Artist, minister in row over emblematic 'Runner' sculpture

A public row has broken out between Greek Culture Minister Myrsini Zorba and the artist who created the glass sculpture of the "Runner" over an alleged proposal to donate the 12-meter tall piece to North Macedonia as part of friendship building measures between the two countries in the wake of the Prespes name accord.

The row started after Zorba on Tuesday denied reports that she had approached the award-winning sculptor with a proposal to swap the emblematic statue that graces the northern end of Vassileos Constantinou Avenue outside the Athens Hilton hotel with one of Alexander the Great on horseback that stands on the main square of North Macedonia's capital, Skopje.

"There has been no such proposal," Zorba told the state-run Athens-Macedonian News Agency on Tuesday, dismissing claims to the opposite in the media as "baseless."

"Possible swaps of monuments...