Keeping the Elgin Marbles in the UK is like cutting the Mona Lisa in half, the Greek Prime Minister has said.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he would challenge Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer over the 2,500-year-old artefacts on a visit to the UK tomorrow. The sculptures, taken from the Parthenon temple in Athens by British diplomat Lord Elgin in the 19th Century, are the subject of decades-long ownership dispute with Greece.
Mr Mitsotakis told the BBC it was clear the treasures should be "in the Acropolis Museum, a state-of-the-art museum that was built for that purpose." He said: "This is not in my mind an ownership question, this is a reunification argument, where can you best appreciate what is essentially one monument?
"I mean, it's as if I told you that you would cut the Mona Lisa in half, and you will have half of it at the Louvre and half of it at the British Museum, do you think your viewers would appreciate the beauty of the painting in such a way? Well, this is exactly what happened with the Parthenon sculptures and that is why we keep lobbying for a deal that would essentially be a partnership between Greece and the British Museum but would allow us to return the sculptures to Greece and have people appreciate them in their original setting."
George Osborne, chairman of the British Museum, is exploring ways for the Elgin Marbles to be displayed in Greece, with speculation there could be a loan deal. Mr Starmer, who represents Holborn & St Pancras, which includes the British Museum, will tell Mr Mitsotakis that Labour will not change the law but it is open to a loan deal.
In March, the Prime Minister insisted there were no plans to change the 1963 British Museum Act, which prevents the institution giving away objects except in very limited circumstances.