If the Prime Minister’s visit to China at the beginning of the month was conducted in a positive atmosphere, avoiding controversy, the same cannot be said of his trip to the UK last weekend, which ended prematurely after an incident which has left commentators on all sides scratching their heads in puzzlement, and scrambling to find the reasons behind it.

On Sunday 26^th November, Kyriakos Mitsotakis started a two-day visit to the UK which was supposed to culminate in a meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday. On Sunday Mr Mitsotakis was interviewed by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, who among other issues raised the subject of what the British call the Elgin Marbles and the Greeks call the Parthenon Sculptures.

These sections of the monumental frieze on the Parthenon and other fragments from the ancient Acropolis of Athens were removed by the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Lord Elgin, mainly between 1801 and 1803 and eventually ended up in the British Museum after the British government purchased them from Lord Elgin in 1816. The legality of their removal was questioned from the start and since the formation of the Greek state there have been successive requests from the Greek government for their return, intensifying since the appointment of Melina Mercouri as minister of Culture in 1981, who made it her job to raise international awareness of the issue. She also held an international competition for the construction of the New Acropolis Museum to display them.

The British Government maintains that the sculptures were legally acquired, and that it will under no circumstances approve the change in legislation which would be required for their return. At the same time the British Museum, which is the custodian of the artefacts, is in ongoing discussions with the Greek government to try and find a compromise which allow their return to Athens without a change of ownership.

Pressed by Ms Kuenssberg as to where he thought the sculptures would be best displayed, Mr Mitsotakis made the point that they were part of an integral work of art and therefore needed to be displayed alongside the remaining sculptures in the Acropolis Museum: “We feel that these sculptures belong to Greece and that they were essentially stolen. But this is not, in my mind, an ownership question. This is a reunification argument. Where can you best appreciate what is essentially one monument? I mean, it’s as if I told you that you would cut the Mona Lisa in half and you would have half of it at the Louvre and half of it at the British Museum. Do you think your viewers would appreciate the beauty of the painting in such a way? Well, this is exactly what happened with the Parthenon Sculptures…”

Mr Mitsotakis said that he would undoubtedly raise the issue with opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer whom he was due to meet the following day. The latter was reported as having already stated that if his party was in power, his government would not object to a loan agreement which would see the sculptures returned to Athens.

Meeting cancelled
Following the meeting with Mr Starmer on Monday, No 10 Downing Street announced that the meeting with the British Prime Minister was cancelled, and that Mr Mitsotakis could meet the deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden instead if he wished. Mr Mitsotakis declined and left London early to return to Greece.

The incident provoked an avalanche of criticism of what was generally perceived as an unprecedented diplomatic affront. Downing Street shortly afterwards explained that the Greeks had agreed that Mr Mitsotakis would not discuss the Parthenon Marbles during his visit and that the Greeks had “broken their word” on the issue – which the Greek government denied. Most commentators took the view that even had there been such an agreement, the British reaction was a petty response. In a post on X/Twitter, Kyriakos Mitsotakis said:

“I express my annoyance that the British Prime Minister cancelled our scheduled meeting a few hours before it was to take place. Greece’s views on the issue of the Parthenon Sculptures are well known. I hoped to have the opportunity to discuss them with my British counterpart, along with the major challenges of the current international situation: Gaza, Ukraine, climate change, immigration. Whoever believes in the correctness and justice of his views is never afraid of opposing arguments.” Meanwhile Greece’s opposition parties, in a rare display of unity, condemned the incident as an affront to Greek pride.

Other explanations were soon forthcoming: it was suggested that Mr Sunak, whose government is trailing Labour by over 20 per cent in the polls and facing an election in 2024, was trying to shore up support from the more right-wing elements of the Conservative party who favour retaining the Marbles at any cost. Others suggested that Mr Sunak had taken offence at the fact that the Greek Prime Minister had met the opposition leader before himself. Defence experts maintained that the incident marked a shift towards Turkey, which is currently negotiating with the UK for the supply of Eurofighters to replace the F16s they are being denied by the US.

The link with the Parthenon Marbles was however confirmed by Rishi Sunak at Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, when he was confronted by the Opposition leader on the issue. Starting by suggesting that “never mind the British Museum, it’s obviously the Prime Minister who’s lost his marbles,” Mr Starmer asked him why he had apparently set out to humiliate his Greek counterpart. To which Mr Sunak replied: “… When it was clear that the purpose of the meeting was not discuss substantive issues for the future but rather to grandstand and litigate issues of the past it wasn’t appropriate. But furthermore, when specific commitments and specific assurances on that topic were made to this country, and then were broken, it may seem alien to him, but my view is that when people make commitments they should keep them.”

Views on the return of the Marbles
Outside the British government, few voices can be found which support the retention of the Marbles. British public opinion has been steadily moving in favour of their return for some time now. A YouGov survey commissioned in January of this year by The Parthenon Project, which promotes the return of the marbles to Athens, showed that 53 per cent of those polled were in favour of their return. In a similar survey conducted in July, 64 percent of respondents said that they would back sending the marbles to Greece if British museums were loaned other unique Greek artifacts in exchange.

In the extensive media coverage of the issue since Monday’s diplomatic incident, commentators have generally favoured returning the Marbles. Writing in The Guardian on Wednesday, veteran columnist Simon Jenkins said that most museums have far too much stuff – they should redistribute it to the rest of the world and the return of the Parthenon marbles would make an excellent precedent. “Their place is in Athens gazing out over the sunny Aegean … not imprisoned in a cold, grey chamber in Bloomsbury.” Even the former tabloid editor Piers Morgan, speaking on Sky News Australia, proclaimed himself won over by Mr Mitsotakis’s example of the Mona Lisa.

Times Radio’s YouTube Channel enlisted the opinion of Greece’s favourite Englishwoman, novelist Victoria Hislop, who firmly proclaimed her Greek sympathies (she is an honorary Greek citizen), and said that she was against the idea of returning the marbles in the form of a loan:
“The problem with the word loan is that that suggests ownership of the sculptures and the basic myth surrounding the Parthenon sculptures is to do with Elgin having had permission to remove them from the Parthenon from the Sultan, and that there is a firman [decree] which was given to Elgin, which … actually doesn’t exist. What he was given permission to do was to take moulds of the sculptures so that they could be copied by artists, and he decided instead to take the originals …
“The reality is that Elgin took nearly two years to hack those sculptures from the face of that temple and transported them to London. … And yes, the British Museum ended up buying them, but they were buying stolen goods.”

Opinions in Chania
A leading article in the Haniotika Nea (30/11/23) attributed the long-running dispute to post-colonial attitudes on the part of the British Government – a hangover from the era when other nations were considered culturally inferior to the northern European colonising nations, which gave them the license to loot cultural treasures and fill their museums with them. The problem is not just a British but a worldwide one, it said.

The Haniotika Nea has also been canvassing the views of British residents who live permanently in Crete. Phil Docking and his wife Shehina Fazal have lived for many years in Marediana, Kissamos. “It’s clear that the British stole the Marbles and they should be returned to Greece,” Phil told the paper. “All the Brits I know think the same way. Maybe those with right-leaning politics have a different opinion, but it’s part of a selfish and nationalist view of things. Either up on the Parthenon or in the Acropolis museum, the Marbles should return to Greece. I don’t think the Greeks ever agreed to Elgin taking them.”

His wife Shehina added that for many years the British “ruled a large part of the world and took a lot of things from many countries. From India, which is my own country of origin they also took many treasures and they should return those too. The British who know the country’s colonial history realise that the archaeological treasures don’t belong to them.”

Avril Tallett has lived for many years in Lousakies, Kissamos, the Haniotika Nea reports, and during the period of the financial crisis she and her husband Michael worked to support the area’s Health Centre with extra equipment. “There is no doubt that the Marbles should be returned to the Parthenon,” she said, adding that in the past the country’s authorities exploited the cultural monuments of many countries. “The justification for years was that they were not safe. Now there is the Acropolis Museum in Greece. They could make some copies for the British Museum, but the real ones should go back to Greece.
“I think that the prime minister Rishi Sunak overreacted to what the Greek prime minister said because he wanted to look strong, to look stronger than he is. In a few months we shall have elections and I don’t think he’ll be reelected. The majority of British people don’t understand why they haven’t been returned yet. The actor Stephen Fry has made some excellent points about this,” she concluded.

Apokoronas residents Eileen Hutton and Olwen Hooker both expressed similar views, saying that they had been inspired by the sight of the new Acropolis Museum which is clearly a safe home for the sculptures.

The aftermath
As regards this week’s incident, it can be said that while Mr Mitsotakis’s remarks to the BBC (and his prior meeting with Keir Starmer) may have been undiplomatic, the British Prime Minister’s reaction was even more so, and had the reverse effect of that intended, since it propelled the issue of the Parthenon Marbles into the headlines all around the world. Meanwhile the business of government goes on. Negotiations between the Greek ministry of Culture and the British Museum continue, and this week Mr Mitsotakis will have found himself in the same room as the British Prime Minister at the COP28 Climate Change Conference in Dubai.

The BBC interview, in which the Greek Prime Minister appears from minutes 22.55 to 31.30, can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai1MCwgEfp4