Recently, Greece has offered to loan Britain various artefacts – some never exhibited before – in exchange for the return of the Parthenon Sculptures.

From:
Sunday Herald

Greece offers relics for Marbles swap
Athens of the North to host a major exhibition of classical relics … if British Museum agrees to hand Elgin statues back to Olympic city
By Liam McDougall Arts Correspondent

EDINBURGH will be granted a major exhibition of priceless Greek treasures if Britain agrees to a controversial deal to allow the return of the Elgin Marbles to Athens.

Sources close to talks between the British and Greek governments have said the Scottish capital – dubbed the Athens of the North – has been earmarked by Greece as the host city for the event under new compromise proposals.
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The New Acropolis Museum represents the best possible location for reuniting the surviving Elgin Marbles, but has also stirred up a lot of controversy. It is worth noting though, that a lot of the issues are more politically motivated, rather than stemming from the actual project itself.

From:
BBC News

Last Updated: Monday, 18 August, 2003, 11:47 GMT 12:47 UK
Acropolis building site stirs up storm
By Richard Galpin
BBC, Athens

If visitors to the Acropolis in central Athens were to cast their eyes across the city to the south-east, they would soon spot a large gap in the densely populated neighbourhood of Markryianni, just a stone’s-throw away.

It is a building site for a controversial new Acropolis museum.
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The Haida Repatriation Committee has been fighting for the return of their ancestral bones from museums around the world. They have already had a lot of successes, but it has been a difficult struggle & there is still a lot further to go.

From:
Globe and Mail

POSTED AT 4:04 AM EDT Saturday, Aug. 16, 2003
Bones of contention
For decades the remains of B.C.’s Haida ancestors have been locked away in metal drawers as specimens in museums around the world. Now, the Haida are fighting to bring them home, ALEXANDRA GILL writes
By ALEXANDRA GILL
From Saturday’s Globe and Mail

SKIDEGATE, B.C. — Andy Wilson has spent the past seven years collecting some very special bones. Bones so precious they can’t be kept here, in the main cemetery, overlooking the tiny town of Skidegate on the Queen Charlotte Islands.

The bones are buried in a sacred grove, somewhere in the spruce forest behind us, explains Wilson, the soft-spoken man who co-chairs the local committee responsible for bringing the human remains of his Haida ancestors back home.
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As times change & projects such as the New Acropolis Museum are now so far underway, more & more people think that now is the time to reconsider the issue of the Elgin Marbles inside the British Museum.

From:
Boston Globe

Part of the Parthenon
8/15/2003

AFTER 200 years in British captivity, it is time for the gods and heroes looted from the Parthenon to return home. The dispute over whether the Seventh Earl of Elgin acted properly when he had the carved marble statues hacked off the temple “for their own protection” in 1801 has enlivened the worlds of arts and politics for decades. The pop star Melina Mercouri’s personal crusade to return the marbles defined her term as Greek minister of culture. Both Keats and Byron waxed poetic upon viewing them. Now, as Athens readies itself to host the 2004 Summer Olympics, the Elgin Marbles should be part of the pomp.

The British Museum, which holds 247 feet of carved frieze and 17 statues, insists it will not return the marbles to Greece, even for a loan. But the Greek government is forging ahead with a $100 million Acropolis museum to house them. As with all things related to the marbles, the museum construction itself is causing controversy, with critics claiming that the site excavation is disturbing other archeological treasures. But the new museum — assuming it is completed on time — should answer a chief claim of the British: that Greece cannot properly care for the marbles.
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In what could be seen as a big step forward, Greece has agreed that the ownership of the Parthenon Marbles is an area that is still up for discussion in any negotiations about their return.

This point has traditionally been a major sticking point, with the British Museum claiming ownership & Greece refusing to accept this, so that the discussions do not move on beyond this one issue.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Tuesday August 12, 2003
Ownership of Marbles still open, Greece says

In a new sign of how wide the gap is between Athens and London regarding the ownership of the British Museum’s Elgin Collection of sculptures from the Parthenon, Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos denied yesterday that it had renounced ownership of the fifth-century BC sculptures.

«As nuances are very important, I must repeat that the Greek government has never stated it recognizes the British Museum’s legal title to the Parthenon Marbles,» Venizelos said. «What we have said is that we do not raise the legal issue of ownership, as we wish to find a friendly and consensual solution that will allow a joint exhibition of the Marbles in the new Acropolis Museum.»
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Despite reports that there are secret talks between Britain & Greece about the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, the British Museum has strongly denied that this is the case.

From:
Art Daily

Monday, August 4, 2003
Marbles will not be returned

The British Museum yesterday categorically rejected a claim that it was to give back the Parthenon marbles for next year´s Olympic Games in Athens. Nor were secret talks going on about their long-term loan to a £30m museum being built on the Acropolis, its trustees insisted.

Last year the Greek government dropped its claim to own the 2,500-year-old sculptures – taken from the Parthenon frieze by Lord Elgin in 1801 – in the hope that the British Museum might one day be persuaded to give them back.
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Greece is reportedly involved in secret talks with the British Museum about how the Elgin Marbles could be returned in time for the 2004 Olympics.

From:
The Times

August 03, 2003
Museum in secret talks to return Elgin marbles
Jon Ungoed-Thomas

THE British Museum has been holding previously undisclosed talks with the Greek government over a proposal to return the Elgin marbles to Athens for next year’s Olympics.

The museum confirmed last week that it has been talking to the Greeks about lending them the marbles, despite repeatedly saying that they would always remain in Britain.
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