Italy's culture minister has publicly called on Britain to follow his country's lead and return the Parthenon Sculptures...

Italy's culture minister has publicly called on Britain to follow his country's lead and return the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece. Alessandro Giuli made the remarks at an event in Thessaloniki on Friday, where Greek and Italian culture ministers jointly presented 145 bronze coins returned by Italy to Greece and signed an extension of their bilateral cultural heritage cooperation agreement. Giuli said he had recently reread Christopher Hitchens' book arguing for the return of the Parthenon Marbles, then addressed Britain directly, saying he hopes the Greek-Italian partnership serves as a model for his "British friends." The cooperation centers on roughly 70,000 fragments of ancient pottery that passed through the hands of British antiquities dealer Robin Symes, whose case is considered one of the largest illegal trafficking operations in recent decades. Greece's investigation began in 2006 after a raid on the island of Schinoussa and, after 17 years of coordinated effort, resulted in the repatriation of 351 objects in May 2023, ranging from statues and jewelry to vessels dating from the Neolithic to the early Byzantine period. The scale of the damage became fully visible when five crates arrived at the Thessaloniki Archaeological Museum in July 2023 containing around 300 smaller boxes packed with pottery fragments. Greece's new Secretary General of Culture, Olympia Vikatos, described the shock of opening them months later and finding the artifacts stored with hotel soap boxes and handwritten notes instead of excavation records. One group of sherds had even been sent as a Christmas gift. Five joint working sessions have since been held at the museum, with more than 70 vessels already fully reassembled from fragments. Some pieces have been attributed to major figures of Attic vase painting. The Memorandum of Understanding has now been extended through March 2027 to complete identification, conservation, and the formal allocation of the material to both countries. #ParthenonMarbles #GreekAntiquities #CulturalHeritage