Amid Parthenon dispute, Sunak cancels meeting with Mitsotakis
For the past two years, the Greek government has provided leadership delicate negotiations with the British Museum exploring the future of the Parthenon marbles, the ancient Greek antiquities brought to Britain by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century.
Now the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, appears to be throwing cold water on these discussions.
On Monday evening, Mr Sunak abruptly canceled a planned extended meeting with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece, scheduled for Tuesday. According to to the BBCThe decision was made after Mr Mitsotakis, appearing on British television on Sunday, called for the marbles, including statues of Greek gods and carved frieze panels that once decorated the Parthenon, to be returned to Athens.
Mr. Mitsotakis said on the BBC television programme that sculptures had been stolen and needed to be reunited in Athens. “Where can you best appreciate what is essentially one monument?” he said. The current situation, with the sculptures largely divided between the British Museum in London and the Acropolis Museum in Athens, was unsatisfactory, he added, likening it to cutting the Mona Lisa in half and dividing it between two museums.
Mr Mitsotakis has made similar comments during his time in office, and Mr Sunak has also repeatedly stated that he would not change British law to allow the sculptures, known as the Elgin Marbles, to permanently leave the British Museum .
In a statement, Mr Mitsotakis said he was upset that the meeting had been cancelled. “Greece’s positions on the issue of the Parthenon sculptures are well known,” he said in the press release. “I hoped to have the opportunity to discuss them with my British counterpart as well, along with the major challenges of the international moment: Gaza, Ukraine, climate crisis, migration.”
Asked why the meeting was cancelled, a spokeswoman for Mr Sunak’s office sent a statement saying the deputy prime minister was available to meet with Mr Mitsotakis.
A spokeswoman for the British Museum said in an interview that the museum had no comment on Mr Sunak’s decision but that constructive discussions were underway.
For Mr Sunak, a diplomatic row with Greece is an unwanted distraction at a time when he is dealing with a stagnant economy and divisions within his Conservative Party over immigration policy.
Since becoming prime minister last year, he had generally enjoyed friendlier relations with other European leaders. In February, he settled a standoff with the European Union over Northern Ireland’s trading status after Brexit.
But conservative politicians have long argued that the Parthenon sculptures are part of the British Museum’s permanent collection and cannot simply be returned to Greece, regardless of their provenance.
On Monday evening, Giorgos Gerapetritis, Greece’s foreign minister, said during a lecture at the London School of Economics that he did not think disagreement over the future of the sculptures was a “legitimate” reason to cancel a high-level meeting .