UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, in an interview to a Greek newspaper, promised to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece if he’s elected as Britain’s next prime minister.
In a statement published by the well-known Athens daily “Ta Nea” over the weekend, the British political maverick said it was clear that the ancient friezes, known also as the Elgin marbles, should be returned to the place from where they were taken.
Corbyn said fruitful discussions should be begin with the Greek side for a return of the stones, while also leaving open the possibility of a return of other artifacts taken from lands under occupation or which were then colonies, as he said.
The friezes were sliced off the Parthenon temple atop the Acropolis in Athens back in 1801-2 during an operation directed by notorious Scottish diplomat Thomas Bruce (the 7th Earl of Elgin), when the subsequent capital of the modern Greek state (1830) was then part of the Ottoman empire. Today, they are on display at the British Museum.
Successive Greek governments, as well as academics, scholars and artists around the world, have argued that the marbles are not “stand-alone” artifacts looted or discovered during excavations but essential components of a specific edifice – in this case the Parthenon, the quintessence of Classical Greek civilization and the epitome of the Athenian democracy.
