Turkey denies firman giving Lord Elgin rights to sell Parthenon Sculptures

Turkey's spokesperson at a meeting of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation (ICPRCP) last week denied knowledge of a written authorization allowing Britain's Lord Elgin to sell large sections of the Parthenon's sculptural decorations that had been removed from the ancient Greek citadel between 1801 and 1812, when Athens was under Ottoman rule.

"We are not aware of any document legitimizing this purchase," Zeynep Boz, who heads the Turkish Culture Ministry's department for combating trafficking in antiquities, told the 24th session of the committee, which took place in Paris on May 29-31.

Boz, whose comments challenge one of the chief arguments put forward by the British Museum against the Parthenon Sculptures' return to Greece - namely that they...