Elgin Marbles should be returned to Greece in ‘grand gesture’, says Lord Frost

The Conservative peer argued the ancient sculptures housed in the British Museum were “a special situation” which required “a special solution”.

Cautioning against a loan to Athens which “keeps the issue and the arguments alive”, he pressed for a permanent settlement with the formation of a new Anglo-Greek cultural partnership to the benefit of both nations.

He was speaking during a debate in the House of Lords after Rishi Sunak sparked a diplomatic row with Greece by refusing to meet Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, when he compared the artefacts’ removal with cutting the Mona Lisa in half.

Greece has long demanded the return of the historic works, which were removed by Lord Elgin from occupied Athens in the early 19th century when he was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

Part of friezes that adorned the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple on the Acropolis, the Elgin Marbles have been displayed at the British Museum in London for more than 200 years.

Most of the remaining sculptures are in a purpose-built museum in Athens.

Lord Frost, who previously served as chief Brexit negotiator, told Parliament: “I do think that Lord Elgin’s actions possibly were a little murky, but I do think nevertheless our legal case is good. I also think it’s not the point. The point is what we do now rather than what happened in the past.

“I have never personally been so convinced by the moral, artistic and cultural arguments for the position we take. I think the Parthenon Marbles are a special situation and we should try and find a special solution.

“They aren’t just random museum exhibits. For as long as they are not seen as a whole they are less than the sum of their parts.”

Lord Frost, who learned Greek in Greece and has lived in Cyprus, said: “For Greece they are part of the national identity, they are a national cultural cause.

“As we saw from the, I am afraid, slightly dismissive treatment of Prime Minister Mitsotakis the other week they do have the capacity to disrupt a relationship that really ought to be a lot better than it is.

“I do also wonder whether a loan is the right way forward. I admit I am slightly unconvinced by it.

“It seems like a solution that has been shaped by the existence of the 1963 Act which rightly prohibits the museum from alienating its collections, and I am afraid nowadays that is a very necessary protection against the tendencies of too many museum curators.

“But the problem with a loan is that it keeps the issue and the arguments alive. I think we should try and settle this for good.

“My personal view on this is that it is time for a grand gesture and only the Government can make it. It is to offer to return the marbles as a one-off gift to Greece from this country, but as part of and on condition of a new wider Anglo-Greek cultural partnership.”

He added: “Such a partnership would have to definitively set aside for good the rights and wrongs of the individual acquisition. It would also have to be clear it wasn’t a precedent for restitution demands for any other museum exhibit.

“But it would show that we actually mean it when we see these marbles as part of our common inheritance, that we can move beyond the ‘what we have we hold approach’ we take on so many occasions.

“Perhaps we could rise to the occasion this time.”

Lord Frost was backed by Tory former culture minister Lord Vaizey of Didcot, who said: “This is not about looking back, it is (about) looking forward at an extraordinary opportunity.”

The debate was led by Conservative Party historian Lord Lexden, who said: “No-one I think can doubt the strength of feeling that exists in Greece. It has the power to damage and blight good relations between our two countries particularly at official and diplomatic levels.”

While stressing the need to “diminish the acrimony”, Lord Lexden said any loan would have to be accompanied by preconditions, including a “binding, legally enforceable commitment” to return the sculptures.

Culture minister Lord Parkinson said the Parthenon Sculptures were legally owned by the trustees of the British Museum which is independent of the Government.

He said: “The position of the trustees of the British Museum is that there is an advantage and public benefit in having the sculptures divided between great museums – the Acropolis Museum in Athens and the British Museum in London – each telling a complementary but different story.”

While loans had been made by the British Museum to Athens, he pointed out a prerequisite was an acknowledgement of the ownership of the object, which the Greek government has rejected.

But Lord Parkinson added: “While this is indeed a long-running debate, it does not get in the way of the great friendship and co-operation between the Greek people and the British people, nor of either of their governments.”