British Museum Chairman George Osborne has reportedly drawn up an agreement with Athens as part of a “cultural exchange” to return the Elgin Marbles. According to The Telegraph, the former Conservative Party chancellor is reportedly seeking to repatriate the antiquities back to Greece.
It comes after the Government rejected Tory peer Lord Vaizey of Didcot’s call for a law change to make it easier for UK museums to deal with restitution requests, as current legislation prevents treasures from being legally given away by the museum. However, the loan deal will not end the long-running dispute over the 17 sculptures and part of a frieze that decorated the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple at the Acropolis.
Lord Elgin - Thomas Bruce - after whom the marbles have been named, was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire between 1799 and 1803. He petitioned the authorities to be able to draw, measure and remove the marbles.
Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has called for the marbles to be returned to Greece on many occasions, even offering to loan some of his country’s other treasures to the British Museum in exchange. In December 2022, the museum said in a statement it had “publicly called for a new Parthenon Partnership with Greece” and would “talk to anyone, including the Greek government about how to take that forward”. In December, Germany returned artefacts to Nigeria, in a similar agreement.
But what other antiquities are disputed? Here’s some of the items wanted back by countries:
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1. The Elgin Marbles
The Elgin Marbles are marble architectural decorations from the Parthenon (also known as the temple of Athena) in Athens. They date from between 447BC and 432BC. One of the central aspects of the sculptures is a 75-metre-long section of frieze which depicts the procession of the Panathenaic festival (the commemoration of the birthday of the goddess Athena). Around 50% of the marbles are believed to have been lost over the past 2,500 years. Most of what’s left of the marbles is displayed in the British Museum in London. The relic were taken by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century when he was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and have been the subject of controversy over where they should be displayed. | AFP via Getty Images
2. The Benin Bronzes
A series of Benin Bronzes were returned to Nigeria by Germany in December 2022, after they were stolen by the British Empire 125 years ago. The historical artefacts, some of which are believed to have been created almost 500 years ago, originate from Benin City - a major Nigerian city some 400km south of the country’s capital Abuja. | AFP via Getty Images
3. The Louvre’s Egyptian frescos
Controversy erupted at the Louvre after Egyptian officials claimed that the Paris museum had refused to give back four ancient frescoes from a tomb near Luxor. Egypt and France disagreed on how the works came to the museum. According to Art News, the head of Egypt’s antiquities department Zahi Hawass claimed that the works were “stolen” during the 1980s, while Frédéric Miterrand, then the French Culture Minister, said that they were acquired by the museum in “good faith” in 2000 and 2003 from a Parisian gallery and auction house, respectively. | Gary Todd
4. Nefertiti’s bust
The 3,500-year-old limestone bust of Queen Nefertiti is considered one of the most important artefacts to come out of ancient Egypt—though you can only view it if you visit Germany. During a 1912 Egyptian excavation, German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt discovered the bust of the 14th Century BC queen. He claimed to have an agreement with the Egyptian government that included rights to half his finds and Berlin has proudly displayed the item since 1923. Over the past decade, as Egypt has ramped up its efforts to get back its cultural heritage held abroad, the bust has faced calls for Berlin’s National Museums to return it, including from Hawass, who claimed that it entered Germany illegally. | DDP/AFP via Getty Images