PM Mitsotakis formally requests the return of Parthenon Sculptures to Greece (video)

Mitsotakis spoke at the celebrations of the UNESCO anniversary

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his speech tonight in Paris in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of UNESCO raised the issue of the return of the Parthenon Sculptures.

Last September, a key step was taken by the UNESCO Intergovernmental Commission for the Promotion of the Return of Cultural Property to the Countries of Origin.

For the first time, a decision was adopted acknowledging that the issue was not a matter of bilateral agreements between individual Museums, but rather an intergovernmental topic and, therefore, the obligation to return the Parthenon Sculptures concerns the government of the United Kingdom.

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“I believe that it is necessary for the Sculptures of the Parthenon located in London to be reunited with most of the collection of Sculptures of the Parthenon located in Athens,” said the Prime Minister.

Mitsotakis called for dialogue on this issue with the UK government.

“This year marks the 200th anniversary of the start of the Struggle for the Independence of Greece. There could not have been a better time than this for the return of the missing section and the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures, in their birthplace, Greece,” the prime minister stressed.

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