Britain is the legitimate owner of Parthenon marbles, Johnson from the UK tells Greece

ATHENS (Reuters) – Britain is the legitimate owner of the Parthenon marbles, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a Greek newspaper, rejecting Greece’s permanent request for the return of the 2,500-year-old sculptures .

Since independence in 1832, Greece has repeatedly called for the repatriation of the treasures – known in Britain as the Elgin Marbles – taken by British diplomat Lord Elgin from the Parthenon Temple in the early 1800s, when Greece was under Ottoman rule. in Athens.

But the British Museum in London has refused to return the sculptures, about half of a 160-meter (525-foot) frieze that graced the 5th-century BC monument, saying they were acquired by Elgin under a legal contract with the Ottoman Empire and part of everyone’s “shared heritage”.

In an interview with Ta Nea newspaper published Friday, Johnson, a former Classics student who liked to quote Latin and Greek, reiterated that the British Museum was the rightful owner of the marbles.

He said he understood the feelings of many Greeks on the matter, but said Britain had a “settled and long standing” position on the sculptures. “They were obtained legally by Lord Elgin, in accordance with the laws in force at the time,” he said.

Greece’s conservative government has been putting pressure on the return of the marbles since taking power in 2019, a campaign it believes would be intensified by Britain’s departure from the European Union.

Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, who previously called Elgin a “serial thief,” said Johnson did not appear to be aware of recent historical evidence showing that the former envoy had not obtained the marbles in a legitimate way.

“For Greece, the British Museum has no legal ownership or possession of the sculptures,” she said in a statement.

In 2019, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he would be willing to lend important artifacts to London in exchange for displaying the marbles in Athens in 2021, when Greece celebrates the 200th anniversary of its independence.