Greece could use Brexit to recover 'stolen' Parthenon art

[tay]

Greece could use Brexit to recover 'stolen' Parthenon art: In the early 1800s, a British ambassador took sculptures from the Parthenon back to England. Greece has demanded their return ever since. With Brexit, Greece might finally have the upper hand in the 200-year-old spat

Before Brexit can be finalized, each EU member state must vote on the deal - meaning that any nation could stall the long-awaited pact if it disagrees with the results of the negotiations.

For one activist group, this scenario gives Greece a rare negotiations advantage over the United Kingdom, which claims ownership of some of Greece's most treasured ancient art: the Parthenon marbles.

"If it can give back India, it can empty one room in London to return these items," Alexis Mantheakis, who co-founded the International Parthenon Sculptures Action Committee (IPSACI), told DW.

Mantheakis said the real question now was whether Greece's government has the will to make demands.

It's possible that the current government will "go against the establishment" based on its current performance, Mantheakis said. "We're hoping the Greek government will do it. It's a unique opportunity."

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[Blackleaf]

Britain may - or may not - give the Greeks back the Marbles only if the Greeks hand back to their countries of origin all the non-Greek artefacts currently in their museums, like all the Ancient Egyptian stuff at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Because, at the moment, the Greeks sound just as hypocritical as the Spanish whingeing about Gibraltar when they own Ceuta and Melilla.

And Brexit doesn't make the return of the Marbles any likelier: Britain is more than willing to walk away from negotiations with no deal at all if she doesn't get the deal she wants. "No deal is better than a bad deal", as May keeps reminding us.

 

[justlooking]

For one activist group, this scenario gives Greece a rare negotiations advantage over the United Kingdom, which claims ownership of some of Greece's most treasured ancient art: the Parthenon marbles.

thinking the Greeks will do anything other than 'vote' the way they are told by Germany.

Sure. :lol:

 

[Blackleaf]

What the Greeks would never admit is that had the British not taken the Marbles into their care then they might not exist today because Lord Elgin saved the Marbles... from the Greeks!

Around 1800, the locals were using the Parthenon - which then had a mosque within its shell - as a quarry. The locals were taking away bits of it to build houses and make cement (I think the ruling Turks also made cannonballs from it), and the Marbles could easily have been turned into bricks or ground down into cement were it not for the intervention of Lord Elgin (the Scot who served as the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire between 1799 and 1803).

So Lord Elgin saved the Marbles from the Greeks.

The Parthenon, 1839