UK Starmer welcomes Greek leader for talks but says Parthenon Marbles not on agenda

LONDON (AP) – Greece's prime minister is in London on Tuesday for his first high-level meeting in the UK since last year's controversy over the Parthenon Marbles.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Kyriakos Mitsotakis to 10 Downing St. with talks focusing on migration, the war in Ukraine and efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza. Starmer's office said the fate of the marbles was not on the British leader's agenda.

At the beginning of the meeting, Starmer said he hoped to “build on our strong bilateral relations and talk about our common problems.” Mitsotakis said that Greece saw “the United Kingdom as important in dealing with the security challenges we face, not only in Ukraine but also in southeast Europe and the Middle East.”

The marbles are part of a 2,500-year-old frieze that was taken from Athens in the early 19th century by the British ambassador Lord Elgin and displayed in the British Museum. Athens says they were illegally removed and wants them back to be displayed alongside all the Parthenon sculptures in a purpose-built museum in Athens.

Relations between Britain and Greece have thawed since then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak canceled a meeting with Mitsotakis at the last minute in November 2023 after the Greek leader compared the removal of sculptures in Athens to cutting Leonardo da Vinci's “Mona Lisa” in half.

Sunak accused Mitsotakis of trying to “glamourise and rehash past issues” and reneging on a promise not to make the matter public.

The Chairman of the British Museum, George Osborne, a former Conservative politician, later suggested that Sunak had “hit the ground running.”

The British Museum is prohibited by law from returning the marbles to Greece, but there have been extensive discussions about a long-term loan arrangement. The Guardian reported on Tuesday that talks had progressed since Starmer's Labor Party replaced the previous Conservative government after the election in July.

Starmer has pledged to repair Britain's relationship with its European neighbors after years of friction over the UK's departure from the European Union.

The British Museum said discussions on the “Parthenon partnership” were “ongoing and constructive.”

Starmer's spokesman, Dave Pares, said the loan of the artefacts “remains a matter for the British Museum.” He said the government “has no plans to change the law to allow the movement of the Parthenon statues.”