Greek President Konstantinos Tasoulas made one of the clearest public statements yet on the Parthenon Marbles Thursday n...

Greek President Konstantinos Tasoulas made one of the clearest public statements yet on the Parthenon Marbles Thursday night, telling an audience at the British School at Athens that reunification of the sculptures "would be a gesture of very great significance." Speaking at an event on the contribution of foreign archaeological schools to ancient Greek civilization, Tasoulas argued that the Parthenon cannot be separated from its sculptures indefinitely. If the Parthenon is accepted as the beacon of European spirit and Western thought, he said, it cannot remain without its sculptures forever. He urged those present to consider the magnitude of what a genuine reunification would mean, framing it not just as a Greek cultural demand but as a statement about European identity itself. The speech positioned the return of the Marbles as a moral and civilizational question, not simply a bilateral dispute between Greece and Britain. Tasoulas also spoke at length about the evolution of foreign archaeological schools operating in Greece, noting that 19 such institutions now function in the country. He traced their history from the 19th century, when archaeology was often tied to collection and appropriation, to the modern era, in which foreign schools work alongside the Greek Archaeological Service under a framework where, as he put it, "finds belong to their place of origin, research must be conducted transparently, and findings shared." The president referenced early European travelers to Greece, from Cyriac of Ancona in the 15th century to the grand tour era of the 18th century, and described how figures like Johann Joachim Winckelmann helped establish classical Greek art as the foundation of European aesthetic values. He closed by describing foreign archaeological schools as "bridges between Greek antiquity and the international scientific community." The remarks come at a moment when the debate over the Marbles, currently held at the British Museum in London, remains politically sensitive in both countries. #ParthenonMarbles #Greece #GreekHistory