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Greece pressuring France in battle for Elgin Marbles

PARIS -- Greece is putting pressure on the Louvre museum in its long-running campaign to retrieve the Elgin marbles from Britain.

The Greeks have refused to lend the French an ancient sculpture for an exhibition because, they say, it is too fragile to be moved from Athens.

But Louvre sources believe the bronze artwork is being used as a bargaining chip to pressure the museum into joining Greek calls for the Elgin marbles -- taken from Greece in the nineteenth century and now in the British Museum -- to be returned to Athens.

The Louvre opened its first exhibition dedicated to ancient Greek sculpture yesterday without Praxitelis' sculpture The Ephebe of Marathon.
Read entire article at Telegraph