A museum in Vienna is negotiating with Greece to return two borrowed marble fragments of the Parthenon, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said at a joint press conference with his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias on Tuesday, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

The Museum of Art History (Kunsthistorisches Museum) in the Austrian capital owns only two parts of the northern frieze of the monument on the Acropolis hill in Athens.

However, Greece hopes that any deal that allows the recovery of such remnants that have reached other countries will improve the chances of bringing others home, Reuters reported.

“I am very pleased that there are discussions between the Art History Museum and the Acropolis Museum about the mutual loan of the Parthenon friezes,” said Schellenberg.

“I am sure that the dialogue can take place very quickly and the marble fragments will be exhibited in Athens,” he added.

Who still returned parts of the Parthenon to Greece

Dendias said the treaties are important in the context of discussions about major collections, particularly those at the British Museum in London.

Since 1832, when it became independent, Greece has repeatedly demanded the return of the sculptures, known in the United Kingdom as the Elgin Marbles, in honor of the lord who took them from the Parthenon in the early 19th century when he was a diplomat in Athens during the Ottoman period.

The head of Greek diplomacy recalled that “the local authorities of Sicily in 2002 and Pope Francis in 2023 returned part of the sculptures of the Parthenon to Greece”, so Austria’s gesture will be the third of its kind.

He appreciated that “it has a huge, huge meaning for us. Beyond the simple fact, we believe this will create a trend that we can use in our discussions with London.”