Greece slams Britain over lack of respect in Parthenon sculptures dispute

A scheduled meeting between the leaders of Britain and Greece was cancelled on Tuesday due to a growing dispute between the two countries over who owns the Parthenon sculptures.

The meeting between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis was cancelled on Tuesday, according to his office. The two parties had earlier decided that the meeting should not be used as a public forum “to relitigate long, long settled matters”.

According to a Greek government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, no such agreement existed. A representative for the Greek government had earlier referred to the cancellation as unprecedented and impolite.

Greece has repeatedly requested that the 2,500-year-old statues that British diplomat Lord Elgin took from the Parthenon temple during his time as envoy to the Ottoman Empire be returned to the museum permanently.

London is home to around half of the remaining marble works, with the remainder housed in a museum beneath Athens’ Acropolis.

During his weekend appearance on the BBC, Mitsotakis equated the statues’ separation to chopping the Mona Lisa in half—a comparison that the British government has rejected.

The conflict, according to Britain and Greece, puts at risk the chance to talk about international matters such as the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, migration, and climate change.

Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis, however, subsequently stated that his nation does not wish to escalate the row or let it spoil normally good relations between the countries.

(With agency inputs)