Greece balks on art loan after Parthenon Marbles row

The British Museum still waiting to hear on its request for a sculpture from Athens ('Greece balks on art loan after Parthenon Marbles row') The Museum’s decision to send a piece of their Elgin marbles to Russia has delayed a loan from Greece of a key antiquity for a forthcoming exhibition on classical sculpture (“Defining Beauty: the Body in ancient Greek Art” - 6 March-22 June). The Greek museum has not yet decided on the loan request

because of tensions with the Greek government after one of the Parthenon Marbles, the headless figure of the river god Ilissos, was sent to the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg in December. Antonis Samaras, the Greek prime minister, described the loan, the first time one of the sculptures has left Britain since they were controversially taken from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century, as “an affront to the Greek people”.

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