Rejected petition Return the Elgin Marbles, Caryatid and associated artefacts to Greece

Amend the British Museum Act to allow the acceptance of repatriation requests.
Some artefacts exhibited or kept in the British Museum for hundreds of year, should now be returned to their countries of origin.

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Amend this piece of legislation to at least give the British Museum trustees the freedom to accept repatriation requests and enter into negotiation for their return.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

It’s about something that the UK Government or Parliament is not directly responsible for.

We can only accept petitions about things the Government or Parliament are directly responsible for.

The UK Government is not directly responsible for the Elgin Marbles, Caryatid or associated artefacts, but we have published the following petition, which you might like to sign:

Amend the British Museum Act to allow artefact repatriation
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/749602

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 1 March 2026
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