The long-awaited homecoming of a marble fragment, honed to adorn the Parthenon but long in exile in Italy, must “open the way” for other masterpieces to be reunited with the monument, the Greek prime minister has said.
As the artwork was unveiled at the Acropolis Museum, Kyriakos Mitsotakis said its restitution – sealed in a breakthrough deal between Sicily and Athens – offered a blueprint for similar accords to be reached, for example with the UK.
“This important step today opens the way, I believe, for other museums to be able to move in a similar direction,” he told attenders at Monday’s ceremony. “Most importantly, of course, the British Museum should understand that the time has come for the Parthenon marbles … to finally return here, to their natural home.”
The exquisite piece is barely the size of a shoebox. Carved 2,500 years ago, it depicts the foot of a draped Artemis, goddess of the hunt, peeking out from beneath an elaborate tunic. The fragment once embellished the eastern part of the Parthenon temple’s monumental frieze, long regarded as the high…
