The UK’s Newly Appointed Culture Secretary Eyes Repatriation of Cultural Artifacts at British Institutions

Violent indifference. Vandalism. Those were just two of the words newly appointed UK culture minister Lisa Nandy used to describe how the freshly ousted Conservative party handled the country’s culture sector under its 14 years of leadership. 

Among the priority items on Nandy’s docket, according to a report recently published in the Guardian, is the repatriation of antiquities and works of cultural heritage that currently sit in British institutions, including the British Museum.

The museum’s former chancellor, George Osborne, reportedly approached Nandy, setting the stage for talks across an institutional stratum in which many don’t see eye to eye on the issue. And, while local museums are currently allowed to make their own decisions about repatriation, unlike national institutions, Nandy said she wants the “government’s approach to be consistent,” implying that every UK intuition should toe the line.

That stance invited the obvious question: What about the Parthenon Marbles? Prime Minister Keir Starmer, before taking office, said that he was open to a deal that would return the Marbles to Athens. However, the Guardian reported recently that he has no plans to change the law that would allow them to be permanently returned.

Last year, Osborne said he was open to a plan that would allow the marbles “to be seen in Greece” in exchange for “other treasures from Greece, some that have never left those shores, to be seen here at the British Museum,” according to the Art Newspaper, and it’s very likely that Nicholas Cullinan, who now leads the British Museum, will have to field renewed calls for the return of the Marbles following Nandy’s position on restitution.

Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, who in 2022 said that the UK laws blocking repatriation should be re-evaluated, told TAN that it was “very encouraging to learn that the culture secretary is supportive of repatriation reform” and changing the laws that keep museums from deaccessioning and repatriating works in their collections.