/ world today news/ The British Museum is also known for its huge collection of over 8 million exhibits, a large part of which, however, come from other countries, and this also makes it a “symbol of large-scale looting”. Over the years many countries have tried to reclaim cultural relics from Britain and the latest example is Greece.
On November 26, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis arrived on a visit to the UK and said in an interview with the BBC that the British Museum should return the Parthenon marble sculptures to his country, saying “they belong to Greece and are basically stolen”. For a long time, Athena has been calling on the British Museum to return these sculptures to her, but so far she has been refused.
Greece is not the only country whose cultural heritage monuments are located in foreign museums. Britain was once the most powerful colonial empire and the British Museum is a showcase of its history. Objects from around the world can be seen there, such as Nigerian bronze ornaments, the Egyptian Rosetta Stone and 230,000 Chinese relics.
According to UNESCO’s incomplete statistics, at least 1.64 million Chinese cultural relics are currently abroad, and the British Museum is among those that store a large number of them. Many countries, including China, have been making relentless efforts to get these items back, but London has so far refused on the grounds of “protecting their safety”. Even in 1963, Parliament amended the British Museum Act to prohibit the return of looted cultural relics to their countries of origin.
However, colonialism is a thing of the past and Great Britain must respond to the legitimate demands of many countries and finally return the cultural relics they have stolen.
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