Greeks offer to go halves over the Elgin Marbles.

GREECE has put forward a compromise loan deal that could end the tug-of-war over the Elgin Marbles, the ancient artefacts moved to Britain 200 years ago, and allow them to return to their homeland.
The British Museum has confirmed that it is willing to discuss the issue after the long-term loan plan was put forward by the Greek culture ministry to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) which is acting as mediator. [...]
A Greek culture ministry spokesman said: "We hope that this will revive talks and be seen as an attempt to meet the British Museum's anxiety."
It follows a decision by Neil MacGregor, British Museum director, to break off talks over the future of the artefacts. He has previously firmly resisted a permanent removal, suggesting that the Greeks accept a computer-generated image instead.
However, it is understood that Mr MacGregor is willing to have further negotiations to try to agree common ground.

For some reason I can't helping thinking that means "we'll keep the Marbles but we'll let you have an actual photograph of them instead of just the computer-generated thingy"...

posted by James Russell | 11:49 AM