FACTBOX-The Parthenon sculptures at 中心 of 論争 between Britain, Greece
ATHENS, Nov 28 (Reuters) -
Britain's 総理大臣 Rishi Sunak has 取り消すd a planned 会合 with his Greek 相当するもの Kyriakos Mitsotakis 予定 to a
外交の 列／漕ぐ／騒動
over the status of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon sculptures housed at the British Museum.
Greece has 繰り返して asked for their 永久の return to Athens, while Britain and the museum have 辞退するd to do so.
WHY THEY ARE IN BRITAIN?
The sculptures, known as the Elgin Marbles in Britain, 含む part of a frieze, 救済 パネル盤s and other 人物／姿／数字s that were 除去するd from the Parthenon in the 早期に 19th century by Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin and then-British 外交官／大使 to the Ottoman empire.
They were 輸送（する）d to Britain and bought by the British Museum in 1816, and are 展示（する）d as a prized part of its collection in London.
WHAT ARE THEY?
The sculptures at the British Museum （不足などを）補う about half of a 160-メーター frieze which adorned the Parthenon 寺 on the rocky Acropolis hill in Athens. The collection 含むs 15 sculpted 救済 パネル盤s and 人物／姿／数字s of gods and heroes from the 寺's pediments.
They are 初めの parts of the 寺 献身的な to the goddess Athena, 完全にするd in 432 BC as the 栄冠を与えるing glory of Athens' Golden Age.
The largest 寺 on the Acropolis, the Parthenon has operated as an archaeological 場所／位置 since 1833, 生き残るing wars and natural 災害s to become the symbol of modern Greece.
ATHENS' CAMPAIGN FOR THEIR RETURN While Athens has called for the 永久の return of the treasures since its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1832 and accus ed Elgin of 窃盗, the （選挙などの）運動をする 獲得するd more attention in the 1980s.
Greek Oscar-指名するd actress Melina Mercouri, a 声の 支持者 of the arts, 開始する，打ち上げるd an 公式の／役人 （選挙などの）運動をする for their return when she was culture 大臣 in 1981-1989.
Athens has その上の stepped up its 成果／努力s since it opened a museum in 2009 at the foot of the Acropolis, which 持つ／拘留するs the sculptures that remain in Greece. With a 見解（をとる） of the Parthenon, the layout of the 最高の，を越す 床に打ち倒す of the museum mimics the 寺.
In September 2019, Mitsotakis 示唆するd Athens would be willing to 貸付金 antiquities to the British Museum in return for 存在 able to 一時的に 展示（する） them. Greece said the 提案 did not alter its long-standing 需要・要求する for their 永久の return. In December 2022, Greece said it was in 会談 with Britain over the 本国送還 of the sculptures to Athens but a 取引，協定 was not 切迫した.
BRITISH MUSEUM'S STANCE
The British Museum, custodian of the sculptures, has 辞退するd to return them, 説 they were acquired by Elgin under a 合法的な 契約 with the Ottoman Empire that then 支配するd Greece.
The trustees of the museum say the public would 利益 more from having the sculptures divided between two museums, that bringing them 支援する together into a 統一するd whole is impossible as some parts were lost or destroyed, and that the sculptures could not be 安全に returned.
The trustees have said they would consider a 貸付金 to Greece if Greece 認めるs the British Museum's 所有権 of the sculptures, which Greek 政府s have 辞退するd in the past. The British Museum in January 2023 called for a new Parthenon 共同 with Greece and said discussions were 現在進行中の.
OTHER RETURNS In January 2022, a museum in Italy 貸付金d Athens the いわゆる "Fagan" fragment, 描写するing the foo t of the 古代の Greek goddess Artemis. It later said the fragment - part of the 寺's eastern frieze - could stay in Greece. In December, ローマ法王 Francis returned to Greece three pieces of the Parthenon that had been in the papal collections of the Vatican Museums for more than a century.
(報告（する）／憶測ing by Renee Maltezou Editing by Alison Williams and Bernadette Baum)
