Will we ever see the Parthenon frieze in its entirety again in Athens? After the Vatican and Sicily, an Austrian museum has announced that the fragments of the Parthenon marbles it keeps will return to Greece, Artnet News tells us. During a press conference, held on May 2, the Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Schallenberg has announced that the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna is in “discussions” with the Acropolis Museum regarding “mutual loans of the Parthenon frieze”. Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias described the agreement as “crucially important”.
Representatives of the Kunsthistorisches Museum did not provide more details on the conditions of these “mutual loans”, specifies Artnet News. The Greek Parliament adopted, in February, a law facilitating the exchange of rare antiquities within the framework of exhibition in foreign museums. The move comes as the Greek government is in talks with the British Museum over a possible return of the Parthenon Marbles to Athens.
The English institution has the largest collection of ancient reliefs taken from the Acropolis outside their country of origin. Athens has been calling for the return of the Parthenon friezes for decades, claiming they were “looted” while the country was under Ottoman occupation. But London says the sculptures were “legally acquired” in 1802 by British diplomat Lord Elgin, who sold them to the British Museum. The institution has kept them since 1832.
Negotiations between Athens and the British Museum for the return of the Parthenon marbles are arduous. Faced with the inflexibility of the British institution, Greece hopes that the Austrian decision will encourage Great Britain to follow suit.
Other cultural institutions support Greece in this long dispute. In January 2022, the Antonino Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum in Palermo, Sicily, returned a fragment to its possession under a four-year loan, renewable once. The piece of frieze, which represents a foot of Artemis, Greek goddess of the wild nature, hunting and childbirth, belonged to the part of the monument dedicated to the gods of Olympus. “With this gesture, the region of Sicily points the way for the definitive return of the Parthenon sculptures to Athens, the city that created them,” said Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni.
In March, the Vatican returned three fragments, officially handed over in a ceremony at the Acropolis Museum in Athens. It is a horse’s head, a young boy’s head and a man’s head with a beard. The Greeks “legitimately desire the return of the fragments to their homes, to their original location,” said Bishop Farrell during the ceremony, welcoming this decision taken by Pope Francis.