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 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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