https://www.archaeology.org/news/10671-220707-africa-repatriation-artifacts

https://www.archaeology.org/news/10672-220708-turkey-sidamara-sarco****us

Once visited the Acropolis in Athens and their fascinating museum. British museum has a bunch of stuff that the Greeks put placeholders on in heir museum with the snarky comments that they are in London. Figure with the political correctness tsunami that the Brits would eventually start giving it all back. Even the Catholics gave back to the Orthodox the relics of John Chrysostom they stole from Jerusalem during the Crusades

You ought to see the "stuff" having to be curated by various federal land management agencies. Just think of every federal civil works project (30 lakes in Texas for example) and how much "stuff" was removed from prehistoric and historic cultural sites before they were flooded. Huge amount of material just sitting in boxes in a climate controls warehouse somewhere.
Do the "locals" want it back? Nope. Cost to much to deal with it..

Sorrry

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To the victor belong the spoils!!!

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So what victory did England ever have over Greece?

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I know you're being cheeky, but I'm generally curious if there is there an argument that the marbles would have been better off being left in Greece?

Would they exist at this point? I'm not super familiar with the overall time line.

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I don't think they would have been better in Greece then, but that's not the question I was addressing.

I will give a little perspective. I've never seen the Elgin Marbles, but I've been to the Parthenon and seen the mess the Greeks made of it (who thought storing gunpowder in it during a war was a good idea?). Also, I've seen the Pergamon Altar in Berlin (which is a similar collection of bas relief statues), and then been to the site of Pergamum, in Turkey, and seen where the altar USED to be. There is no question that moving it to Berlin (even after you consider the museum it was in got bombed) helped preserve the statues.

But this is immaterial to the ultimate discussion. That they were saved 100 years ago does not mean Greece today is not competent enough to protect them now.

They are English, entitled, and self absorbed, and really do not care about world opinion about their theft. So they saved it from the Greeks themselves. But they will never give it back. They are the English.

Britain is more woke than us, I wouldn't be so sure.

Are you saying it would be bad to return the Parthenon marbles because of "wokeness"?

Ok. So the English are woke as hell.

But I can assure you that the individuals whether it be museums or individuals who currently have possession of these items will not part with them. Except maybe for a price. And I do not see a bankrupt Greek government spending money on the return.

Quick!
Do it now while no one is in charge!

Now's the time for the Irish to get NI back!