People admire the Parthenon Marbles inside the Parthenon Galleries in the British Museum. The marbles are also known as Elgin Marbles, with sculptures are artifacts of the frieze and the East Pediment from the Parthenon in the Acropolis of Athens. The marbles are displayed to visitors in the British Museum. The Greek government is in dispute with the British government and the museum, demanding the return of the marbles. London, United Kingdom UK on August 2022 (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The Parthenon Marbles on view in the British Museum.
Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images

For the first time, the British Museum has confirmed that it is in talks with Greeceover a landmark agreementthat would see some of the Parthenon Marbles return to Athens.

Last month, the Greek newspaper Ta Neareported that the two parties had been secretly meeting for months about the contested antiquities, which have been on view in the British Museum since 1832, after they were stripped from the Acropolis in Athens bythe Scottish nobleman Lord Elgin. WhileBritish Museum chairman George Osborne has in recent months signaled a willingness to forge a deal to settle the centuries-old controversy, neither he nor the museum trustees confirmed that discussions had begun.

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Parthenon sculptures of Ancient Greece, fragments which are collectively known as the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum on 24th August 2022 in London, United Kingdom. The Elgin Marbles are considered stolen goods by Greece, and has regularly demanded their return, while the Acropolis Museum, which houses the remaining sculptures, keeps an empty space for them within its current display. The British museum counters this, claiming that the sculptures were legally acquired by Lord Elgin following an agreement with Ottoman leaders. The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. It has a permanent collection of eight million works and is among the largest and most comprehensive collection, which documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. (photo by Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)

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On January 3,Bloombergreportedthat Osborne and the Acropolis Museum in Athens are “closing in” on a loan agreement that could entail a “proportion of the marbles sent to Athens on rotation over several years.”Bloomberg’sanonymous sources said that the potential detail could include a cultural exchange of objects with the Athens institution, and that Osborne was reportedly considering putting on display plaster copies of the Parthenon sculptures.

A spokesperson for the British Museum told theGuardian, “We’ve said publicly we’re actively seeking a new Parthenon partnership with our friends inGreeceand as we enter a new year constructive discussions are ongoing.”

The British Museum has been under intensifying pressure in recent years toacknowledge Greece’s claim to the marbles, as the debate around the ownership of artworks looted during periods of colonization has shifted worldwide.

Throughout thecontroversy, the U.K. government has maintained that decisions regarding the British Museum’s collection are outside its legal purview. For its part, the museum has said that sculptures were obtained legally by Elgin, who was granted permission for the operation by the Ottoman powers occupying Greece in the 19thcentury.

“We’re not going to dismantle our great collection as it tells a unique story of our common humanity,” the museum said in a statement last month, before adding that it was“seeking new positive, long term partnerships with countries and communities around the world, and that of course includes Greece.”

Fragments of the original Parthenon frieze are scattered in museums across Europe but have been slowly making their way back to Greece.

In May, Italy announced that a fragment belonging to the Parthenon’s eastern frieze on loan from a Sicilian museum would remain in Athens. The artifact, depicting the foot of the goddess Artemis peeking out from a tunic, was returned as part of afour-year loan agreementbetween Greece and the Antonio Salinas Archaeological Museum in Palermo.

More recently,the Vatican promised to relinquish three fragments of the Parthenon Marbles housed in the Vatican Museums. In the announcement, the Vatican described the move as a “donation” from the Pope to the Greek Orthodox Church, and said it was “a concrete sign of his sincere desire to follow in the ecumenical path of truth.”