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Greece renews fight for lost marbles

By Anthee Carassava for CNN

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ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- Emboldened by the return of two ancient artifacts claimed to have been spirited from Greek soil a decade ago, Greece's Prime Minister has lashed out at the British Museum, saying its grounds for refusing to relinquish possession of Greece's most famous antiquities, the Parthenon Marbles, were "feeble."

Kostas Karamanlis' criticism Thursday sounded as a gold funerary wreath from the fourth century B.C. and a marble woman's torso from the sixth century B.C. went on display at Athens' National Archeological Museum, three months after the J. Paul Getty Museum agreed to hand them over to Greek authorities.

Both works, according to the Getty, were relinquished last December after Greek authorities presented trustees and attorneys of the world's wealthiest art institution with evidence supporting claims that both pieces had been illegally removed from the country in the early 1990s.

"It is our urgent priority to reclaim every ancient artifact that was illegally exported to museums and collectors abroad," Karamanlis said at a ceremony at the Athens National Archeological Museum.

Flanked by the wreath and torso, Karamanlis said the repatriation of the two artifacts, which the Getty purchased in 1993 for about $4.4 million, "helped evaporate the feeble arguments put forward for the non-return" of the Parthenon Marbles by the British Museum.

Known as the Elgin Marbles, the sculptures were stripped from the Parthenon's frieze 200 years ago by Lord Elgin, Britain's top diplomat to the Ottoman empire that then ruled Greece.

Greece has sought the return of the sculptures, which are housed at the British Museum, in a decades-old campaign Greece has billed as its "top cultural priority."

The British Museum, however, insists that Lord Elgin legally obtained the marbles from Greece's then rulers, in 1801. It also argues that the marble masterpieces are better preserved in London.

With Greece set, this summer, to open the New Acropolis Museum -- a state-of-the-art institution intended to showcase the Parthenon Marbles -- pundits predict moral pressure may mount against Britain.

Last year, a museum in Germany and another in Sweden repatriated a pair of fragments from the Parthenon, firing hopes that the British Museum may follow suit.

Most encouraging to Greece, however, was the Getty's decision last year to return the 2,500-year-old floral crown and three other ancient items.

All items had been purchased by the museum's former curator, Marion True, who faces criminal charges in Athens and Italy for conspiring to traffic in looted antiquities.

True has denied all charges levied against her.

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