Former prime minister Liz Truss, historian Dr David Starkey and Sir John Redwood are amongst 34 signatories to a letter alleging the British Museum is a part of a “covert” and “accelerating campaign” to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece.
It says that some British Museum “trustees may need to consider their position” and requires an finish to any negotiations to return the Elgin Marbles, also called the Parthenon Sculptures, or danger authorized challenges.
Within the letter, campaigners name out what they see as “covert negotiation”, citing an “accelerating campaign to remove the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum”.
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The relics have lengthy been a contentious situation between Greece and the UK. File Pic: VWPics/AP
They warn that they “reserve the right to seek legal advice on how best to protect the interests of the British public” together with “pursuing an injunction to halt any ongoing or future negotiations until the beneficiaries [the British public] have been fully informed”.
The letter has been organised by the right-wing marketing campaign group Nice British PAC, led by Conservative activist Claire Bullivant and former Reform deputy co-leader Ben Habib.
The British Museum Act 1963 prevents treasures just like the Marbles from being legally given away by the museum.
A authorities spokesperson mentioned there are “no plans to change the law that would permit a permanent move of the Parthenon Sculptures”.
The spokesperson added that selections regarding the care and administration of the museum’s collections, together with loaning objects, “are a matter for the trustees of the British Museum”.
It’s understood the federal government has not been requested to think about a request associated to the mortgage of the Elgin Marbles.
Talking at a Westminster Corridor debate on the return of the artefacts in Might, tradition minister Chris Bryant mentioned: “We have no intention to change the law.”
He added: “Under existing law, it would be impossible for there to be a permanent or indefinite loan.”
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File pic: PA
Again in December, British Museum chair and former chancellor George Osborne advised the Political Foreign money podcast {that a} deal to return the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece is “still some distance” away.
Mr Osborne has been contacted for a remark.
A spokesperson for the British Museum mentioned: “Discussions with Greece about a Parthenon Partnership are on-going and constructive.
“We imagine that this sort of long-term partnership would strike the suitable stability between sharing our biggest objects with audiences world wide, and sustaining the integrity of the unimaginable assortment we maintain on the museum.”
The Parthenon Project, which includes supporters such as Stephen Fry and Lord Ed Vaizey on its board, campaigns for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures and was cited in the letter as “lavishly funded by a overseas industrialist”.
The lobbying group’s website lists Greek plastics magnate John Lefas and family as the leaders and key financiers of the organisation, and that it aims for a “win-win resolution” for each Greece and Britain.
British diplomat Lord Elgin eliminated the sculptures within the early nineteenth century whereas he was the ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which then dominated Greece.
Lord Elgin claimed he had been given permission by the Ottoman Empire for the switch of the sculptures and offered them to the UK authorities in 1816, earlier than the marbles had been handed into the trusteeship of the British Museum.
Turkey disputes that permission was ever given, and consultant Dr Zeynep Boz supported Greece publicly in 2024 on the United Nations Return & Restitution Intergovernmental Committee (ICPRCP).
UK agrees deal on Bayeux Tapestry
The newest outburst over the Elgin Marbles comes because the Bayeux Tapestry mortgage cope with France has been agreed.
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The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Norman conquest of England. Pic: AP
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The delicate work on show on the Bayeux Museum in Normandy dates to the eleventh century. Pic: AP
The historic depiction of the Battle of Hastings and the killing of King Harold can be again in Britain for the primary time in 900 years from September 2026 to July 2027.
This diplomatic triumph might sign that the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures is feasible and that there might be causes for the signatories to hunt authorized motion but.
