On July 29, 1982, Melina Mercouri, Minister of Culture and Sciences of Greece, addressed the World Conference on Cultural Policies organised by UNESCO in Mexico City, telling the world the Parthenon Sculptures must be returned home to Greece.
Today, July 29, 2026 — 44 years later — the Parthenon Sculptures still remain in London. Greece continues its determined campaign for their permanent reunification at the Acropolis Museum. While the sculptures have not yet come home, the climate has shifted markedly in recent years.
In May 2026, at UNESCO’s 25th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin (ICPRCP), a majority of member states — around 20 countries — expressed strong support for Greece’s request for permanent return and reunification. Turkey, as an observer, publicly stated it is unaware of any Ottoman “firman” that legitimised Lord Elgin’s removal of the sculptures, undermining a long-standing British argument. UNESCO again urged the UK and Greece to intensify efforts to resolve the dispute.
British Museum Deputy Director Jonathan Williams has called for an active “Parthenon partnership” with Greece, speaking of new ways of working together and the possibility of the sculptures returning to Greece for the first time in more than 200 years. Culture Minister Lina Mendoni has noted that “the atmosphere has changed” and that with goodwill a way forward can be found. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has repeated that Greece is open to negotiations but that “baby steps are not enough.” The recent elevation of Andy Burnham as UK Prime Minister — a long-time public supporter of return (“Send them back, no strings”) — has further raised hopes.
Meanwhile, Greece has completed the restoration of the Parthenon’s western pediment, allowing its full western face to be seen clearly for the first time in approximately 220 years. Fragments have continued to return from other institutions (including Palermo and the Vatican in earlier years), and international support for reunification continues to grow.
Mercouri’s words remain as powerful and relevant as ever:
“Lord Elgin claimed that his action was motivated by idealism, that it was necessary to save these marbles ‘from uncultivated hands and indifferent spirits’. Let me tell you a little story about that:
“The Acropolis was occupied by Ottoman forces under siege by the Greek army of national liberation. The Ottoman occupiers of the Acropolis were running short of ammunition and began to destroy the columns to extract the lead for making cannonballs. The Greeks sent them a message which I think was historic: ‘Don’t touch the columns of the Acropolis; we will send you cannonballs’. And they did. It was these ‘uncultivated hands’ which carried the cannonballs, and these ‘indifferent spirits’ which gave up their lives in defence of their patrimony.
“Our great poet Yannis Ritsos expressed the sentiment of all of our people when he wrote: ‘These stones cannot make do with less sky’.
“I think that the time has come for these marbles to come back to the blue sky of Attica, to their natural space, to the place where they will be a structural and functional part of a unique whole. And this would happen at a time when the Greeks, with the help and technical collaboration of the whole world, have erected scaffolding around the Propylaea, the Erechtheion and the Parthenon in a gigantic effort to save the Acropolis, threatened by the erosion of time and pollution of the modern world.
“The government of Greece has charged me with the duty of announcing to you here that Greece, through the mediation of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental committee for the promotion of the return of cultural property to its country of origin, using formal procedures and relying also on legislation currently in force in England, is about to make an official request for the return of the Acropolis marbles.
“We are not naive. The day may come when this world will create other visions, other concepts of what is proper, of what comprises a cultural patrimony and of human creativity. And we well understand that the museums cannot be emptied. But I insist on reminding you that in the case of the Acropolis marbles we are not asking for the return of a painting or a statue. We are asking for the return of a portion of a unique monument, the privileged symbol of a whole culture.
“Of course, the Parthenon is not, unhappily, the only example of a mutilated monument. Greece appeals to countries which have had the same experiences, suffered the same ravages, and declares that it maintains and will continue to maintain that mutilated groups scattered throughout the world must be returned to their countries of origin, must be reintegrated into the place and space where they were conceived and created; for they constitute the historical and religious heritage, the cultural patrimony of the people who gave them birth.
“Dear friends, it was the Englishman Hobhouse, the future Lord Broughton, on a visit to Athens in 1809, who gave us this striking illustration: an elderly Greek man approached him and in a voice trembling with bitterness says: ‘You English have taken from us the works of our ancestors. Look after them well, because the day will come when the Greeks will ask for them back’.
“There is nothing we need add to that. Our English friends have indeed looked after our marbles well; and now, with a very firm voice, we are asking for them back.
“Fellow delegates, Mr. Director-General of UNESCO, our request is absolutely legitimate. In the name of civilisation and justice, we ask for your moral support. I am confident in the expectation of that support.”
— Melina Mercouri, July 29, 1982
Forty-four years on, the demand remains the same: the reunification of a unique monument under the blue sky of Attica. The scaffolding around the Parthenon has come down in places, the international tide continues to turn, and Greece’s voice is clearer and more widely supported than ever. The marbles are still in London — but the campaign Melina launched in Mexico City has never been stronger.
Tags: British Museum, Greek news today, Melina Mercouri, Parthenon Marbles, Parthenon Sculptures, return to Greece, UNESCO, Lina Mendoni, Andy Burnham
GCT Team
This article was researched and written by a GCT team member.
Melina Mercouri, July 29, 1982
