Auto DraftGreece returns priceless relics to Bulgaria and points Britain to the Parthenon marbles

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Greece and Bulgaria have formally exchanged a treasury of relics and bones in Thessaloniki, sealing a cultural deal negotiated over decades and giving Athens a fresh platform for its campaign to recover the Parthenon sculptures.

The handover included priceless religious objects removed from Greece during the First World War, and remains thought to belong to Tsar Samuel, Bulgaria’s medieval warrior ruler.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he hoped the accord would strengthen Greece’s case with Britain. “The global community is essentially re-evaluating its longstanding stance on protecting cultural heritage,” he told the Saturday ceremony. “Monuments and historical heirlooms cannot be treated as spoils of war, nor as the result of circumstances subsequent to their creation.”

Fifty years of diplomacy

The deal followed about 50 years of cultural talks between the neighbours. Mitsotakis called it proof of the “political will” needed to settle long-running disputes, including the row over the fifth-century BC Parthenon marbles. “It took time, and above all, political will and determination to overcome the obstacles of the past,” he said.

Under the agreement, 48 relics — icons, crosses and ornate ecclesiastical vessels — looted by Bulgarian troops from churches and monasteries in northern Greece will return to Athens. They had been held at Bulgaria’s National History Museum for more than a century.

The remains of Tsar Samuel, regarded in Bulgaria as a national hero for resisting the Byzantine empire, were found by archaeologists more than 60 years ago in a border area of Greece. They were flown to Sofia on a military aircraft with a fighter escort and a 21-gun salute. Free transport was arranged for pilgrims.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said the items belonged to both peoples. “If in the past Tsar Samuel divided us, I can say that today he unites us,” he said.

A message on the Parthenon

Mitsotakis said Greece’s campaign for the marbles was not a vague national claim and did not question the mission of museums. Athens wants the sculptures reunited so the monument can be seen whole.

“It is precisely this same principle — the principle of the integrity of a monument — that underpins our continuous efforts to reunite the Parthenon sculptures,” he said. “The Parthenon constitutes a unique and singular case… [The campaign] is about the restoration of a universal monument that remains violently dismembered.”

He added that Greece would not accept arrangements that imply recognition of foreign sovereignty or the borrowing of its own treasures. “It now believes that the time has come for truth, for reason, for justice and morality.”

The carvings were removed from the Parthenon on the orders of Lord Elgin, then British ambassador to the Ottoman court, and acquired by the British Museum in 1816 after he was forced to sell them. They have been on display there ever since.

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