Vatican, Greece ink deal for ‘donation’ of Parthenon marbles

By NICOLE WINFIELD and DEREK GATOPOULOS
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — The Vatican and Greece are finalizing a deal for the return of three sculpture fragments from the Parthenon that have been in the collection of the Vatican Museums for two centuries. The Vatican has termed the return an ecumenical “donation” to the Orthodox Christian archbishop of Athens and all Greece, not necessarily a state-to-state transfer. It says the head of the Vatican city-state, Cardinal Fernando Vergez, is signing an agreement Tuesday with Greece’s culture minister and a representative of the Orthodox Christian archbishop to implement the “donation.” The agreement is likely to add pressure on the British Museum to conclude a deal with Greece over the fate of its much bigger collection of Parthenon marbles.