Rishi Sunak cancels meeting with Greek PM after row over Elgin Marbles
Rishi Sunak has cancelled a meeting with new Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis after he said he would use it to press for the return of the Parthenon Marbles.
Mr Mitsotakis, who was elected in June, had travelled to London to meet with Mr Sunak as well as Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, and told the BBC over the weekend that he would raise the issue of the ancient Greek artefacts.
But the meeting with Mr Sunak, set to take place on Tuesday, has since been cancelled, with Tory sources claiming the demand, a long-standing policy of successive Greek governments, had made it “impossible”.
The sculptures, part of a set that adorned the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens since 400 BCE, were removed in 1807 and are one of the best-known collections in the British Museum.
The legitimacy of their removal from Ottoman Greece at the behest of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, has been a matter of dispute ever since, and there have been growing calls within Greece for their return in recent years.
A custom-built museum in Athens funded by the Greek government has stood ready since 2009 in anticipation of the eventual return of the sculptures, but the UK has resisted pressure amid wider calls for the restitution and repatriation of artefacts brought to the country during the British colonial era.
“The Prime Minister is disappointed that Prime Minister Sunak cancelled their bilateral meeting at the 11th hour today,” the Greek government said on Monday after the meeting was cancelled.
“Greece and Britain have a very deep history of friendship and cooperation, and the Greek Government is extremely surprised by this decision.
“The prime minister was looking forward to discussing a range of topics of mutual interest including the Israel-Gaza conflict, Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, climate change, as well as common challenges such as migration, and of course the Parthenon Sculptures.”
The British government confirmed the meeting had been cancelled but did not say why, with deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden offered up to meet Mr Mitsotakis instead.
But a Tory source told the BBC it was “impossible for this meeting to go ahead following commentary regarding the Elgin marbles,” adding: “Our position is clear – the Elgin Marbles are part of the permanent collection of the British Museum and belong here. It is reckless for any British politician to suggest that this is subject to negotiation.”
A source on the Greek side said Mr Mitsotakis and his team were “baffled, surprised and not a little bit annoyed” at the cancellation, which was due to include a discussion of migrant small boat crossings – one of Mr Sunak’s top priorities.
The Greek leader met with Labour leader Sir Keir and several shadow cabinet ministers on Monday, with Sir Keir vowing to “boost UK-Greek cooperation in key areas”.
A Greek readout of the meeting did not mention the marbles but said that they discussed “the important cultural links between the two countries, including the great contribution of the Greek communities to British society”.
Former Chancellor George Osborne, now chair of the British Museum, has previously signalled he is open to a possible deal that could see the marbles returned to Greece, possibly as part of a short-term loan agreement in return for other Greek artefacts.
Former culture secretaries Ben Bradshaw and Lord Vaizey are among other figures who have backed calls for their return to Greece.
The museum is not able to return the marbles without a change in law, as the 1963 British Museum Act bars it from removing any part of its collection.
Mr Sunak’s spokesperson said earlier on Monday: “I think the prime minister’s on the record that the Parthenon Sculptures in the British Museum were legally acquired under the laws at the time.
“They’re legally owned by the trustees of the British Museum. We fully support this position — indeed the British Museum Act prohibits the removal of objects from the museum’s collection.
“We have no plans to change the law,” he added, claiming “the world comes to the UK regularly to see the marbles”.
The British Museum has faced turbulence in recent months after a dramatic admission that the theft of hundreds of priceless artefacts from its collection went unnoticed for years – with a prominent curator of Greek antiquities among those caught up in the row, which led to the resignation of the museum’s director Hartwig Fischer.
The museum has long maintained a public stance that it houses objects from around the world to protect them – a narrative that some have since questioned.
Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on reparations to Africa, told The Guardian: “One of the most insulting reasons that they’ve given is that the other countries that these items belong to would either not be able to take care of them or they are likely to be stolen, but you’ve got people in this country putting them on eBay.”
