The Dionysos pediment, part of the Parthenon Sculptures

• A WORST-case scenario for Greece is to win the legal argument for the return to Athens of the Parthenon sculptures from the British Museum, (Marble Avengers, Review, February 20).

I know, how can I, a London “bubble” born in the bosom of Camden’s Anglo-Greek community, say this? It’s for the love of Britain and of Greece. But first the culture.

The Parthenon and its sculptural “ambassadors” in London were essential in forging Britain’s first architectural and visual identity as a country, since the Act of Union 1707.

It was based on Greece and the neo-classical style, from Cornwall to dissenting Edinburgh as “Athens of the North”, from Cardiff to Belfast.

During the Napoleonic Wars France projected itself as autocratic Rome. Britain chose to be civilising Greece.

Soon after Britain’s Waterloo victory, the poet Shelley wrote, in 1821, “We are all Greeks, our laws, our literature, our religion, our arts have their root in Greece”.

Britain was being Hellenised while the Greeks were starting their own struggle for independence. But the sculptures are pivotal to the British Museum’s own identity.

It should celebrate them and their impact in its biggest ever, national exhibition. What an opportunity for our emerging post-Brexit Britain. But also for Greece, as well as for the centuries-old Anglo-Greek diaspora.

Then there’s the legal stuff. I fear the consequences of barrister Geoffrey Robertson’s legalese to “return the marbles”. He challenges Lord Elgin’s 200-year-old contract with the then Turkish Ottoman occupiers to buy the sculptures.

It’s the fear of setting a precedent. How? Greek territorial and maritime borders were established through blood, sweat and treaties.

Treaties are often challenged in light of new developments. What is good for the Greek goose is good for the Turkish gander.

A Greek success in nullifying this old international contract will provide new legal ammunition to a state disputing border treaties with Greece.

So Athens will have to spend extra millions in fees on, you guessed it, lawyers and their legalese. Return the marbles? Why, the debate has just begun.

CONSTANTINE BUHAYER
Address supplied