The director of the Acropolis Museum renewed Greece’s call for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures from Britain on the museum’s 17th anniversary, describing the ancient artworks as parts of “one body” that belong together.
“The Parthenon Sculptures are pieces of one body, and the body is asking for them back,” Nikolaos Stampolidis told state radio ERT on Thursday. “Not only for us, but for all humanity, for the experiential way in which culture, human relationships and human behavior should function.”
Stampolidis said the appeal was directed “to the British and to anyone else who holds sculptures from the Parthenon.”
Greece has long sought the return of the sculptures, which were wrenched off the Parthenon in the early 19th century by UK diplomat Lord Elgin and are now housed primarily in the British Museum. British officials have maintained that the museum legally acquired the artifacts.
Reflecting on the museum’s anniversary, Stampolidis described the Athens institution as “the home for the protection and presentation of the works of the Parthenon and, more broadly, the Acropolis.”
