The discussion on the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum has recently resumed in Greece. What is your position on this issue?
I have been in London many times and whenever I visit the British Museum, I pass through the hall of the Parthenon. Let us put aside Greece and the UK. As an archaeologist, I can say that things look best when they are in their places.
However, this issue would open many questions, because if they returned the reliefs from the Parthenon, that would start an endless process. The doors of Babylon, the temples of Ishtar and many other things brought from the relevant lands are at the British Museum alone. The same is true for the museums in Germany that exhibit the most important temples in human history, as we know. Therefore, if they returned the sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens, this would unleash a process in which everyone would want to take their things from these several major museums, which had been taken there at one time or another.