Investments, Parthenon Marbles Top Greek PM’s London Visit

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ interview on BBC One to journalist Laura Kuenssberg. Photo source: Press Office, Prime Minister

Boosting investments and the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece are at the top of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ agenda for his visit this week to London.

Among others, the Greek PM is expected to table the issue of the Parthenon Marbles’ return during his meeting with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

In an interview to BBC One over the weekend, Mitsotakis said the 2,500-year-old Marbles had been “stolen”, underlining however that their return to Greece is not so much a matter of “ownership” as it is about “reunification”.

“If I told you [to] cut the Mona Lisa in half… do you think your viewers would appreciate the beauty of the painting,” said Mitsotakis, adding that that’s exactly what happened with the Parthenon Sculptures.

“That is why we keep lobbying for a deal that would essentially be a partnership between Greece and the British Museum, but which would allow us to return the Sculptures to Greece and have people appreciate them in their original setting,” he said.

Photo Source: International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures

The 2,500-year-old marble sculptures have been the subject of dispute for over three decades, with Greece and the international community repeatedly calling on the British Museum to return them to their place of origin.

In the interview, Mitsotakis said that there had not been as much progress as he would like in the negotiations. “I’m a patient man and we’ve waited for hundreds of years and I will persist in these discussions,” he said.

Later today, Mitsotakis is expected to meet with leading UK investors, will participate in an investment conference jointly organized by the Athens Stock Exchange and Morgan Stanley, and will also meet with Vice Chairman of Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley, Luigi Rizzo. Earlier he met with Diaspora Greeks.