The UK government has officially closed the door on any law change that would allow the Parthenon sculptures to return p...

The UK government has officially closed the door on any law change that would allow the Parthenon sculptures to return permanently to Greece. Culture Minister Baroness Twycross told the House of Lords on Tuesday that the government has no plans to introduce legislation permitting a permanent return, while saying it welcomes British Museum talks with Greek ministers over a possible loan arrangement. The British Museum Act 1963 is the central obstacle. It bars the museum from permanently disposing of objects in its collection, with narrow exceptions for duplicates, items unfit for retention, Nazi-era objects, and human remains under 1,000 years old. Museum chairman George Osborne has been pursuing a long-term loan deal with Greece, and Twycross pointed to the Bayeux Tapestry loan from France to the British Museum as a potential model for how such an arrangement could work. Greece has rejected any framework that would require it to acknowledge British Museum ownership of the sculptures, making a loan deal politically difficult on the Greek side. Athens has formally demanded the return of the sculptures since 1983, arguing they were illegally removed from the Acropolis in the early 19th century while Greece was under Ottoman rule. Prime Minister Mitsotakis has compared keeping them split between London and Athens to cutting the Mona Lisa in half. Several peers pushed back hard on the loan-only position. Labour's Baroness Chakrabarti said that if the crown jewels had been stolen, no one would be satisfied with a loan. Green Baroness Jenny Jones, a former archaeologist, sided with Greece's argument that the sculptures were acquired from the Ottoman Empire, not from Greece itself. Liberal Democrat Baroness Hussein-Ece pointed out that a purpose-built museum has already been constructed near the Acropolis to house them. Conservative Viscount Hailsham opposed permanent return on different grounds, warning it would set a damaging precedent given how much of Britain's museum collections was acquired abroad. The sculptures, removed by Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin, have been at the British Museum for over two centuries. The Acropolis Museum in Athens currently ...