How Rishi Sunak’s tantrum over the Parthenon marbles turned into a Greek tragedy

Good morning. When one of Lord Elgin’s hired hands wrote to him to describe his progress in removing some of the antiquities from the Acropolis that would come to be known as the Elgin marbles, he was blunt about the roughness of his work. In a letter dated September 1801, he asked for 12 saws to be provided so that he might hack the sculptures from the temple. In 1802, he announced that he had successfully removed one of the plaques. “The piece has caused much trouble in many ways,” he confessed, “and I was forced to be a little barbaric.”

More than 200 years later, there are many in Greece who see something similarly barbaric in Britain’s handling of the controversy over the Parthenon marbles – as they are properly known – today. This week, the question of whether they will finally be returned to Athens moved from a matter quietly being negotiated between the British Museum and the Greek government to a major diplomatic row.

The controversy blew up because Rishi Sunak cancelled a meeting with his counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday – and while polls suggest that Sunak’s refusal to contemplate the sculptures’ return to Athens is in opposition to the view of most of the British public, Mitsotakis has Greece squarely behind him.

There are some who view the argument over the sculptures’ location as an eccentric dispute over a bunch of overhyped relics. Today’s newsletter, with the Guardian’s Athens correspondent, Helena Smith, looks at why in Greece, it’s much more important than that. Here are the headlines.

Five big stories

In depth: ‘Since Mitsotakis came to power, it has become a big international campaign’

When Mitsotakis met last November with George Osborne – the former chancellor who now chairs the British Museum – the talks were described as “not only credible but very exciting”. While discussions were only preliminary, it seemed as if momentum was growing for the idea of the Parthenon marbles returning to Athens.

That would be a cause for national celebration in Greece, where Elgin’s removal of the marbles in the 19th century is widely viewed as theft. While the British Museum is barred, by an act of parliament, from permanently returning the sculptures, it would be possible to send them to the Acropolis Museum on loan, with an exchange of other Greek antiquities as a form of collateral in the hope of ensuring their eventual return. All of that could happen regardless of the British government’s view of the matter.

But whether the British Museum would be willing to risk the wrath of the government is another question. And after Mitsotakis told the BBC that keeping the works taken by Elgin separate from others still in Greece was as if “you would cut the Mona Lisa in half”, Sunak’s reaction suggests that there might be a significant political hurdle to overcome. In Greece, Helena said, “they’re embarrassed. The feeling here is that it’s all about internal politics in Britain, and they don’t believe that should affect what is an issue of national importance.”

How much do Greeks care about the issue?

“It’s leading the news bulletins,” Helena said. “It’s been received with a kind of popular dismay.” There is a nearly universal view among the Greek public that the sculptures are a matter of national pride: “Even though Mitsotakis argues that actually the Acropolis and the museum are a universal monument for the world, and not just for Greece, there is no question that they are seen as integral to national identity.”

The other reason for upset is the sense that an important ally has delivered a major snub – when, Mitsotakis said, there were many wider issues to be discussed, from immigration to the war in Gaza.

A particular cause of fury has been the claim from Downing Street that Mitsotakis had promised not to make any public statements on the subject, an assertion viewed as an implausible reason for such pique, since Mitsotakis’s stance is entirely in line with longstanding government policy. Yesterday, the No 10 claim was repeatedly denied, with Greek labour minister Adonis Georgiades saying: “This kind of agreement cannot ever happen with any Greek prime minister - and certainly with Kyriakos Mitsotakis.”

Has it always mattered so much?

For at least the last four decades. The fate of the Parthenon marbles became a major issue in 1983, when Melina Mercouri, a well-known actor and the Greek minister of culture, visited the British Museum and made the case for their return. The UK foreign office was irritated with Mercouri, but nervous, foreign office documents later declassified suggested (£): “On occasions her dramatic flourishes verged on the histrionic, but she undoubtedly stole the limelight.” Officials concluded that she “won the argument hands down”.

Mercouri made an impassioned case, telling the British: “You must understand what the Parthenon marbles mean to us. They are our pride. They are our sacrifices … They are the essence of Greekness.”

“She really brought it centre stage,” Helena said. “It’s gone through ups and downs since then – when the country was fighting for economic survival, it naturally became less of a priority. But since Mitsotakis came to power five years ago, it has become a big international campaign again.”

How important is it to Mitsotakis?

The Greek prime minister has described the return of the marbles as a “passion” and viewed discussions over their future as a key aspect of his visit to the UK. He has put the issue “front and centre as a government policy”, said Helena, and before his successful re-election campaign this year promised to “pick up again the momentum and build upon the progress that we have made”.

The perception of an insult from Sunak may be all the deeper because of a sense, which George Osborne is said to have observed to colleagues, that Mitsotakis is “Greece’s Rishi Sunak”: he is an Anglophile who worked in finance in London, US-educated and generally seen as a technocratic figure. “He can appear somewhat entitled,” Helena said. “He would not expect to be treated this way by someone like Sunak.”

What are relations between Greece and the UK usually like?

It’s not long since Suella Braverman went to Greece and said that the UK had a “huge amount to learn” on cutting the number of asylum seekers using unauthorised routes to get in. Questionable endorsement though that might be, it does reflect wider co-operation between the two countries, and sits alongside a sense in Greece that the UK is an old and reliable ally – despite the long-standing disagreement over the Parthenon marbles.

“Britain was a great supporter of Greek independence from the Ottoman empire in 1827 – they have been there from the very inception,” Helena said. “Greece was dismayed that Britain left the EU – there were a lot of Greek students in the UK [but very few now], and a lot of British residents and holidaymakers in Greece. [Greece] has forged a strong post-Brexit relationship.”

All this helps to explain why Greek government spokesman Dimitris Tsiodras said of Sunak’s snub that “we don’t want it to be seen as a general crisis [in bilateral ties] but … as the negative behaviour of an individual”. For more on the history, see this really interesting comment from a reader of Andrew Sparrow’s live blog, which also notes that “Greek populists have had a field day, portraying the British as pith-helmeted, mutton-chopped unreconstructed Victorian colonialists, and fanned the fires of grievance further.”

So will this change the fate of the Parthenon marbles?

While the opposition of the British government would certainly make the British Museum’s negotiations more complicated, it is not an absolute bar to progress. And Labour has said that it would be open to such a deal if it takes power. Keir Starmer held his own meeting with Mitsotakis before Sunak cancelled his.

In general, Helena said, Greece’s strategy has been to move carefully and seek not to inflame the nationalist, “anti-woke” feeling that can sometimes consume the Conservatives over issues to do with statues and sculptures. “Mitsotakis said that he’s a patient man,” Helena said. “There is no sense that they will take legal action over the sculptures’ return,” an option that was on the table until 2015. “They don’t want to hurt the wider relationship.”

If the Parthenon marbles are ever returned to Greece, they have a slot waiting for them at the purpose-built museum next to the Acropolis. “It is a remarkable venue, filled with iridescent light – it is a proper place for them to be housed and exhibited,” Helena said. “If it does happen, despite all this, it would still be seen as a hugely magnanimous gesture.”

What else we’ve been reading

• Chile is the home to the largest Palestinian diaspora outside of the Middle East, with the first migrants arriving in the late 19th century. For this dispatch from Santiago, John Bartlett spoke to residents about how the Gaza war is affecting them and how they are showing solidarity. Nimo

• Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb hunts aliens. He has his detractors, and rips into plenty of them in Daniel Lavelle’s lively interview. But you can’t really argue that a guy who recently went to Papua New Guinea to investigate whether a meteor was actually part of an interstellar spaceship isn’t pretty interesting. Archie

• Adrian Horton is brilliant at nailing down why there has been such a mixed response to Emerald Fennell’s thriller Saltburn (pictured above). Nimo

• Why would Benjamin Netanyahu welcome Elon Musk, who recently endorsed explicit antisemitism, to Israel? It’s not out of character, Eric Levitz writes for Intelligencer: “For years now, Israel has been cultivating alliances with right-wing nationalist political actors throughout the west, including notoriously antisemitic ones.” In Haaretz, David Rothkopf writes (£) that Netanyahu’s decision is “part of a perverse and dangerous pattern”. Archie

• After witnessing society’s collective over-consumption at a local landfill, Chip Colwell and his family decided to cut down on their waste by going on a “slow-buy” year. For this week’s long read, Colwell takes you on his minimalist journey and what he learned along the way. Nimo

Sport

Champions League | Kylian Mbappe struck a controversial penalty deep in stoppage time to earn Paris St Germain a 1-1 draw against a valiant Newcastle United (above) and keep their Champions League destiny in their own hands. Phil Foden inspired a second-half comeback as Manchester City beat Leipzig 3-2. Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Lazio all sealed knock-out round places, the latter at the expense of Celtic.

Football | The use of sin-bins is to be expanded to higher levels of football, part of a series of measures designed to help protect referees from abuse. Grassroots leagues in England have trialled a system where dissent can mean a yellow card and being removed from the field for 10 minutes, bringing a significant reduction in the issue.

Tennis | The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has announced it will not impose sanctions on players taking part in an exhibition event in Russia this weekend. The event, which is sponsored by the Russian energy company Gazprom, is being held while Russia continues its war with Ukraine.

The front pages

The Guardian this morning leads with “Disease could kill more people in Gaza than the war, UN warns”. The Times has “Call to close visa route for cheaper foreign staff” while the i’s top story is “Jenrick goes rogue with dig at No 10 on migration”. The Daily Telegraph says “Patients at risk from virtual GP sessions”. “They stole her voice” – the Sun says little Emily Hand, 9, who was held hostage by Hamas, is too scared to speak after being terrorised by her captors into staying silent for 50 days. There must be feelings of vindication at the Daily Express today, as others cover that book of what it calls “mischief making smears” about the royals. However its front page lacks the big story, which the Daily Mail splashes on: “Scobie book pulled for naming ‘royal racist’ by mistake”. “Book names ‘royal racist’” says the Daily Mirror, explaining that thousands of copies of the Dutch edition had to be pulped as a result (the Express addresses the Dutch affair with a short panel on an inside page). “Book fiasco ‘names royal racist’” says the Metro. Lastly, someone else is tearing up their book too, according to the Financial Times: “Barclays looks at ditching thousands of least lucrative investment bank clients”.

Today in Focus

Cartoon of the day | Martin Rowson

The Upside

A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad

In 2020, Nasa’s Osiris-Rex mission landed on Bennu, an asteroid 200m miles from Earth, and successfully returned samples of cosmic rubble for analysis. Three years later, researchers at the Natural History Museum in London have received a teaspoon’s worth of the pristine material, which at 4.6bn years old dates back to the dawn of the solar system.

Not only will scientists be able to study this material for decades to understand how the solar system formed, they will also be able to research how to deflect or destroy asteroids that pose a potential threat to Earth. (Asteroid Bennu has a 1-in-1,750 chance of colliding with the planet in the next 300 years.)

“It’s a little treasure trove that takes us back to the start of the solar system,” said planetary scientist Ashley King. “I can’t wait to get my hands on them and see what we can learn about the early solar system.”

Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday

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