BRITAIN TO KEEP ELGIN MARBLES
Britain on Wednesday rejected a UNESCO plea that it return to Greece a set of priceless marble statues cut from the Parthenon temple in Athens in the early 1800s, official sources said.
A foreign office spokesman said the reply, sent in the 11th hour before the expiration of a deadline set by UNESCO, was expected to reach the organization in Paris within the next few days.
He would not reveal the nature of the answer, but official government sources said Britain had decided to reject the UNESCO plea, made after the Greek government itself failed to persuade Britain to return the ancient sculptures.
Under the UNESCO procedure for the return of cultural property, Britain was given a year to reply to the request, received in London Oct. 30, 1984.
The marbles, a central part of Greece’s cultural heritage, were bought by the British Museum after Lord Elgin, Britain’s ambassador to the Ottoman empire, took them from Athens in the early 1800s.
The museum has said returning them would set a precedent for the restitution of countless art treasures.
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