UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham Reverses Call for British Museum to Return Parthenon Marbles

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Parthenon sculptures of Ancient Greece, fragments which are collectively known as the Parthenon Marbles aka Elgin Marbles at the British Museum on 25th March 2025 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)
Parthenon sculptures of Ancient Greece, fragments which are collectively known as the Parthenon Marbles aka Elgin Marbles at the British Museum on 25th March 2025 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)
In Pictures via Getty Images

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who took office in July, has reversed his previous calls for the British Museum in London to return the Parthenon marbles to Greece, the Financial Times reports.

Burnham had as early as 2002 said he supported the Parthenon marbles’ return to Greece, reupping that statement as recently as 2023. At the time, he added that their return should be “no strings attached.”

However, when asked by the FT in an interview last month about his current stance on the subject, Burnham told the paper, “Ultimately it’s an issue for the British Museum, isn’t it? Legally that’s where that issue rests, but I’m all in favour of using British cultural diplomacy. That’s something that I’m hugely in favour of.” 

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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)

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New British Museum Trustee Opposed to Returning Parthenon Marbles to Greece

The Parthenon marbles date to the 5th century BCE and were originally created for the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens. During the first decade of the 19th century, Lord Elgin, who was then British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, received a permit from the empire, which had control over Athens for 350 years, to remove half of the remaining marbles from the Parthenon.

He then transported them to the UK, where they were subsequently acquired by the British Museum. Elgin’s “actions were thoroughly investigated by a Parliamentary Select Committee in 1816 and found to be entirely legal,” according to the British Museum. Because of his involvement, the collection, which includes 15 metopes, 17 pedimental figures, and 247 feet of the original frieze, has colloquially been called the Elgin Marbles.

The Greek government first made a formal request for the Parthenon marbles to be restituted in 1983. The Acropolis Museum, which houses the Parthenon marbles that remain in Greece, opened to the public in 2009. If the British Museum’s collection of the Parthenon marbles were to be returned, they would also go to the Acropolis Museum.

The British Museum has consistently denied Greece’s requests. In a previous statement, the museum has said, “The Trustees firmly believe that there’s a positive advantage and public benefit in having the sculptures divided between two great museums, each telling a complementary but different story.”