BBC Today programme calls the Elgin Marbles by their Greek name
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The BBC’s Today programme has begun referring to “the Parthenon Marbles, formerly known as the Elgin Marbles” in its coverage of Britain’s diplomatic row with Greece.
The sculptures, long the subject of discord between the two countries, are back in the news after Rishi Sunak cancelled a meeting with the Greek prime minister.
Mr Sunak was said to have been angered by Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s comment over the weekend that the continued presence of the marbles in the British Museum was akin to the Mona Lisa being cut in half.
Downing Street said that Greece acted in bad faith by publicly lobbying for their return, having provided “explicit assurances” that they would not.
Referring to the row on Radio 4’s Today programme, presenter Justin Webb referred to “the Parthenon Marbles, formerly known as the Elgin Marbles”.
Later in the programme, he described them as “sculptures that used to be known as the Elgin Marbles and are now referred to as the Parthenon Marbles”.
The BBC said that there was no official style guide on the subject, and programme editors can make their own decisions. The BBC News website, covering the same story, referred to “the Elgin Marbles… also known as the Parthenon Sculptures”.
The British Museum now calls them the Parthenon Sculptures. They were taken from Athens in the 19th century by Lord Elgin, a British diplomat. The sculptures that remain are housed in the Acropolis Museum, which was built in 2009.
Mr Mitsotakis made his comments on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, where she first introduced the treasures as the Elgin Marbles but was swiftly corrected by the Greek prime minister.
Asked where he would prefer the sculptures to be held, Mr Mitsotakis said: “I think the answer is very clear. They do look better in the Acropolis Museum, a state-of-the-art museum that was built for that purpose.
“This is not a question of returning artefacts whose ownership we question. We feel that the sculptures belong to Greece and that they were essentially stolen but this is not, in my mind, an ownership question. This is a reunification argument.
“Where can you best appreciate what is essentially one monument? It’s as if I told you that you would cut the Mona Lisa in half and have half of it at the Louvre and half of it at the British Museum.”
Asked if he was confident of a deal to loan the treasures back to Greece, Mr Mitsotakis said: “We have not made as much progress as I would like in the negotiations, but I’m a patient man and we have waited for hundreds of years. I will persist in these discussions.”
