British Museum: No Movement on the Marbles

To squelch recent speculation that it has changed its position on sending the Parthenon Marbles to Greece, the British Museum on Friday issued this official statement, which essentially restates its longstanding objection to releasing the frieze to Athens:

The Trustees have for years been looking to see if there is any reasonable ground on which a way forward with Greek colleagues might be constructed. To date, this has sadly not proved possible. Among many problems has been that successive Greek government have publicly disputed the Trustees' unquestionable legal ownership of the sculptures.This has made any meaningful discussions virtually impossible.

The Trustees have lent often to Greece, especially in the recent Athens Olympic year of 2004, but they have never received a normal loan request for any of the Parthenon sculptures. What successive Greek governments have always sought is the permanent removal of all of the sculptures to Athens. The Trustees do not foresee a situation where they could possibly accede to such a request.

It appears to me that Martin Gayford's recent speculation in Bloomberg that comments by the British Museum's director, Neil MacGregor, offered "the basis for some sort of compromise" was little more than wishful thinking.