In 2025 the Parthenon Sculptures "may finally be moved, or at least negotiations over their status may take a big leap forward." This is emphasized by the Economist magazine, among others, in its annual edition of the next year's predictions, which this year is expected to be published online tomorrow and in print next week.
As the magazine points out, on the one hand the British Museum and on the other the British government seem ready for an agreement with Greece. "A law from 1963 prohibits the Museum from giving away its treasures and the government is unlikely to change it" , he underlines, but immediately afterwards he clarifies that both the president of the museum, George Osborne, and its new director, Nicholas Callinan, who even characterizes himself as a reformer, is in favor of the solution of a long-term loan of the sculptures, "in exchange for perhaps other antiquities from Greece", as he characteristically writes. At the same time, he notes the statement of the British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, that if there is an agreement between the two sides, he himself will not stand in the way.
He also emphasizes that the long-standing arguments of the British Museum that it is the sole custodian of the Sculptures have been debunked. Especially, as he points out, after the revelation that an employee of the Museum allegedly stole almost 2,000 antiquities which he even sold undisturbed on ebay.
He reminds that the public opinion of Britain in a YouGov poll in 2023 has been, by 49%, in favor of the return of the Sculptors, while only 15% of Britons declared against such a development.
The leading British magazine, however, gives another dimension, saying that on a global level, next year, the repatriation of cultural relics to their countries of origin will proceed at a rapid pace. He even cites examples of the return of antiquities from the world's leading museums in recent years, stressing that this trend is expected to strengthen in 2025.
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