The British Museum has long suggested that the return of the Elgin Marbles is not possible, because setting aside all other arguments, their governing charter, the British Museum Act, prohibits the deaccessioning of artefacts from their collections.

New proposals from Greece, of a long term loan of the sculptures, would be one possible way around this sticking point.

If this loan was reciprocated by temporary loans from Athens, this cold do a lot to help the British Museum’s finances, as the temporary exhibitions are a major source of additional income to the museum over & above the grant in aid funding that it receives from the government.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Monday November 11, 2002
Ray of light for Marbles?

After years of refusing to consider returning the Parthenon Marbles to Athens, the British Museum may be considering a radical plan to exchange them for a series of rotating exhibitions of ancient Greek artifacts that could help increase its revenues, Britain’s Independent newspaper reported yesterday.

The news came on the eve of Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos’s visit to London. Today he is to meet with his British counterpart, Tessa Jowell, and the British Museum’s new director, Neil MacGregor. The sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, will be at the top of Venizelos’s agenda. He will also be presenting plans of the new Acropolis Museum, which is to be ready by the 2004 Olympics and has been designed to house the marbles now in London.
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A small fragment of the Parthenon Frieze, one of a number of pieces dotted around Europe, looks likely to return to Athens on loan. The bulk of the sculptures are of course split between Greece & the British Museum – the other smaller fragments only make up about one percent of the total that survive.

From:
CNN

Italy to loan Greece ‘lost’ antiquity
Friday, October 4, 2002 Posted: 11:01 AM EDT (1501 GMT

ROME, Italy — Italy says it will return a fragment of the 5th century B.C. Parthenon Marbles to Greece.

The return of part of the statue of Peitho, goddess of persuasion and seduction, could take place within weeks, officials say.
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The planned loan by Italy to Greece of a small fragment of the Parthenon Frieze looks set to raise the profile of the campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, Proving that it is perfectly possible for such artefacts to be returned on loan if the political will exists to do so.

From:
The Times

October 01, 2002
Fragment of Greek history to reignite row over Marbles
From Richard Owen in Rome

A FRAGMENT of the Parthenon frieze kept by an 18th-century British diplomat in Sicily is to be returned to Greece. It is a gesture that is certain to revive the dispute over Britain’s retention of the Elgin Marbles.

President Ciampi of Italy plans to hand over part of a statue of the goddess Peitho during a state visit to Greece next month in a move described by officials as a “gesture of friendship”.
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