Rightwing
campaigners claim there is covert deal to return Parthenon marbles
Liz Truss
reportedly among those who signed letter organised by hard-right group calling
for end to talks
Jamie
Grierson and David Batty
Fri 11 Jul
2025 10.19 BST
The former
prime minister Liz Truss, the historian David Starkey and the former Wales
secretary John Redwood are reportedly among 34 signatories to a letter alleging
the British Museum is part of a “covert” campaign to return the Parthenon
marbles to Greece.
The letter,
seen by Sky News, has been reportedly sent to Keir Starmer, the culture
secretary, Lisa Nandy, and trustees of British Museum.
The letter
has been organised by the hard-right campaign group Great British Pac, led by
the Conservative activist Claire Bullivant and the former Reform deputy
co-leader Ben Habib.
It is said
to call for an end to any negotiations to return the Parthenon sculptures, also
known as the Elgin marbles, or risk legal challenges.
In the
letter, campaigners call out what they allege as a “covert negotiation”, citing
an “accelerating campaign to remove the Elgin marbles from the British Museum”.
The
Parthenon, or Elgin, marbles are the ancient Greek sculptures that once
decorated the temple on the Acropolis in Athens. They were removed between 1801
and 1815 by Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman empire, who
claimed he had permission to take them, although no supporting document has
been found. The sculptures were acquired by the British Museum in 1816, but
their rightful ownership has been disputed since the 1980s.
Last year,
two months after Labour’s electoral victory, Giorgos Gerapetritis, the Greek
foreign minister, told the Guardian he believed a deal was “relatively close”.
Negotiations between Athens and the British Museum began in 2021.
It has been
previously reported that any possible agreement might be underpinned by a
cultural partnership between the two countries, with the sculptures returned to
Athens and reunited with other pieces currently on display at the Parthenon
galleries of the Acropolis Museum in exchange for renowned art works that could
take centre stage at rolling exhibitions in London.
Responding
to the reports about the Great British Pac letter, Dan Hicks, a professor of
contemporary archaeology at the University of Oxford, said: “The accusation of
a covert and accelerating campaign appears to be aimed at publicly appointed
trustees, whereas in reality it is the structure, funding and identity of Great
British Pac that is opaque and concerning.
“Perhaps the
signatories could explain who and what exactly this group is and who is paying
for it. This letter is a desperate culture-warrior exercise in scaremongering
and intimidation developed by undefined political actors.”
He added:
“International loans have been a normal part of the operation of museum
exhibitions for more than a century. To give just one example, the British
Museum itself will be the recipient of a high-profile loan from France next
year when the Bayeux tapestry will be put on display. Many will question why
the UK’s national museums remain unable to make permanent returns of stolen
cultural objects on a case-by-case basis, as other British museums are able to
do.
“And some,
myself included, have been asking why national museum directors and trustees
are not calling for a change in those antiquated 1960s laws. But to call into
question the legality of making loans from Britain to an EU nation would be
very odd indeed.”
A
spokesperson for the British Museum said: “Discussions with Greece about a
Parthenon partnership are ongoing and constructive.
“We believe
that this kind of long-term partnership would strike the right balance between
sharing our greatest objects with audiences around the world, and maintaining
the integrity of the incredible collection we hold at the museum.”
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