The sculptures – 17 figures and part of a frieze that decorated the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple on the Acropolis – were taken by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century when he was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and have since been the subject of a long-running dispute over where must be displayed. In an interview with the Sunday Times Culture magazine, Jonathan Williams said the British Museum wanted to “change the temperature of the debate” around the marbles. Williams said: “What we are asking for is an active ‘Parthenon partnership’ with our friends and colleagues in Greece. I firmly believe that there is room for a truly dynamic and positive debate in which new ways of working together can be found.” The British Museum has not said it will hand the sculptures back, with Williams insisting they are an “absolutely integral part” of the collection. However, he said they “want to change the temperature of the debate”, adding that all sides must “find a way forward around cultural exchange of a level, intensity and dynamism that has not been devised before”. He added: “There are lots of great things we’d be happy to borrow and lend. It’s what we do.” The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has repeatedly called for the Parthenon marbles to be returned to Greece, even offering to lend some of his country’s other treasures to the British Museum in return. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Mitsotakis reiterated that Greece is open to negotiations, but said: “Baby steps are not enough. We want big steps.” The director of the Acropolis Museum, Nikolaos Stampolidis, said there could be a “basis for constructive talks” with the offer of the “positive cooperation of the Parthenon”. He added: “In the difficult days we live in, their return would be an act of history. It would be like the British restoring democracy itself.”
