercouri visited London that year. Her “colorful personality and romantic cause attracted considerable interest and media coverage,” government records state.

Worry over losing the argument seems dominant in the documents, which reportedly note that Mercouri “undoubtedly stole the limelight from her protagonist, David Wilson [director] of the British Museum," most notably during a televised debate at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Mercouri contended that the marbles “are an integral part of a monument that represents the national spirit of Greece,” which Wilson refuted claiming that they are part of an international institution that “should not be dismembered.” Officials at the Foreign Office decided that Mercouri “won the argument hands down” in a victory against their own representative.

Peregrine Rhodes, the British Ambassador in Athens, stressed that “arguments put by Wilson are likely to be counterproductive” among the Greeks. Ahead of Mercouri’s visit, he maintained that the United Kingdom should grasp the idea. “To fudge the issue can only store up trouble for the future,” he said.

John Macrae, the Foreign Office’s head of cultural relations, acknowledged in the report more than four decades ago that “the problem seemed to me to be one that would be with us for some time to come. We had to live with it and as far as possible contain it.” 

Related News

British Museum sacks employee over 'missing, stolen, or damaged' items

Greek FM to retrieve through diplomacy what was lost in ancient wars

The report also revealed that Brian Cook, the British Museum’s curator of classical antiquities, was just as ineffectual at debating Mercouri as Wilson had been. In another meeting during her visit, Cook made “a disappointing and pedantic defense, aimed at proving that Elgin was not guilty of vandalism and that the Parthenon was a symbol of Athenian imperialism, not Greek freedom and nationhood."

To that point, Macrae wrote that “it is a pity that the BM [British Museum] does not make a more effective defence of their claim to the Marbles,” adding that “the BM should remember that what Parliament giveth, Parliament taketh away.”

Trustees are not permitted to deaccession from the collection due to the 1963 British Gallery Act, which is still being utilized to dismiss Greek compensation claims nowadays.

Former Labour arts minister Hugh Jenkins proposed modifying this act to permit deaccessioning in May 1983, ahead of Mercouri’s visit; however, this was opposed by the conservative government at the time and was not passed. According to him, the marbles’ return would “start a process of piecemeal break-up of the British Museum collections."

The Parthenon Marbles, a collection of 5th-century BCE architectural masterpieces, are at the center of one of the highest-profile restitution cases in history, which were removed from the Parthenon temple. It was located on the Acropolis in Athens in the early 19th century until it was taken by British diplomat Lord Elgin when the country was under Ottoman rule.

The restitution decision was taken last year during former PM Boris Johnson's term but was handed over to Truss after her succession. With the possibility of halting that decision, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis may talk Truss into reconsidering during an intergovernmental meeting set for later this year. 

A campaign of returning looted artifacts has hit museums across Europe and the UK as the British Museum has recently faced controversy for holding the Benin Bronzes (looted from Benin City, in modern-day Nigeria) to the Rosetta Stone (originally from Egypt) and Hoa Hakananai’a (a stone sculpture taken from Easter Island). The Horniman Museum in London announced back in August its intentions to return 72 treasured artifacts, including its collection of Benin bronzes, to Nigeria in what experts described as an “immensely significant” moment.

Read next: Truss rejects repatriating Parthenon marbles to Greece

  • Parthenon marbles
  • UK Government
  • Truss
  • UK
  • UK museum

Most Read

Hezbollah SG reveals war details on Al Mayadeen for the first time

Hezbollah SG reveals war details on Al Mayadeen for the first time

  • Politics
  • 8 Jul 2025
Major ambush in Gaza kills 6 Israeli troops, injures dozens

Major ambush in Gaza kills 5 Israeli troops, injures 14

  • Politics
  • 8 Jul 2025
Israeli soldiers are seen in Beit Hanoun ahead of an operation by the al-Qassam Brigades, undated (Al-Qassam Brigades Military Media)

'Israel' on blast as media exposes report discrepancies in Gaza ambush

  • Palestine
  • 8 Jul 2025
Yemen Navy sinks ETERNITY C ship, shares footage of operation

Yemen Navy sinks ETERNITY C ship, shares footage of operation

  • Politics
  • 9 Jul 2025

Coverage

All
The Ummah's Martyrs

Read Next

All
Al Mayadeen: UN Palestine Inquiry members reportedly resigned
Politics

Al Mayadeen: UN Palestine Inquiry members reportedly resigned

Rutte, Trump
US & Canada

Trump threatens 100% secondary tariffs on Russia, sets deadline

Syrian government soldiers on a motorcycle pass by a burning tank on the outskirts of Sweida city, where clashes erupted between the Druze community and Bedouine clans, in southern Syria, Monday, July 14, 2025 (AP)
Politics

Israeli airstrikes target Syrian military factions near Sweida

Lebanon, US, disarmament
MENA

US pressure on Lebanon grows over Resistance disarmament plan

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS