Greece: British Museum “damp” insults Parthenon Sculptures

ATHENS, Greece – Greece’s Culture Minister says alleged damp in a section of the British Museum housing the Parthenon Sculptures is an “insult” to the 2,500-year-old works for whose return Greece has pressed long and unsuccessfully.

Lina Mendoni’s comments Wednesday followed publication in Greek media of photos ostensibly showing damp and mould stains on the hall’s ceiling, which suffered a minor leak during a rainstorm last year.

She said the “picture of neglect” at the London museum “strengthens Greece’s just demand” for the sculptures’ return, which the two-month-old conservative government in Athens has revived, seeking a loan of the works in 2021.

Greece says the marbles were illegally removed from the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis during the Ottoman Turkish occupation of Greece in the early 1800s. The British Museum rejects that.