Standing before the Acropolis this week, Amal Clooney said she hopes never again to wait 12 years between visits to Athens — and that when she returns, she wants the Parthenon Marbles waiting there too.
Hours earlier, across the Channel, Britain's government delivered a written answer in Parliament closing the door on the one legal change that could make that happen.
Mrs. Clooney's remarks, delivered at a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors gathering organized by Konstantina Sbokou-Konstantakopoulou against the backdrop of the Acropolis, echoed a plea she first made in 2014, when she traveled to Athens as part of a legal team — including Geoffrey Robertson and Norman Palmer — invited by then-Culture Minister Konstantinos Tasoulas, now Greece's president, to examine Athens' legal options for reclaiming the sculptures.
That same day, a written question Labour lawmaker Clare Hazelgrove had filed Aug. 28 finally got its answer.
She had asked whether the government studied amending the British Museum Act of 1963 to allow the "permanent transfer" of collection items, naming the Marbles specifically. Minister Ian Murray replied Sept. 10 that no such assessment exists and the government has no plans to permit their "permanent move" — a subtle wording shift from Hazelgrove's phrasing that Greek officials watch closely, given Athens' insistence that any deal framed as a loan is a non-starter. Culture Minister Lina Mendoni has said Greece recognizes no British Museum ownership claim over the Marbles, calling reunification "through loan or lease" inconceivable.
Murray's answer echoed one he gave in June to Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George, who told the Commons that clinging to half the sculptures, acquired two centuries ago under dubious circumstances, reflects poorly on Britain. Murray affirmed the Marbles "belong to the British Museum" while confirming ongoing talks between museum chairman George Osborne and Greek ministers.
Museum director Nicholas Cullinan has pointed to this summer's loan of France's Bayeux Tapestry — unveiled alongside King Charles and President Emmanuel Macron — as a hopeful precedent for movement.
But the comparison has limits: France's ownership of the tapestry was never in question, while ownership is precisely what divides Athens and London on the Marbles.
Greece recently refused to loan its own Parthenon fragments to a Frankfurt exhibition rather than have them displayed alongside pieces on loan from the British Museum.
In May, UNESCO's restitution committee for the first time formally recognized the Marbles as integral to Greek heritage — language that, 40 years on, echoes Melina Mercouri's 1986 Oxford Union appeal for the return of "an inseparable part of a mutilated building."
By Katerina Anesti