Greece’s culture minister Nikos Xydakis (pictured) announced on Wednesday that diplomacy and political dialogue rather than legal action is the government’s preferred strategy for the return of the Parthenon marbles from the British museum.
“On the one hand, you can’t file a suit over any issue, and, on the other, the outcome in international courts is never certain,” Xydakis told journalists during an interview he gave to one of the country’s private TV networks, Mega Channel.
“The way to winning back the Marbles is diplomatic and political,” the minister said following the publication of a 150-page report by the British firm of cultural heritage lawyers Norman Palmer and Geoffrey Robertson, urging Greece to take swift legal action.
Regarding Amphipolis, he said that the finds at the site were significant but the previous government’s approach of media overexposure had turned a purely scientific process into a media “circus”. He said that work is now taking place at a much more discrete level and is focused on preserving and restoring the site.
