The fate of the Elgin marbles can’t be George Osborne’s choice

The British Museum is believed to be in advanced talks over sending the Elgin Marbles back to Greece. Under the reported plans, put together by its chairman, the former chancellor George Osborne, they would be “on loan” to the Acropolis Museum in Athens, but few expect them, once gone, ever to return to London.

The Parthenon friezes were purchased by the UK government for the British Museum for £35,000, equivalent to roughly £2.7 million today, in 1816 from Lord Elgin. The Earl had bought and shipped them to the UK at the start of the 19th century. Arguably, it is only this which saved one of the founding masterpieces of Western art from destruction or piecemeal dispersal; Ottoman-ruled Athens and its Parthenon were in bad shape then.

Greek governments have been demanding the “return” of the marbles virtually since that country’s independence. The British Museum has until now responded by explaining that it is legally prohibited from deaccessioning items from its collection by the 1963 British Museum Act, except in a small number of exceptional cases. But by lending the marbles, a wheeze appears to have been found to get around this legislation.

Many people will quite reasonably think that our national collections have a duty to maintain their inheritances in perpetuity. Returning the Elgin Marbles will also inevitably set a precedent. If they go to Greece, what moral arguments can we muster against “returning”, say, the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria? This, then, cannot merely be left to Mr Osborne and the British Museum’s trustees to decide. It is a matter of national importance: the fate of the Elgin Marbles should be determined by Parliament.