Boris Johnson rejects a George Clooney-backed demand to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece

BORIS Johnson has rejected a George Clooney-backed demand to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece.

The PM, who studied Classics at Oxford, insisted that the 2,500-year-old statues would stay in the British Museum.

Corbis

Boris Johnson has rejected a George Clooney-backed demand to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece[/caption]

Getty Images - Getty

Clooney, 59, claimed last week they ‘must be returned to their original owner’[/caption]

He told a Greek newspaper the priceless artefacts were “legally acquired” by Lord Elgin in 1816 under the laws of the time.

Clooney, 59, claimed last week they “must be returned to their original owner”.

He first asked BoJo to give them back in 2014 when in London promoting a film, The Monuments Men, about efforts to stop Nazis looting works of art.

The PM said at the time the star needed his “marbles” restored. He said Clooney was “advocating nothing less than the Hitlerian agenda for London’s cultural treasures”.

TV historian Dan Snow has previously told The Sun:”The Elgin Marbles are a priceless treasure for all of humanity to share.

AFP

The PM has previously said the star needed his ‘marbles’ restored for ‘advocating nothing less than the Hitlerian agenda for London’s cultural treasures’[/caption]

Reuters

The PM, who studied Classics at Oxford, insisted that the 2,500-year-old statues would stay in the British Museum[/caption]

“They are being kept in the best museum in the world in one of the most stable countries in the world.

“Greece is a country that has gone bust six times since becoming an independent country just under 200 years ago. It has seen political and social upheaval. Moving them to Britain saved the marbles.

“Keeping them here for the foreseeable is the best guarantee they will be looked after, for all of us.”

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