The British government found itself in a bizarre diplomatic crisis on Tuesday stemming from a decades-long row with Greece about where a collection of ancient Greek sculptures should be kept.
On Monday night, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unexpectedly axed a Tuesday meeting with his Greek counterpart, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. A 10 Downing Street source told the BBC that the Brits believed they had assurances that Mitsotakis would not publicly discuss the Parthenon Sculptures during his visit to the U.K.—assurances which a Greek source told the British broadcaster were never given.
The sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, were removed from the Parthenon in Athens and brought to the U.K. in the early nineteenth century by British diplomat Lord Elgin. They have since been displayed almost without interruption as one of the main attractions at the British Museum in London since 1832.
On Sunday morning, Mitsotakis appeared on a BBC TV show and argued that the “essentially stolen” sculptures should be displayed solely in Athens because that’s where viewers could “best appreciate what is essentially one monument.” He went on to liken the current arrangement to the Mona Lisa being cut “in half,” adding that negotiations for the sculptures’ return had not “made as much progress as I would like.”
Strangely, the Greek source cited by the BBC Tuesday claimed that discussions for the meeting between Mitsotakis and Sunak were progressing smoothly through late Monday afternoon, long after the TV appearance, only for the meeting to be abruptly canceled on Monday evening.
“I express my dismay that the British Prime Minister canceled our scheduled meeting just hours before it was due to take place,” Mitsotakis said in a statement. He added that Greece’s position on the sculptures is “well-known” and that he’d looked forward to discussing the matter with Sunak, along with more pressing international crises including those in Gaza and Ukraine. “Anyone who believes in the correctness and justice of their positions is never afraid of opposing arguments,” Mitsotakis added.
Speaking to Greece’s Skai TV on Tuesday, government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said Britain’s attitude “shows no respect for the prime minister and our country.” He said that while it was not “common” for such a high-level meeting to be canceled, Athens has no desire to “escalate the issue with a country with which we have good relations.”
The U.K. government said that Mitsotakis was offered a meeting with Britain’s deputy prime minister when Sunak canceled. It did not explain the reason for the cancelation, however, with The Times noting that Sunak’s only publicly listed engagement for Tuesday is chairing his cabinet.
