The Parthenon Sculptures at Center of Row Between Britain, Greece 

An employee views examples of the Parthenon sculptures, sometimes referred to in the UK as the Elgin Marbles, on display at the British Museum in London, Britain, January 25, 2023. (Reuters)
An employee views examples of the Parthenon sculptures, sometimes referred to in the UK as the Elgin Marbles, on display at the British Museum in London, Britain, January 25, 2023. (Reuters)
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The Parthenon Sculptures at Center of Row Between Britain, Greece 

An employee views examples of the Parthenon sculptures, sometimes referred to in the UK as the Elgin Marbles, on display at the British Museum in London, Britain, January 25, 2023. (Reuters)
An employee views examples of the Parthenon sculptures, sometimes referred to in the UK as the Elgin Marbles, on display at the British Museum in London, Britain, January 25, 2023. (Reuters)

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has cancelled a planned meeting with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis due to a diplomatic row over the status of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon sculptures housed at the British Museum.

Greece has repeatedly asked for their permanent return to Athens, while Britain and the museum have refused to do so.

WHY THEY ARE IN BRITAIN?

The sculptures, known as the Elgin Marbles in Britain, include part of a frieze, relief panels and other figures that were removed from the Parthenon in the early 19th century by Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin and then-British ambassador to the Ottoman empire.

They were transported to Britain and bought by the British Museum in 1816 and are exhibited as a prized part of its collection in London.

WHAT ARE THEY?

The sculptures at the British Museum make up about half of a 160-metre frieze which adorned the Parthenon temple on the rocky Acropolis hill in Athens. The collection includes 15 sculpted relief panels and figures of gods and heroes from the temple's pediments.

They are original parts of the temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, completed in 432 BC as the crowning glory of Athens' Golden Age.

The largest temple on the Acropolis, the Parthenon has operated as an archaeological site since 1833, surviving wars and natural disasters to become the symbol of modern Greece.

ATHENS' CAMPAIGN FOR THEIR RETURN

While Athens has called for the permanent return of the treasures since its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1832 and accused Elgin of theft, the campaign garnered more attention in the 1980s.

Greek Oscar-nominated actress Melina Mercouri, a vocal supporter of the arts, launched an official campaign for their return when she was culture minister in 1981-1989.

Athens has further stepped up its efforts since it opened a museum in 2009 at the foot of the Acropolis, which holds the sculptures that remain in Greece. With a view of the Parthenon, the layout of the top floor of the museum mimics the temple.

In September 2019, Mitsotakis suggested Athens would be willing to loan antiquities to the British Museum in return for being able to temporarily exhibit them. Greece said the proposal did not alter its long-standing demand for their permanent return.

In December 2022, Greece said it was in talks with Britain over the repatriation of the sculptures to Athens, but a deal was not imminent.

BRITISH MUSEUM'S STANCE

The British Museum, custodian of the sculptures, has refused to return them, saying they were acquired by Elgin under a legal contract with the Ottoman Empire that then ruled Greece.

The trustees of the museum say the public would benefit more from having the sculptures divided between two museums, that bringing them back together into a unified whole is impossible as some parts were lost or destroyed, and that the sculptures could not be safely returned.

The trustees have said they would consider a loan to Greece if Greece acknowledges the British Museum's ownership of the sculptures, which Greek governments have refused in the past. The British Museum in January 2023 called for a new Parthenon Partnership with Greece and said discussions were ongoing.

OTHER RETURNS

In January 2022, a museum in Italy loaned Athens the so-called "Fagan" fragment, depicting the foot of the ancient Greek goddess Artemis. It later said the fragment - part of the temple's eastern frieze - could stay in Greece.

In December, Pope Francis returned to Greece three pieces of the Parthenon that had been in the papal collections of the Vatican Museums for more than a century.



Egypt Unveils First Ancient Royal Tomb since Tutankhamun

These handout pictures released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities on February 19, 2025 show the entrance to the tomb of King Thutmose II in Luxor in southern Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities / AFP)
These handout pictures released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities on February 19, 2025 show the entrance to the tomb of King Thutmose II in Luxor in southern Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities / AFP)
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Egypt Unveils First Ancient Royal Tomb since Tutankhamun

These handout pictures released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities on February 19, 2025 show the entrance to the tomb of King Thutmose II in Luxor in southern Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities / AFP)
These handout pictures released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities on February 19, 2025 show the entrance to the tomb of King Thutmose II in Luxor in southern Egypt. (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities / AFP)

Egypt's antiquities authority says it has found the ancient tomb of King Thutmose II, the first royal burial to be located since the famed discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922.

The tomb, discovered near the Valley of the Kings in Luxor in southern Egypt, belonged to King Thutmose II of the 18th dynasty, who lived nearly 3,500 years ago.

Thutmose II was an ancestor to Tutankhamun himself, and his half-sister and queen consort was Pharaoh Hatshepsut.

Her giant mortuary temple stands on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor a few kilometers (miles) from where the tomb of Thutmose II was found.

Although preliminary studies suggest its contents were moved in ancient times -- leaving the tomb without the iconic mummy or gilded splendor of the Tutankhamun find -- the antiquities ministry on Tuesday called the discovery "one of the most significant archaeological breakthroughs in recent years".

It has been excavated by a joint Egyptian-British mission, led by the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the New Kingdom Research Foundation.

The tomb's entrance was first located in 2022 in the Luxor mountains west of the Valley of the Kings, but was believed at the time to lead to the tomb of a royal wife.

But the team then found "fragments of alabaster jars inscribed with the name of Pharaoh Thutmose II, identified as the 'deceased king', alongside inscriptions bearing the name of his chief royal consort, Queen Hatshepsut", confirming whose tomb it was, the ministry said.

Shortly after the king's burial, water flooded the burial chamber, damaging the interior and leaving fragments of plaster that bore parts of the Book of Amduat, an ancient mortuary text on the underworld.

Some funerary furniture belonging to Thutmose II has also been recovered from the tomb in "the first-ever find" of its kind, according to the ministry.

It quoted mission chief Dr Piers Litherland as saying the team will continue its work in the area, hoping to find the tomb's original contents.

There has been a surge of major archaeological discoveries in recent years, as Egypt seeks to boost its tourism industry as a key source of foreign currency revenue.

Last year, Egypt hosted 15.7 million tourists and aims to attract 18 million visitors in 2025.

The crown jewel of the government's strategy is the long-delayed inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum at the foot of the pyramids in Giza, which Egypt has said will finally open this year.