Newly released documents from two decades ago show correspondence from culture policy adviser Sarah Hunter writing to Blair in April 2003, recommending the political leader privately and publicly “encourage” the British Museum to seek an alternatives to the long-contested ownership issue.

In October of the previous year, then Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis sent to Blair a proposal for a “reunification” plan that would place the marble statues in a purpose-built museum at the Acropolis in time for the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

The UK government’s longstanding position—both then and now—is that the Parthenon Marbles are under the management of the British Museum and its trustees. But at the time of Hunter’s writing, Greece was about to host the Olympics and had become president of the European Council. Hunter wrote that these were “good reasons to change tack.”

“The Greek case has become more sophisticated – arguing for a loan rather than restitution of ownership – and contrasts with the BM’s blinkered intransigence to consider any compromises,” she wrote in files released by the National Archives on Friday.

“The marbles could be a powerful bargaining chip in IOC [International Olympic Committee] vote building for a 2012 Olympic bid. The publicity attached to this move could secure the Greek nomination and help garner a wide range of other IOC votes, although we would have to guard against other nations asking for reciprocal acts.”

Hunter acknowledged that trying to make a loan during the museum’s 250th anniversary year would “be met with resistance and much broadsheet angst” but asked Blair about exploring the issue of a sharing agreement, a suggestion from former foreign secretary and SDP leader David Owen.

The Prime Minister agreed, suggesting Owen be put in charge of negotiations in his handwritten reply. “It would give it profile, he has clout, and could probably help with the BM whilst distancing it a little from govt,” Blair wrote.

The released documents also show Owen’s previous correspondence to the Cabinet Office, which had been forwarded to the Prime Minister. The documents said the former foreign secretary had been told “that the host country is consulted by the IOC extensively about the suitability of future applicants and it would not be difficult to get the Greeks to put their support behind a London bid for 2012 as a quid pro quo … ”

News of Hunter and Blair’s correspondence about a possible long-term loan of the Parthenon sculptures was first reported in the Guardian.

Last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak canceled a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis after the latter was interviewed by the BBC over the ownership question of the ancient sculptures.

Greece has also recently offered to lend some of its “most important” artifacts to the British Museum to “fill the void” left behind if the London institution returns the Parthenon Marbles to Athens. Greek culture minister Lina Mendoni told the Guardian a promised trade agreement would ensure treasures from Greek antiquities are always displayed at the London institution.

In an interview with the Guardian, Greek culture minister Lina Mendoni promised a trade agreement that would ensure treasures from Greek antiquities are always displayed at the London institution.

“Our position is clear,” she said. “Should the sculptures be reunited in Athens, Greece is prepared to organize rotating exhibitions of important antiquities that would fill the void.” Asked to elaborate on which treasures would be exchanged, Mendoni said that ongoing discussions had not reached such specifics.

“[The works] would fill the void, maintain, and constantly renew, international visitor interest in the Greek galleries of the British Museum,” Mendoni added. However, she clarified that “any agreement and all its particulars, would have to be in accordance with the Greek law on cultural heritage.”

Mendoni’s statements suggest a magnanimous turn in relations between Greece and the British Museum, capping a year of sputtered negotiations and public rebukes. The centuries-old dispute over whether the Parthenon Marbles belong in England, where they currently reside, or in Greece, from which they originate, continued in 2023, with both sides speaking of “a partnership” that could bring a “win-win” solution.

Whether 2024 will finally bring the long-running dispute to a close remains uncertain. This past January, the British Museum, which has held the sculptures since 1832, confirmed that it had been meeting with Greece over a potential loan agreement, only for Medoni to announce days later that there was no possibility of a deal affirming the United Kingdom’s ownership claim of the sculptures.

“We repeat, once again, our country’s firm position that it does not recognize the British Museum’s jurisdiction, possession and ownership of the Sculptures, as they are the product of theft,” her statement read.

And in November, tensions again rose after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak publicly accused Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of “grandstanding” over the contested artworks. Sunak later called off a meeting with Mitsotakis hours before it was set to start. Mitsotakis, for his part, told the Associated Press that, “There was a positive side to the cancellation of this meeting, that it gained even more publicity … [for] the fair request of Greece for the reunification of the sculptures of the Parthenon.”

The Headlines

EXCHANGE PROGRAM? The diplomatic drama around the Parthenon Marbles continues. Greece’s culture minister, Lina Mendoni, told the Guardian that if the UK sends the contested sculptures back to Athens from the British Museum, “Greece is prepared to organize rotating exhibitions of important antiquities that would fill the void.” The museum’s chair, George Osborne, has been open about trying to reach some form of “partnership” agreement with Greece on the contested material, but that has yet to materialize. One major issue: UK law forbids the British Museum from deaccessioning work, and Greece has been resolute that it is the rightful owner of the pieces. Last month, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak nixed a meeting with his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, because of the latter’s vocal advocacy for the repatriation of the works during a trip to the UK.

THE PUBLIC REALM. Since 1915, a Confederate monument, Tribute to the Women of the Southern Confederacy, has been on view in Jacksonville, Florida’s Springfield Park. No longer. The sculpture was removed on Wednesday by the city’s Democratic mayor, Donna Deegan, the Associated Press reports. “Symbols matter,” Deegan said in a statement. “They tell the world what we stand for and what we aspire to be.” The chair of the county Republican Party, Dean Black, said that the action “is another in a long line of woke Democrats obsession with Cancel Culture and tearing down history.” On a decidedly lighter public-art note, a massive bronze statue of the superstar singer Shakira—more than 20 feet tall!—was installed in her hometown, Barranquilla, Colombia, BBC News reports. The artist responsible for the piece is Yino Márquez. A plaque at the sculpture’s base speaks of “hips that do not lie, a unique talent, a voice that moves masses.”

The Digest

The revered artist Pope.L, “whose daredevil performances and conceptual artworks unraveled the concept of race and explored the complexities of language,” died at his home in Chicago on December 23, Alex Greenberger reports. He was 68. [ARTnews]

Unionized employees at the Eiffel Tower in Paris went on strike on Wednesday, with contract negotiations looming. The action will shutter the structure’s upper levels for the time being, a spox said. Around 20,000 people typically visit the place every day at this time of year. [AFP/France 24]

The French brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, whose collaborative practice made them leading figures in the design world for more than 20 years, have parted ways and are now working independently. Colleagues in their field spoke of intense public arguments between the two. [The New York Times]

South Korea’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art said that it has finished cataloguing the art of the late Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee that was donated to the state by his family. It includes 1,494 pieces by 266 artists. A not-for-sale book on the material will be viewable at the museum’s libraries. [Korea JoongAng Daily]

Reporter Alex Marshall paid a visit to the very cool-looking Crab Museum in Margate, England. It is about a whole lot more than crabs! [The New York Times]

The Kicker

BURNING QUESTIONS. For the Associated Press, Scott Sonner took a look at the state of Burning Man, which has been drawing larger and larger crowds of revelers—from hippie types to billionaires and celebs—out to Black Rock Desert in Nevada over the past three decades. Among participants, there is always debate about how the festival should operate, and perhaps a generational divide, Sonner reports. One five-time Burner told the AP, “The people that created this community, a lot of them are getting older and retiring and there’s a lot of new young people coming in, the kind that have, you know, a couple $100,000 RVs and are kind of just careless about the environment.” Sick burn. [AP]

Prime minister Rishi Sunak told members of Parliament on November 29 he had canceled a planned meeting with Kyriakos Mitsotakis in London the day before because the Greek prime minister had reneged on a promise not to use the four-day trip to advocate for the repatriation of the sculptures.

In Sunak’s first public comments, the British PM openly criticized Mitsotakis: “Of course we’re always happy to discuss important topics of substance with our allies, like tackling illegal migration or indeed strengthening our security.

“But when it was clear that the purpose of the meeting was not to discuss substantive issues of the future but rather to grandstand and relitigate issues of the past, it was inappropriate.”

The canceled meeting at Downing Street was scheduled for lunchtime on November 28, and prompted the office of Mitsotakis to issue a statement. “I express my annoyance at the fact that the British Prime Minister canceled our scheduled meeting a few hours before it was due to take place,” it read.

“Greece and Britain are united by traditional ties of friendship and the framework of our bilateral relations is extremely broad.”

Mitsotakis reiterated his country’s position that the famous marble sculptures on display at the British Museum should be returned to Athens. “I had hoped to have the opportunity to discuss them with my British counterpart, along with the major international challenges: Gaza, Ukraine, the climate crisis and migration … Anyone who believes his stance is right and just is never afraid of opposing arguments.”

Last month, British Museum chair George Osborne told a UK parliamentary committee that he had been in direct conversation with the Greek government about the desire to create a “proper partnership” to help resolve the multi-century dispute between the two nations. “That would mean objects from Greece coming here—objects that have potentially never left Greece before and certainly have never been seen in this country—and it would mean objects from the Parthenon collection potentially travelling to Greece,” he said at the time.

The Greek center-right leader filmed an interview with BBC News on November 16 and met with Labor leader Keir Starmer the following evening. The sculptures were central discussion topics during both events.

Mitsotakis’s remarks to BBC journalist Laura Kuenssberg included the Greek prime minister reiterating his argument for the repatriation and reunification of the marble sculptures that had been removed by Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin, instead of the current division of the Parthenon Sculptures between London and Athens.

“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 would have half of it at the Louvre and half of it at the British Museum,” he said. “Do you think your viewers would appreciate the beauty of the painting in such a way?”

Mitsotakis also told Kuenssberg that Greece had “not made as much progress” in the negotiations with Osborne and the British Museum. “But again, I’m a patient man and we’ve waited for hundreds of years and I will persist in these discussions,” he said.

According to a report from The Guardian, officials traveling with Mitsotakis said “there could be no doubt” the Greek prime minister’s comments during the BBC interview had contributed to the cancellation of the meeting with British prime minister Rishi Sunak on November 28.

One senior Conservative source, referring to the sculptures as the Elgin Marbles, told The Guardian: “It became impossible for this meeting to go ahead following commentary regarding the Elgin marbles prior to it.

“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.”

In March, Sunak made it clear he did not have plans to return the sculptures to Greece.

“The UK has cared for the Elgin Marbles for generations,” Sunak told reporters on his way to California for a defense and security summit with President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. “Our galleries and museums are funded by taxpayers because they are a huge asset to this country.”

“We share their treasures with the world, and the world comes to the UK to see them. The collection of the British Museum is protected by law, and we have no plans to change it.”

The cancellation of the meeting between Greece and Britain also follows the recent announcement from the National Museum of Denmark that it would keep three Parthenon fragments after a request from the Acropolis Museum earlier this year for their custody and ownership.

“In this case, it has been assessed that the objects have a special role for Danish cultural history,” National Museum of Denmark director Rane Willerslev said in a press statement on November 22. “It is also an important point that these are very few objects out of a large amount of fragments preserved from the Parthenon Temple, where the majority of objects are in the British Museum in London and the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Therefore, we have assessed that the objects have a greater significance at the National Museum than if they were sent to Greece.”

While the majority of surviving Parthenon fragments remain divided between Athens and London, the National Museum’s head of research, Dr. Christian Sune Pedersen, also stated in a press release that the institution’s three fragments are of “great importance for Danish cultural history and for understanding our interaction with the world around us at a time when democracy was taking shape.”

The fragments consist of two marble heads and a horse’s hoof, which came to Denmark between 1688 and 1835. The three fragments are currently on display as part of the museum’s antiquities collection at the Prince’s Palace in Copenhagen.

Originally intended to decorate the steps of the Athenian Parthenon Temple, the Parthenon Marbles were crafted more than 2,500 years ago by the ancient Greeks. Their fragments are now held by the British Museum in London, whose possession of them has ignited a contentious and ongoing restitution debate.

Though it might not be immediately visible along the surface, the deities and mythical creatures depicted in the statues were once painted in bright Egyptian blue, white, and purple hues. The colors represented the figures’ origins: the water from which they rose, the snakeskin of a sea serpent, background spaces between figures, and figurative patterns on the gods’ robes.

For centuries, it was assumed that Greek and Roman sculptures were muted in color or didn’t have any color at all. This common misconception came from years of viewing pristine stone and clay that had experienced decay and had been scrubbed clean. The same is true of the Parthenon Marbles, which weren’t prepared in a way that would allow their paint to properly adhere to the stones’ surfaces. As a result, previous historical restorations actually went so far as to remove traces of paint found on the figures.

Using luminescent imaging, archaeologists were able to find hidden chemical elements from traces of paint on the sculptures’ surfaces. The team found evidence of hidden patterns, such as floral designs and figurative depictions, that were created using a mix of four pigments.

The blue was made by the Egyptians and used often by ancient Greeks and Romans, the purple tint was produced using previously unknown ingredients, and the two whites were crafted from the mineral gypsum and a bone white pigment made from bone ash.

The color was “as visually important as the carving,” the researchers wrote in the study. Based on the paint, the Parthenon may have been much more brightly colored than was previously thought.

Museum chairman George Osborne said that “around 2,000” of the missing, stolen and damaged items from its collection are now being investigated but that some of them had been recovered, describing the situation as “a silver lining to a dark cloud.”

“Some members of the antiquarian community are actively cooperating with us,” Osborne told BBC business editor Simon Jack during an interview on BBC Radio 4.

While Osborne expressed confidence that “honest people” would return some of the missing gold jewelry, semi-precious stones, and glass pieces, the former UK chancellor and news editor acknowledged to the BBC that “others may not.”

“We believe we have been the victim of thefts over a long period of time and frankly more could have been done to prevent them,” said Osborne, who was appointed the museum’s chair in June 2021.

A significant issue in the recovery efforts is how many items were not “properly catalogued and registered,” with Osborne noting “someone with knowledge of what is not registered has a big advantage in removing” those artifacts.

“It has certainly been damaging to the British Museum’s reputation, that is a statement of the obvious, and that is why I’m apologizing on its behalf,” Osborne said, acknowledging the need to improve security at the museum.

The comments follow shock from the international art community over news reports detailing the extent of the museum’s loss, which some experts have called “the worst in modern history.” The British Museum’s initial announcement on August 16 stated that the missing and stolen items were from the 15th century BCE to the 19th century, and were primarily kept for academic and research purposes. None of them had been recently on display.

The museum’s statement also said that it had launched an independent review of its security protocols and was prepared to taking legal action against the former staff member. However, it did not specify how many items were being investigated or name the staff member who was fired.

Soon after, reports from various outlets quickly identified the sacked individual as veteran Greek antiquities curator Peter Higgs, noting that up to 2,000 items had been stolen and that an item worth $64,000 had been listed on eBay for as little as $51. Senior officials, including Osborne and museum director Hartwig Fischer, were also sent detailed emails from Dutch art dealer Ittai Gradel warning about the thefts in 2021.

As a result of the reports, museum director Hartwig Fischer announced on August 25 he would immediately step down. Fischer had previously announced that he would leave his position in 2024.

Several reports said deputy director Jonathan Williams also corresponded with Gradel several times in 2021 and concluded the allegations were “wholly unfounded”.

On August 25, the museum also announced that Williams had agreed to “voluntarily step back from his normal duties until the independent review into the thefts at the Museum has concluded.”

Osborne told BBC Radio 4 “more could have been done” after concerns about the thefts were first raised by Gradel in February 2021. But when he was asked why Gradel’s emails were not taken seriously, Osborne said it was “possible” that “groupthink” among the museum’s senior staff meant they “could not believe that there was an insider” stealing artifacts.

The extent of the thefts and questions about the museum’s long-term security issues also prompted officials from Greece and Nigeria to strengthen their calls for repatriation of the Parthenon Marbles and the institution’s large collection of Benin Bronzes.

The Global Times, a Chinese daily tabloid newspaper run by the state, also published an editorial today formally requesting the British Museum “return all Chinese cultural relics acquired through improper channels to China free of charge, and to refrain from adopting a resistant, protracted and perfunctory attitude”.

The Global Times noted that while the British Museum’s collection has 23,000 Chinese relics, with about 2,000 of them on long-term display, 1.5 million Chinese artworks and artifacts were looted from the country by British and French troops during the Second Opium War in 1860. Those items were eventually sold to museums and private collections across Europe.

“It’s shocking to hear that the countries and museums that have been telling us that the Benin Bronzes would not be secure in Nigeria, have thefts happening there,” the director of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Abba Isa Tijani, told Sky News.

On August 16, the British Museum announced that a former employee was responsible for the small pieces of “gold jewelry and gems of semi-precious stones and glass dating from the 15th century BC to the 19th century” that had disappeared in increments from its collection. The press release did not name the fired staff member, but two UK media outlets identified them as veteran Greek antiquities curator Peter Higgs.

The institution has come under intense scrutiny after reports that the stolen items total “more than 1,500”, and were listed on the e-commerce website eBay for as little as $51. Additionally, it was revealed that senior officials were emailed detailed warnings about the thefts in 2021.

The Benin Bronzes are brass and bronze artifacts, some dating to the 16th century, that were removed from the West African kingdom of Benin (present-day Nigeria) after British forces invaded in 1897. The British Museum has a particularly large collection of “elaborately decorated cast plaques, commemorative heads, animal and human figures, items of royal regalia, and personal ornaments”, with over 900 objects and more than 100 on rotating display in its galleries.

Tijani stressed that the Benin Bronzes were illegally taken from Benin and deposited in the London museum. “It is irrespective whether they are safe there…The issue is that these are stolen artifacts, and they should be returned to Nigeria to the communities that they belong to.”

While the British Museum’s website says it has “positive relationships with the royal palace in Benin City and with the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM)”, it acknowledges that the museum received a written request for their return from Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Information and Culture in October 2021.

In the interview with Sky News, Tijani also said Hannatu Musawa, Nigeria’s newly appointed minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, planned to directly request the immediate repatriation of the contested artifacts.

Tijani’s comments follow recent comments from Greek culture minister Lina Mendoni about the security of another contested group of artifacts, the Parthenon Marbles. “When such incidents occur, there is obviously a question of safety and integrity [around] all of the museum’s exhibits,” she told the Greek newspaper To Vima .

Art historian Ittai Gradel, a specialist in engraved gems of the Graeco-Roman world, was told by museum director Hartwig Fischer there was “no evidence to substantiate the allegations” that missing and stolen objects from its collection were being sold on the e-commerce website eBay. British Museum deputy director Jonathan Williams also told Gradel by email that a “thorough investigation” had found “no suggestion of any wrongdoing”, adding that institution’s “collection is protected”.

The museum’s press release about the missing, stolen, and damaged items said a staffer had been fired and is being investigated, but did not name the individual.The Times of London and The Daily Telegraph identified the fired employee as Peter Higgs. The Greek and Roman antiquities curator had been employed at the museum for three decades and even served as an expert on a trafficked sculpture found by UK customs at Heathrow Airport in 2013. Members of Higgs’ family have denied the allegations.

According to the Telegraph, Gradel sent Williams a 1,600-word detailed email in February 2021, about a Roman cameo that was offered for sale in an eBay auction, as well as other ancient artifacts.

Gradel’s email, which was reviewed by the Telegraph, included a detailed description of how he had identified the seller, allegedly Higgs. Gradel said if Higgs was not the thief, it was someone else with access to the museum’s archives who was stealing items and impersonating the senior curator online.

While Williams told Gradel on March 2 that the matter would be investigated, Gradel had not received a respond by the end of June, prompting the art dealer to write a follow-up email to William and send a copy of his original email to Fischer, the museum’s director.

On July 12, 2021, Willams replied to Gradel that an investigation had found “the objects concerned are all accounted for”, and the results of a security review found “procedures are robust and that the collection is protected”. Later the same month, William also said Gradel’s allegations were “wholly unfounded”.

The Telegraph‘s report also describes in detail email correspondence between Gradel, trustee Paul Ruddock, chairman George Osborne, and Fischer, including Fischer’s insistence the items were not missing from the collection.

Reports from The Telegraph have also said “more than 1,500” items are now being investigated, and that one item worth $64,000 was offered on eBay for as little as $51.

An eBay spokesperson told BBC News: “Our dedicated law enforcement liaison team is in close contact with the Metropolitan Police and is supporting the investigation into this case.

“eBay does not tolerate the sale of stolen property. If we identify that a listing on our site is stolen, we immediately remove it and work with law enforcement to support investigations and keep our site safe.”

Minister of Parliament Ben Bradshaw, who also served as culture secretary between 2009 and 2019, called the latest allegations against the British Museum “extremely serious”.

“These are priceless objects that belong to the nation, and they should be safe,” he told BBC News, adding the potential for damage to the country’s reputation due to media coverage around the world. “The Culture department will be wanting to assure itself from the board of trustees and George Osborne, that it has the governance in place to protect these items now and in the future, to prevent anything like this ever happening again.”

The museum’s ability to protect and secure items in its collection have already prompted questions from Greek culture minister Lina Mendoni, especially over the contested provenance of the Parthenon Marbles.

Mendoni told the Greek newspaper To Vima that “the loss, theft, [and] deterioration of objects from a museum’s collections is an extremely serious and particularly sad event” and that her office was monitoring the situation. “When such incidents occur, there is obviously a question of safety and integrity [around] all of the museum’s exhibits,” she said.

Despina Koutsoumba, president of the Association of Greek Archaeologists, also expressed concerns during an interview with BBC Radio 4. “We want to tell the British Museum that they cannot any more say that Greek culture heritage is more protected in the British Museum,” she said. “It is obvious that it is very well-protected in Greece and not in the British Museum.”

Only a few weeks before the British Museum had issued a press statement about the missing, stolen, and damaged items, it had announced that Fischer would step down as the museum’s director in 2024. While there are already discussions about the possibility of that announcement being tied to the thefts, the museum’s chairman strongly denied it, calling Hartwig a “much respected director”.

“I have been very clear – as has Hartwig – that his decision was not connected to our announcement last week,” Osborne told BBC News.

On August 23, a museum spokesperson emailed a written statement from Fischer to ARTnews about these allegations and how the institution took them “incredibly seriously”, but also issued allegations against Gradel.

“Concerns were only raised about a small number of items, and our investigation concluded that those items were all accounted for,” Fischer wrote. “We now have reason to believe that the individual who raised concerns had many more items in his possession, and it’s frustrating that that was not revealed to us as it would have aided our investigations.”

Fischer said the museum carried out a full audit in 2022 that revealed “a bigger problem” and he reported his concerns to the institution’s trustees, resulting in a call to Metropolitan Police and the firing of a staff member.

“I am clear that at every step my priority has been the care of the incredible British Museum collection, and that continues today – with our commitment to learning lessons from the independent review, our determination to help the police with their criminal investigation, and our focus on the recovery programme.”

According to the Art Newspaper, the British government recently declassified documents revealing that the Foreign Office was dismissive of the British Museum’s efforts to retain the Parthenon Marbles in 1983. The question of where the marbles should reside came to the forefront when Greek culture minister Melina Mercouri famously visited London that year. Her “colourful personality and romantic cause attracted considerable interest and media coverage,” government records state.

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

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

Peregrine Rhodes, the British ambassador in Athens, added that “arguments put by Wilson are likely to be counter productive” among the Greeks. Ahead of Mercouri’s visit, he argued that the United Kingdom should embrace the idea. “To fudge the issue can only store up trouble for the future,” he said.

As the debate threatened foreign relations among Europe, Burke Trend, then the British Museum chair, warned the Foreign Office that if the museum trustees were advised by the government “to accommodate” the Greeks, this would create “a very difficult situation.”

John Macrae, the Foreign Office’s head of cultural relations, noted in the report more than 40 years 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.”

The report also recorded sentiments that Brian Cook, the British Museum’s curator of classical antiquities, was just as ineffective at debating Mercouri as Wilson had been. In another meeting during her visit, Cook made “a disappointing and pedantic defence, 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.” He added, “The BM should remember that what Parliament giveth, Parliament taketh away.”

Trustees are not allowed to deaccession from the collection because of the 1963 British Museum Act, which is still being used to reject Greek restitution claims today.

Former Labour arts minister Hugh Jenkins proposed amending this act to allow deaccessioning in May 1983, ahead of Mercouri’s visit. The amendment was opposed by the conservative government at the time and failed to pass—a move which arts minister Paul Channon noted in the Foreign Office file. The marbles’ return would “start a process of piecemeal break-up of the British Museum collections,” he said.

Five months later, the Greek government filed a formal claim for the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

As of right now, there is no plan for the British Museum to return the Parthenon Marbles, although it has been reported that the trustees are now open to a long-term loan in exchange for the loan of other Greek artifacts.

The Austrian Foreign Minister, Alexander Schallenber, has announced that “technical talks are currently under way” between the Vienna institution and the Acropolis Museum in Athens. They focus on “the possibility of a loan” of the small 2,500-year-old marbles works in its collection.

The Associated Press reports that the Greek representative, Nikos Dendias, expressed “deep satisfaction” with the development, but has not shared details of the in-progress loan agreement.

“This will add to a series of highly symbolic gestures that may create a positive momentum” for the long-sought repatriation of the marbles from the British Museum, Dendias added.

In recent months, Greece has seen a slew of foreign institutions return the fragments of the Acropolis frieze and pediment in their collections.

In January, a museum in Palermo, Sicily, sent back its piece of the 520-foot-long frieze that once wrapped around the façade of the Parthenon Temple: a foot broken off a likeness of the goddess Artemis. Shortly after, Pope Francis returned three fragments of the Parthenon Marbles housed in the Vatican Museums, a move the Catholic leader described as a “donation” to His Beatitude Ieronymos II, the Orthodox Christian Archbishop of Athens and all of Greece, rather than a proper repatriation.

“So, [Vienna’s] will be the third one,” Dendias said. “And this, for us, is of huge importance.”

Late last year it was revealed that the British Museum was in talks with Greece over a potential agreement that would see some of the Parthenon Marbles return to Athens. The two parties had been secretly meeting for months about the contested antiquities, which have been on view in the British Museum since 1832, after being stripped from the Acropolis in Athens by the Scottish nobleman Lord Elgin. While British Museum chairman George Osborne has in recent months signaled a willingness to forge a deal to settle the centuries-old controversy, any plan that sees the works return to Greece has yet to advance beyond hypotheticals.