MADRID, January 11 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Britain’s Culture Minister, Michelle Donelan, stated on Wednesday that the looted Parthenon marbles belonged to Britain, and so should not be returned to Greece, and has ruled out any alleged contact with Greek authorities for cultural exchanges.

“It will open the door to questioning all of our museum content,” Donelan said in an interview with BBC 4 radio, adding that it would be a “dangerous path” and like uncovering Pandora’s box.

Speculation about an imminent deal for Elgin Marbles ran rampant in recent days after a Greek newspaper reported on talks between George Osborne, chairman of the British Museum, and Greek authorities.

The British Museum, which houses one of the world’s most important heritage collections, was thus willing to enter into a swap in which Athens would recover the marbles in exchange for a loan to London for other items.

“(Osborne) basically didn’t want to pay them. It was not his intention. He had no desire to do that. The concept of a 100-year loan has also been discussed, which he also has no plans to do,” explained Donelan this Wednesday.

In this way, he had stated that Osborne agreed that they should not be returned, as they “belong” to Great Britain, where they had been cared for “for a long time”. “Where we have allowed access to these pieces,” he said.

The Greek government has always defended its desire for the permanent return of the heritage held by the British Museum, while the museum supports some sort of brokerage agreement. In fact, the UK Executive also emphasized in December that it had no plans to reform laws that limit the perpetual restitution of works of art to particularly exceptional cases.

The Elgin Marbles are one of the main attractions of the British Museum, which also displays other works from ancient Greece and other historic cultures such as Egypt.