Surveys have repeatedly shown the vast majority of Britons endorsing the return of the sculptures.ДЄthens has been emboldened by changing attitudes to the return of cultural property. Mitsotakis, a Harvard-trained banker whose background is as privileged as JohnsonвЂ™s, has already signalled he will invoke вЂњwhat Boris calls Global BritainвЂќ when he raises the issue of the marbles. TuesdayвЂ™s talks are the first official face-to-face meeting between the two leaders and the first since BritainвЂ™s exit from the EU. The UN agency announced in September that the nationвЂ™s decades-long demand for the marblesвЂ™ return was of an вЂњintergovernmental characterвЂќ and not, as successive British governments have claimed, a matter for the British Museum to decide.Д¬ampaigners have long complained of London moving the goalposts and hiding behind museum trustees. There could be no better time than now in which to reunite the missing section of the Parthenon sculptures вЂ“ in their birthplace вЂ“ in Greece.вЂќ After all, this year marks the 200th anniversary of GreeceвЂ™s war of independence.

вЂњThe UK should move to a bona fide dialogue with Greece. Addressing Unesco late on Friday, he said there was вЂњno better time than nowвЂќ to return the antiquities, long seen as the most significant link, symbolically, between the modern Greeks and their ancestors. Within weeks of his centre-right government winning office, the politician told the Observer he was prepared to swap priceless artefacts that had never before left Greece in return for the marbles being brought back in time for the nationвЂ™s bicentennial independence celebrations this year. Other parts of the 115-block artwork are in museums across Europe.ДЇew Greek leaders have given such priority to the sculpturesвЂ™ repatriation as Mitsotakis, who has described the UKвЂ™s refusal to engage in talks as a вЂњlosing battleвЂќ. Sawn off from the Parthenon in 1802 on the order of Lord Elgin, BritainвЂ™s then ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, about 80 metres of the monumental frieze is exhibited in London 50 metres in Athens. The Acropolis Museum, which was purpose-built to house the classical carvings at the foot of the monument, reopened in May. Ongoing maintenance work at the British Museum has, with the coronavirus outbreak, prevented the pieces from being publicly viewed for almost a year.

Greek season 1 epsiode 13