Britain says “No” to UNESCO’s mediation for the Greek Parthenon Marbles

While stressing their “honest respect for the organization” but also “the already good relationships with colleagues and institutions in Greece”, the British Museum in its letter date March 26 of 2015 rejects mediation of UNESCO and indicates that “is not a government body, and the marbles do not belong to the British government. The Trustees of the British Museum hold them not only for the British people, but for the benefit of the world public, present and future.”

Furthermore, the letter refers to the to the museum’s current special exhibition “Defining Beauty, the Body in Ancient Greek Art”, which opened to the public on March 26, underlining that “here are some of the Parthenon Sculptures are displayed with other works that similarly show the intense humanism of ancient Greek civilization, including masterpieces generously lent by museums around the world.
The letter also refers to the fact that “the museum’s Trustees recently lent one of the Parthenon Sculptures to the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg,” noting that “we were pleased to learn that in only six weeks some 140.000 Russian visitors had the chance to see the marbles there.”

The letter to UNESCO also underlines that the Parthenon Sculptures in the British Museum were legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the laws pertaining at the time and the Trustees of the British Museum have had clear legal title to the sculptures since 1816.

It is also noted that neither the British government nor the British Museum are aware of any new arguments to the contrary since 1985, when a formal Greek request for the return of the sculptures was turned down by the British government.