Can Andy Burnham Secure the Return of the Parthenon Marbles?

Andy Burnham, the UK’s new prime minister, spent much of his political career arguing that the Parthenon Marbles should be returned to Greece. Now he’s safely established in 10 Downing Street (and No.10 North), he is in a stronger position than ever to influence one of the world’s longest-running cultural disputes.

But Burnham cannot simply order the sculptures’ return. They are held by the British Museum, whose trustees are constrained by legislation that generally prevents them from permanently disposing of objects in the collection. Meanwhile, negotiations between the museum and the Greek government remain divided over the central terms of any possible agreement.

The Parthenon Marbles were removed from the Acropolis in Athens between 1801 and 1812 by Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin, who was then serving as Britain's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which controlled Greece at the time. 

Throughout his life, Elgin maintained that he had permission from the Ottoman authorities to remove the sculptures, a claim that, to this day, remains the subject of historical and legal debate – it was adopted, most recently, by the recent UK prime minister Boris Johnson. 

As a response to the mounting debts he faced after returning to Britain, Elgin sold the marbles to the British government in 1816, who transferred them to the British Museum, where they have remained on public display for more than two centuries. 

Since Greece gained independence in the nineteenth century, successive governments have argued that the sculptures were removed illegitimately and should be reunited with the surviving sections of the Parthenon in Athens. The British Museum to this day maintains that it acquired them lawfully and that they form part of a collection intended to tell a global history of human civilisation. 

Burnham’s arrival in Downing Street may have changed the political climate surrounding the dispute. Whether it will change the practical reality is a more difficult question.

His support for reunification stretches back to his earliest years in Parliament. Research published by the Greek newspaper Ta Nea traces his involvement to 2001, shortly after he was first elected as an MP, when he backed calls for discussions with Greece.

His clearest recent intervention came in 2023, following the reopening of Manchester Museum. Responding to the poet Lemn Sissay’s call for George Osborne, the chair of the British Museum, to return the sculptures, Burnham wrote on Twitter: ‘Send them back, no strings attached. And let’s use culture to change how Britain is seen around the world.’

In a subsequent statement to The Art Journal sent via direct message, Burnham said that returning the marbles is: “One million per cent the right call, particularly in the times we now find ourselves.”

Burnham is therefore a strikingly different figure from recent occupants of Downing Street, whose governments resisted calls to facilitate the sculptures’ permanent return.

In Greece his election has been greeted with cautious optimism. A Greek government official told the media outlet Ta Nea that Burnham’s longstanding position ‘gives cause for optimism that the new British government may take a different approach to the issue. For the first time, a British Prime Minister has been shown to support the reunification of the sculptures.’

Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has also indicated that he intends to raise Burnham’s previous statements with him.

‘I have seen that the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has in the past expressed his unequivocal support for the return of the Parthenon Marbles,’ Mitsotakis said at a meeting of his New Democracy parliamentary group. ‘Let’s see how consistent he is, and whether he will honour this commitment. In any case, I intend to raise this issue with him as soon as I meet him.’

Yet few in Athens appear to expect Burnham to intervene directly in negotiations.

“My sense is that people in Athens see Burnham much more as someone who is unlikely to stand in the way if Greece and the British Museum are able to reach an agreement, rather than as someone who will actively intervene to unlock the negotiations himself,” Yannis Andritsopoulos, London correspondent for Ta Nea, told The Art Journal.

“He could of course do that in theory, and that would be the ideal scenario from Greece’s perspective, but I haven’t spoken to anyone who genuinely expects him to do so.”

The legal position helps explain that caution. The British Museum Act 1963 places strict limits on the trustees’ ability to dispose of objects from the collection. Although the legislation contains narrow exceptions, it does not currently provide a straightforward route for the permanent transfer of the Parthenon Marbles.

In response to a query from The Art Journal, a Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson reiterated the government’s longstanding public position.

“Decisions [AR1] [TS2] relating to the care and management of the museum’s collections, including loaning objects, are a matter for the Trustees of the British Museum,” the spokesperson said.

Alexander Herman, director of the London-based Institute of Art and Law, argues that this response obscures the government's own ability to change the legal framework.

“The longstanding position of the UK Government has been that the Parthenon Marbles are a matter for the British Museum trustees,” Herman told The Art Journal. 

“That position has always been somewhat disingenuous, since an Act of Parliament, the British Museum Act 1963, imposes general restrictions on what the trustees can do with the collection: permanent disposals are generally prohibited, for instance, with a few rather narrow exceptions.”

If Burnham chose to turn his personal support for reunification into government policy, ministers could introduce legislation amending or repealing the relevant restrictions.

But even that would not necessarily settle the matter. Herman said any new legislation would “almost certainly be permissive in nature, rather than mandatory”, meaning the final decision would probably remain with the museum’s trustees.

“And there is no indication that a majority of the trustees would be in favour of an outright return,” he added.

A separate debate is developing over whether national museums should be given greater freedom to return contested objects on moral grounds.

The Charities Act 2022 created new powers governing ex gratia disposals – transfers made because trustees believe there is a compelling moral obligation to act. National museums were subsequently excluded from using those powers in relation to their collections, however, and the handling of that exclusion has attracted parliamentary criticism.

Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a former cabinet colleague of the new prime minister when they were both Labour MPs, has argued that the Burnham government should reconsider both the legal restrictions affecting national museum collections and the exclusion of those institutions from the Charities Act provisions.

Hunt described the existing legal framework as “outdated and infantilising for trustees of the national museums affected by it”.

He said it prevented museums from engaging fully with “legitimate questions around the restitution and repatriation of contested heritage”, while allowing trustees and directors to hide behind legislation rather than consider provenance research and applications for the return of looted objects.

Hunt also said the forthcoming review of the Charities Act could provide an opportunity to consider extending the ex-gratia provisions to national museums.

Herman supports giving trustees greater freedom in cases involving a strong moral obligation, but doubts that this route would resolve the Parthenon dispute.

“My own view is that it could not be used to return the Marbles to Greece – it is more likely to apply to collection objects taken through violence, for instance,” he said.

Instead, he believes a negotiated compromise between Greece and the British Museum remains the most plausible outcome.

“In the end, the long-awaited resolution of the Marbles dispute is more likely to be a consensual settlement, rather than an outright return, despite what the prime minister may intend,” Herman said.

“This would involve a compromise from both parties in order to seek out a workable and sensible partnership around sharing the Marbles on a sustainable long-term basis.”

The British Museum maintains that negotiations are continuing.

“Discussions with Greece about a Parthenon Partnership are ongoing and constructive,” a museum spokesperson told The Art Journal.

“We believe that this kind of long-term partnership would strike the right balance between sharing our greatest objects with audiences around the world and maintaining the integrity of the incredible collection we hold at the museum.”

That description is more positive than some accounts of the current state of the negotiations.

According to Andritsopoulos, talks between the Greek government and Osborne remain stuck on three fundamental questions: how many sculptures would be sent to Athens, how long they would remain there and whether any arrangement would require Greece to recognise the British Museum’s ownership.

“The talks remain primarily between the Greek government and George Osborne,” he said. “I don't think Burnham’s arrival removes those three sticking points.”

Nevertheless, Burnham’s support is seen in Athens as politically significant. “There is hope in Athens that, if the two sides reach a mutually acceptable agreement, a Burnham government would be more likely to facilitate it than previous governments,” Andritsopoulos said.

“So, I wouldn’t say Athens believes Burnham has strengthened or weakened the museum’s negotiating position. But there’s cautious optimism that the political environment has become more favourable.”

Burnham’s election has not removed the legal, institutional or diplomatic barriers to reunification.  But the political context is different. Greece is no longer dealing with a British prime minister who has publicly rejected its case. It now has one who has repeatedly supported it – even if his government is, for the moment, maintaining the traditional position that the next move belongs to the British Museum. 

An issue that has felt mired in a political log jam for many generations is now very much in flux. Expect unexpected currents ahead.