The chair of the British Museum’s board of trustees, George Osborne, has reiterated that an agreement on loaning the Parthenon Marbles can be reached, proposing that the ancient sculptures be displayed alternately in Athens and London.
“We are clear that they [the Marbles] came here legitimately. Would I like them to also spend some of their time in Athens? Yes, I would and that’s the first time the British Museum has ever said that,” Osborne told the Greek newspaper Kathimerini. The former UK Conservative Chancellor believes such a deal can be done before his tenure ends as chair in three years’ time. “I enter this discussion in really good faith, and I’d like to reach an agreement. I also think the timing is good,” he says.
Parthenon Marbles: is a breakthrough in sight?
The fifth-century BC marbles have been housed in the British Museum since 1817, arriving after their removal from the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis in Athens by the Scottish nobleman Lord Elgin, then ambassador to the Ottoman court. In 2022, Osborne said in a radio interview that there is a “deal to be done” over sharing the Parthenon Marbles with Greece, which has long claimed ownership of the antiquities.
Osborne explained that the museum’s board would now support a rotation arrangement which he said could allow the sculptures to be loaned under British law. “My conception and what the museum’s board would like to see is that these very valuable and historically significant marbles would spend some of their time in Athens and some of their time in London,” he said.
The British Museum says it is prevented from returning the marbles by the British Museum Act 1963. Asked if the law can be changed, Osborne said: “Parliament can change the law. But it’s also not really the conception of the British Museum—I understand that not everyone here in Athens will appreciate or respect this—which is that you can see these objects from all these different civilisations next to each other.”
However, Greek authorities have long rejected any temporary loan agreements that would require them to acknowledge the British Museum's legal claim to the Parthenon Marbles. They have insisted on permanent repatriation. According to The Telegraph, Osborne's latest suggestion of a rotating loan agreement between London and Athens has been deemed a "no-go" by Greek officials.
The British Museum trustees dispute that the museum's Parthenon Marbles were stolen, stating: “This isn't true. Lord Elgin, the British diplomat who transported the sculptures to England, acted with the full knowledge and permission of the legal authorities of the day in both Athens and London.”
Osborne also hinted at the relocation of the Parthenon Marbles while the Western Range of galleries at the British Museum undergo renovation as part of the institution’s ambitious masterplan. “We will show them somewhere else in the museum while the renovation takes place,” he said. “There’s no doubt that even without an agreement, they’ll still be on public display.”
The Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis continues to pressure the British Museum to return the Parthenon Marbles. “The surviving sculptures should be viewed together, at the same time, within sight of the monument for which they were created,” he said last month, referencing the purpose-built Acropolis Museum in Athens, which now displays plaster copies of the marbles in London.