Often incorrectly called “Marbles” or even more counter-productively, the “Elgin Marbles”, the Parthenon Sculptures have been a hot topic of debate in the UK, with regular surveys conducted to ascertain public sentiment for their potential return, greekcitytimes.com reports.
With the UK government finally agreeing on a Brexit plan and the EU member states preparing legislation to deal with the consequences, many believe that this is the ideal time to revisit the issue of the return of the Parthenon Sculptures.
The European Parliament though still needs to give the UK the green light and presumably the parliaments of the respective EU Member States would still be required to ratify any deal. Greece could potentially utilize this opportunity as leverage in renewed negotiations.
Greece’s former Minister of Culture Lydia Koniordou regarded Brexit as an opportunity when she sent a letter in 2018 to UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright, urging him to revisit talks on the issue. The Brits once again resisted.
The last survey on the issue of the restitution of the Parthenon Sculptures was carried by the UK government in 2018 with 2658 adults surveyed.
The survey discovered that 56% of respondents believed they should be returned to Greece, with 20% objecting to their return and a surprising 24% responding they “don’t know.”
Read the full report at greekcitytimes.com
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