As the United Kingdom continues to enforce sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine, the British Museum has announced it is lending one of the controversial Elgin Marbles to a St. Petersburg museum, describing it as "a marble ambassador of a European ideal." A statue originally from the Parthenon in Greece will go on display at the Hermitage Museum on Saturday, British Museum Director Neil MacGregor said in a statement. It is the first time the British Museum has loaned one of the Elgin Marbles to a foreign museum. The British government and other European Union and NATO nations have imposed sanctions on Moscow over Russia's annexation of Crimea and allegations of continued interference in eastern Ukraine.
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The British Museum says it is lending one of the Elgin Marbles to a foreign museum for the first time
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The sculpture of the river god Ilissos will go on display at Russia's Hermitage Museum
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The Elgin Marbles are a set of Parthenon sculptures "acquired" by Lord Elgin in the early 1800s
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For decades, Greece has been demanding for their return
United Kingdom
British
@placeholder's sanctions are not cultural, instead targeting Russia's financial, defense and energy sectors, as well as imposing asset bans and travel restrictions on specific individuals.
Russia
Russia
Russia
Britain's sanctions are not cultural, instead targeting @placeholder's financial, defense and energy sectors, as well as imposing asset bans and travel restrictions on specific individuals.
Russia
Russia
Russia
"It is a position energetically shared by our counterparts in @placeholder."
Hermitage Museum
Hermitage Museum
Describing itself as "the most generous lending museum in the world," the museum said the loan was part of ongoing exchanges with the @placeholder, which had requested it to mark the 250th anniversary of its foundation.
British Museum
British Museum
British Museum
British Museum
"The @placeholder is a museum of the world, for the world and nothing demonstrates this more than the loan of a Parthenon sculpture to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg to celebrate its 250th anniversary," MacGregor said.
Lord Elgin
"It was in the 19th century that @placeholder removed intact architectural sculptures from the frieze, the metopes and the pediments of the building," the museum says.