The demand of Athens has quarreled NATO allies: the British prime minister canceled the meeting with the Greek

A scandalous quarrel is breaking out between London and Athens over the Parthenon marble, stolen by the British from the Greeks in the century before last. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak cancels a meeting with the Greek Prime Minister. A source in the conservative party claims that “the meeting became impossible” after Kyriakos Mitsotakis called for the return of antiquities to the Greek capital.

Greece’s prime minister has criticized his British counterpart Rishi Sunak’s decision to cancel planned talks at which he had hoped to raise the issue of the Parthenon Marbles as disagreements over antiquities flare up again.

According to The Guardian, aides to the Greek Prime Minister called Sunak’s move “wrong and undignified,” and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself, who is visiting London, expressed irritation that the planned meeting at Downing Street was unexpectedly canceled almost immediately last moment.

“I want to express my annoyance at the fact that the British Prime Minister canceled our scheduled meeting hours before it was due to take place,” the head of the Greek government said as the diplomatic row intensified. – Greece and the UK are united by traditionally strong bonds of friendship, and the scope of our bilateral relations is exceptionally broad. Greek views on the Parthenon sculptures are well known. I hoped that I would have the opportunity to discuss them with my British colleague, along with other international problems: Gaza; Ukraine; climate crisis; migration.”

The statement ended with Mitsotakis berating Rishi Sunak for failing to rise to the challenge of debating the fate of the antiquities that have spawned the West’s longest-running cultural scandal. “He who believes in the correctness and justice of his views is never afraid of opposing arguments,” the Greek Prime Minister said in a statement.

The Greek prime minister was due to visit Downing Street at lunchtime on Tuesday, the last day of his trip to the UK. But on Monday evening, as he held talks with Labor leader Keir Starmer, it emerged Sunak would cancel the meeting.

Officials accompanying the Greek prime minister said there could be no doubt that Mitsotakis’ comments about classical carvings in a BBC interview clearly played a role, despite British government sources initially citing discrepancy in the program.

During an interview on Sunday, the Greek leader repeated his country’s long-standing request that the Parthenon treasures be “reunited” with the other sculptures beneath the temple they once adorned, saying that dividing the art between London and Athens was like “cutting up the Mona Lisa in half.”

The remarks appeared to anger Sunak to the point that he believed there was no reason to negotiate.

Insiders in Athens acknowledged that the Greek premier’s decision to meet Starmer before Sunak may also have contributed to Downing Street’s snub.

But they added that the Greeks’ irritation was underlined by the “clumsiness” with which the Downing Street talks were so abruptly called off – even if Mitsotakis’s closest aides privately admitted they preferred Starmer to Sunak, an irony for a party that lives in the same political landscape as the Tories.

A British government spokesman said: “The UK-Greece relationship is extremely important,” citing “working together in NATO” and tackling common issues such as illegal migration, as well as joint efforts to resolve the crises in the Middle East and Ukraine.

One senior Conservative source, who called the sculptures “the Elgin Marbles” – after Lord Elgin, the Scottish diplomat who demanded their removal from the Acropolis in the early 19th century – said: “This meeting was made impossible by comments about the Elgin Marbles that were made before her. Our position is clear – the Elgin Marbles are part of the British Museum’s permanent collection and belong to it. It is foolhardy for any British politician to suggest that this is a subject for negotiation.”

Sunak has previously made clear he would never support a change to legislation drawn up in 1963 that prevents the British Museum from parting with its collection.

Mitsotakis, whose New Democracy party won a second term as president in July, has made returning the treasures to the country where they were carved from marble 2,500 years ago a priority of his next four years in power.

But late on Monday it became clear that Anglo-Greek tensions unseen in decades had clouded the horizon, with government sources admitting it was “anyone’s guess” how either side would deal with the fallout.

A Labor Party spokesman said: “If the Prime Minister fails to meet with a European ally with whom Britain has important economic ties, it is further evidence that he is unable to provide the serious economic leadership our country needs. Keir Starmer’s Labor Party is ready.”

Ahead of his talks with Mitsotakis on Monday, Starmer signaled he was open to a loan deal that would allow the repatriation of a significant portion of the sculptures in exchange for a rotating carousel of never-before-seen Greek antiquities on display at the British Museum.