Diplomatic fiasco casts pall over restitution talk

"I am baffled, as are most people," a leading member of the British Museum's Board of Trustees told Kathimerini in confidence a day after the the country's prime minister, Rishi Sunak, abruptly canceled a meeting with Greek Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a decision prompted by the ongoing controversy over the 2,500-year-old Parthenon Sculptures that cast a pall over relations between the two countries.

Just a few days earlier, however, there was nothing gloomy about the mood in the runup to Mitsotakis' visit to London. Members of the board, which is responsible for safeguarding the British Museum's collections, and dozens of its guests enjoyed the first trustees' dinner ever to be hosted in the Duveen Gallery, where the Greek marbles are displayed, and listened to George Osbourne, the museum's president and former minister with Sunak's Conservative party, outline his vision of...