Boris Johnson says the UK won't return the Parthenon marbles to Greece, as the long-running battle between the two countries over the rightful home of the sculptures continues. 

The Parthenon marbles are a collection of 2,500-year-old sculptures, created by renowned sculptor and architect Phidias, that were originally part of the Parthenon temple in Athens.

That was until staff working for the Earl of Elgin brought roughly half of the marbles back to the UK between 1801 and 1812. Since then they have resided in the British Museum.

Greece has accused the UK of using illegal tactics to acquire the sculptures but the UK insists that isn't the case and UK Prime Minister Johnson says they will remain in the UK.

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In an interview with Greek newspaper Ta Nea, the UK Prime Minister said: "I understand the strong feelings of the Greek people – and indeed prime minister [Kyriakos] Mitsotakis – on the issue.

"But the UK government has a firm longstanding position on the sculptures, which is that they were legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the appropriate laws of the time and have been legally owned by the British Museum's trustees since their acquisition."

In 2019 Greece successfully secured the return of another section of the Parthenon from France in exchange for the loan of unseen ancient Greek treasures that have never left the country.

In recent years global pressure has been growing on countries to return possessions of cultural works to their rightful owners and some have done so.

In February, the Netherlands agreed to return stolen colonial-era cultural artefacts, with the government stating that Dutch state collections shouldn't feature stolen items.

The government also issued a new set of guidelines to assess requests from other countries for the return of artefacts, with priority given to those stolen by colonial authorities.

In January 2020, Dutch authorities approved the return of 1,500 artefacts to Indonesia, while in December last year the French government agreed to return 27 colonial-era artefacts to Senegal and Benin.

Three years ago, in January 2018, Norway sent items back to Chile that had been stolen from Easter Island by explorer Thor Heyerdahl. 

In 2005, Italy also returned the Obelisk of Axum to Ethiopia, a 1700-year-old monument standing 40 meters tall and weighing 160 tonnes that had been removed by Italian troops in 1937.