Letters: What to do with the Elgin Marbles

Sculpting a solution

Sir: Noel Malcolm’s article ‘Relief fund’ (22 October) rightly suggests that legislators should consider the issue of the Parthenon sculptures seriously. Yet the article does little in the way of advancing a meaningful solution. What makes The Parthenon Project unique and not just ‘the latest in a sequence’ is that it offers a real, viable way of breaking the impasse on a centuries-old debate. Its proposal of a win-win solution involving the return of the sculptures to Athens and the establishment of a rotating exhibition of Greek artefacts in London is new but already changing minds – including my own.

A positive, collaborative solution would also say a lot about modern Britain – demonstrating that we can approach complex issues about our history with maturity and confidence in our own national identity. I strongly believe that shifting public attitudes must be taken into account. As a democratic country, should the British public not have a say about what we hold in our collections? It is also wrong to suggest that the debate about the Parthenon sculptures is just ‘being presented as a political problem’ – it fundamentally is a political problem.