Lord Charles Bruce said the ancient art treasures, now on display at the British Museum, were handed to his forebear Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of Elgin by a Turkish Sultan. Greece has made several attempts – and has even used Britain’s Brexit to ensure the return of the friezes to their original home in Athens. But Lord Bruce said the tussle was “not clearly understood”. He said: “The marbles were a diplomatic gift. It’s a part of the story not clearly understood.
“The British had cemented a military alliance with the Turks, and there was a personal friendship between Elgin and the sultan.
“They exchanged gifts, and there’s a beautiful chandelier from Elgin which still hangs in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul in a room where Lady Elgin taught the sultan’s family to dance the eightsome reel.
“We also gave them the smallpox vaccine, which prevented an outbreak in Smyrna, and later went on to Baghdad and Bombay, and was used to inoculate a million Indians.”
Lord Bruce, 57, told The Times the Turkish Sultan also gave Lord Elgin four acres of land in the Turkish capital of Istanbul and £10,000 for Britain’s first purpose-built embassy.
It is the latest back-and-forth debate over the rightful home of the Elgin Marbles, which were removed from Athens by Lord Elgin in the early 1800s when he was ambassador to the Ottoman Court.
Greece was part of Turkey’s Ottoman Empire at the time.
The British Parliament bought the art treasures from Elgin in 1816 and gave them to the British Museum in London.
For the past three decades, Greece has demanded the return of the sculptures, which decorated the Acropolis of Athens for more than 2,000 years.
Greece had previously threatened to veto a final agreement on Brexit if Britain refused to return the statues.
EU law includes a directive on the restitution of cultural goods unlawfully removed from the territory of a member state, but “cooperation mechanisms and restitution procedures” are only valid from January 1, 1993, in order to prevent cultural objects being illegally removed.
After UNESCO offered to mediate between the two countries in 2014, the British Museum said its collection is “not only for the British people, but for the benefit of the world public, present and futures”.