“Taking the Parthenon Sculptures from Ottoman-Occupied Greece was like the Americans taking the Eiffel Tower from Paris when it was under German occupation,” famous British actor Stephen Fry said during the annual Hay Festival.
Fry, an outspoken proponent of the repatriation of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece, called on his government to immediately return the Marbles to their rightful heirs.

Speaking at the annual Hay Festival in Wales, he noted that the cultural treasures had been handed over by the occupying forces.

“Taking the Parthenon Sculptures from occupied Greece is like the Americans taking the Eiffel Tower from Paris when the ‘city of light’ was under German occupation,” he said .

The British writer and broadcaster said that the British Museum’s arguments for the preservation of the Marbles in view of the ongoing demands from the Greek side are summarised in the phrase: “We took them legally from the Turks. . . which was an occupying force”.

“It would be as if our country were missing the Stonehenge and Big Ben”.

Fry expressed his “passion” for their return to Greece, predicting that they will be welcomed by 2 million people on the streets of Athens.

“It would be like Stonehenge and Big Ben were missing from our country for hundreds of years and eventually returned to where they belong,” the British author said at the Hay Festival.

Stephen Fry pointed out that their return would “be an aristocratic act”.