The new director of the British museum suggested on Saturday to return the stolen Parthenon marbles back to Greece only as a loan for a small period of time. On an article in The Times, director George Osborne, a former finance minister under conservative Cameron, wrote first of all convinced that the Marbles were not stolen.
“We are open to lend the Elgin Marbles,” wrote Osborne who took over the office in October, in an article entitled “It is fair to be proud of the British Museum.”
After discussing at length the current issues of “awakening” and the removal of monuments related to the slave trade in Britain, the ex FinMin defended the British Museum as a link between world cultures.
“Certainly there are those who question our right to exist,” Osborne wrote adding “they did it in 1753 and they do it again in 2021.”
“Of course, there are those who demand the return of items that they think we have no right to keep. This is not new either. Lord Byron thought that the Elgin marbles should be returned to the Parthenon. Our answer is No,” he stressed.
He suggested of lending the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece with the corresponding guarantees for their safe preservation and their return.
“We are open to lending our items wherever they can take care of them and ensure their safe return – something we do every year, including in Greece,” Osborne noted on the issue that is very dear to Greece and thousands of British people.
*note: the Greek part of the article was translated from ENG to GR and from GR to ENG as the article on Times is behind a pay wall.
OK, George Osborne wanted to introduce himself in his new roles as the director of the British Museum. With a polished, positive message. Full of ignorance and arrogance and crass lack of embarrassment.
Bring them over, old boy, and will comply to your terms 100% (#not)
Yanis Varoufakis was right in 2016 to call Osborne “particularly inept.”
The artists who own them by copyright are long dead, whereby copyright law alone dictates that the marble’s are Greece’s; regardless of how they were acquired to end all debate.
Even Boris Johnson speaks like what he looks like. So senseless and selfish lacking reasoning with intentional neglect of law and the right. The vast, vast majority of kind and civil people agree that these marbles do indeed belong to and belong in Greece from where they were originally taken.
1 Greek War of Independence (1821–1828)
2 First Hellenic Republic (1828–1832)
3 Kingdom of Greece (1832–1924) …
4 Second Hellenic Republic (1924–1935)
5 Kingdom of Greece restored (1935–1967) …
6 Military dictatorship (1967–1974)
7 Third Hellenic Republic (1974–today
Very amusing how modern Greeks somehow equate their country to ancient Greece. I’m sure this bazaar concept would amuse the shit out of Plato and Socrates who are at this moment chucking at the very notion .
Osborne embodies entitlement and ignorance and is a man in search of headlines and attention. Civilised people believe the marbles should be returned to their home, Greece.
Treaties are broken all the time and so are guarantees. Just don’t return them. What is Britain going to do, invade Greece?
It’s not that ‘Greece’ wants the marbles returned, sent back, “repatriated”, whatever – it’s that the modern day government of what is currently officially called Hellenic Republic demands they be handed over.