The British Museum has had possession of the famed Elgin Marbles – sculptures that once decorated the frieze of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece – since the early 1800s. Greece has been campaigning for their return for decades now, and in 2013 made a formal request to Unesco’s Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property for intervention. Unesco in turn asked the British Museum and the government of the United Kingdom to engage in mediation under its auspices concerning the return of the sculptures.

Right of Ownership

The British Museum, however, rejected the idea of mediation, insisting that it was simply a ploy on the part of the Greek government to undermine the British Museum’s “right of ownership” to the sculptures.

About half the sculptures from the Parthenon are in London and half remain in Athens. Greece recently opened the Acropolis Museum, with a display designed to hold all of the sculptures known to exist in their original places. Greece has long maintained the sculptures were stolen by Lord Elgin, the British Diplomat who arranged for their transport to England and who eventually sold them to the museum.

Britain insists that the acquisition of the sculptures by Elgin was legal according to international law in force at the time.

The British Museum Trustees stated that Unesco’s purpose is to protect endangered cultural artifacts, but that the Elgin Marbles are in no way endangered and in fact would be best protected by remaining where they are. Unspoken is the implied belief that Greece’s ongoing economic and political instability makes it a less secure location for the sculptures.