A Vienna museum is in talks geared toward lending two marble items of the Parthenon to Greece, Austria’s overseas minister stated on Tuesday, a growth his Greek counterpart stated he hoped would assist in talks with Britain over its a lot bigger hoard. The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has a tiny assortment of marbles – simply two fragments from the Parthenon’s northern frieze. But Greece hopes that with every settlement to return items to Athens there will likely be rising “positive momentum” in talks on returning items being stored elsewhere.

“I am very pleased that technical discussions are taking place between the Kunsthistorische Museum and the Acropolis Museum on mutual loans of the Parthenon frieze,” Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg instructed a information convention along with his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias. “I am very hopeful that the talks can move on very quickly and the marbles will be on display in Athens.”

Dendias stated the talks have been necessary within the context of discussions about larger collections, notably that the British Museum in London. Since independence in 1832, Greece has repeatedly known as for the return of the sculptures – recognized in Britain because the Elgin Marbles – that British diplomat Lord Elgin faraway from the Parthenon temple in Athens within the early nineteenth century, when Greece was below Ottoman rule.

“The regional government of Sicily in 2022 and Pope Francis in 2023 returned to Greece part of the Parthenon sculptures so this will be the third one and this for us is of huge, huge importance,” Dendias stated. “And also beyond the very fact of this, we believe that will create a momentum which we could use in our discussions with London.”

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