Italy sending Parthenon fragment to Athens in nudge to UK

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — An Italian museum is lending a fragment of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece in what both sides hope will be a permanent return that will encourage the British Museum to send its own pieces of the works back, too. Sicily’s regional archaeological museum said Wednesday it had signed an agreement with the Acropolis Museum in Athens calling for a once-renewable, four-year loan of the Parthenon fragment it has. In exchange, the Acropolis museum will loan a statue and vase. The statement quoted Greek authorities as praising the initiative in the hopes that it encourages the British Museum to return the sculptures that were taken from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, in the early 19th century.