Elgin Marbles will be loaned back to Greece under Labour if British Museum agrees

Sir Keir Starmer will on Monday tell the Greek prime minister he is open to the Elgin Marbles being loaned to Athens if a “mutually acceptable deal” can be struck with the British Museum.

But the Labour leader is expected to say he has no intention of changing a law which blocks the institution from handing the sculptures back to Greece on a permanent basis.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said he will raise the long-running row over the Marbles with both Sir Keir and Rishi Sunak during his visit to London, arguing that keeping the antiquities in Britain is equivalent to cutting the Mona Lisa in half.

In response, the Labour leader, whose constituency is home to the British Museum, will make clear that his party would not oppose a loan arrangement. He will also say, however, he has no plans to revisit the 1963 British Museum Act, which prevents the institution from disposing of objects from its collection except in very limited circumstances.

A source close to the Labour leader told the Financial Times: “We’re sticking with the existing law, but if a loan deal that is mutually acceptable to the British Museum and the Greek government can be agreed, we won’t stand in the way.”

It will raise Greek hopes for a breakthrough under Labour, as the Government has previously indicated that long-term loans would not be within the spirit of its position.

Greece maintains the Marbles were stolen

Athens has long demanded the return of the sculptures, which were removed from Greece by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century, when he was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

Last year, British Museum chairman George Osborne proposed a way out of the stalemate with a deal which would allow the Marbles to be loaned to Athens. This was followed by talk of a “Parthenon partnership” to ease relations between the disputing parties.

Greece, however, has always maintained the Marbles were stolen by Lord Elgin in an example of British imperialist plundering. In order to secure their loan, Greek politicians would have to accept that Britain legally acquired and owns the collection of sculptures and friezes.

A potential “cultural exchange” was touted earlier this year, which could see the Marbles temporarily returned in a swap for artefacts shipped from Greece as a form of collateral. But the talks hit a stumbling block in August when Greek archaeologists urged their government to cease negotiations with the museum, warning the Marbles were not safe there following a series of thefts from its collection.

Mr Mitsotakis said it was a question of “reunification”, rather than ownership, insisting the statues’ rightful home was in the purpose-built Acropolis Museum.

He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “This is not in my mind an ownership question, this is a reunification argument, where can you best appreciate what is essentially one monument?

“I mean, it’s as if I told you that you would cut the Mona Lisa in half, and you will have half of it at the Louvre and half of it at the British Museum, do you think your viewers would appreciate the beauty of the painting in such a way?

“Well, this is exactly what happened with the Parthenon sculptures and that is why we keep lobbying for a deal that would essentially be a partnership between Greece and the British Museum but would allow us to return the sculptures to Greece and have people appreciate them in their original setting.”

‘We’ve waited hundreds of years’

Mr Sunak, speaking in March, said there were “no plans” to change the law affecting the Marbles.

Mr Mitsotakis said: “We have not made as much progress as I would like in the negotiations, but again, I’m a patient man and we’ve waited for hundreds of years and I will persist in these discussions.”

Asked if it can be done within his time as prime minister, he added: “I would hope so, yes, I was just elected.”

A British Museum spokesman said: “Discussions with Greece about a Parthenon Partnership are on-going and constructive.

“We believe that this kind of long term partnership would strike the right balance between sharing our greatest objects with audiences around the world, and maintaining the integrity of the incredible collection we hold at the museum.”

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