UK's Starmer hosts Greek leader but says Parthenon Marbles are not on the agenda

LONDON — Greece’s prime minister visited London on Tuesday for his first top-level U.K. meeting since a spat last year over the contested Parthenon Marbles, as the British Museum said talks with Greece on a deal over the antiquities are constructive.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said the fate of the marbles was not on the British leader’s agenda at a meeting with premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis focused on migration, the war in Ukraine and efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza. Greek officials, though, suggested the subject would be discussed.

The contested marbles are part of a 2,500-year-old frieze that was taken from Athens in the early 19th century by British diplomat Lord Elgin and put on display in the British Museum. Athens says they were removed illegally and wants them returned so they can be displayed alongside the rest of the Parthenon sculptures at a purpose-built museum in Athens.

Relations between Britain and Greece have thawed since then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak canceled a meeting with Mitsotakis at the last minute in November 2023 after the Greek leader compared the removal of the sculptures from Athens to cutting Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” in half.

Sunak accused Mitsotakis of trying to “grandstand and relitigate issues of the past” and reneging on a promise not to bring up the issue in public.

British Museum Chairman George Osborne, a former Conservative politician, later suggested Sunak had thrown a “hissy fit.”

The British Museum is banned by law from giving the marbles back to Greece, but extensive talks have been held on a long-term loan arrangement. The Guardian reported Tuesday that the negotiations had made progress since Starmer’s center-left Labour Party has replaced the previous Conservative government after an election in July.

Starmer has pledged to reset Britain’s relations with its European neighbors after years of acrimony over the U.K.’s departure from the European Union.

At the start of Tuesday's meeting inside 10 Downing St., Starmer said he hoped to “build on our strong bilateral relationship and to talk about our common issues.” Mitsotakis said Greece and Britain would build on their partnership during “turbulent times.”

Starmer spokesman Dave Pares said the government “has no plans to change the law to permit a permanent move of the Parthenon sculptures,” but that a decision on a loan agreement was “entirely for the British Museum.”

The British Museum said talks on “a Parthenon partnership” were “ongoing and constructive.”

In a weekend interview with Greece’s Antenna television, Mitsotakis said “discussion with the British Museum remains active,” but did not offer details.

“I firmly believe that the moment of the return of the sculptures will come," he said. “I cannot specify when, nor at what speed that return will take place. Because I do not think we can believe that it will happen overnight.”