The British Museum will lend two fragments of the Parthenon sculptures to an exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany, while Greece has rejected a request to lend nine Parthenon fragments from the Acropolis Museum for the same exhibition.
British Museum to Lend Parthenon Fragments to Germany
The two British Museum fragments will be included in “Athena, the Stage is Yours: The Parthenon Puzzle,” an exhibition at the Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung in Frankfurt running from November 18, 2026, to July 25, 2027.
The exhibition will focus on the sculptures of the Parthenon’s east pediment and present the results of years of research into their original arrangement.
The research is led by Vinzenz Brinkmann, head of the Liebieghaus Department of Antiquities. The museum says the project has produced a new, archaeologically grounded reconstruction of the east pediment using archaeological, art-historical and technological methods.
A New Reconstruction of the East Pediment
The east pediment depicted the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus and originally comprised 39 figures.
Researchers have reassessed surviving fragments and used evidence from ancient representations, including Roman sarcophagus reliefs. They also used 3D scanning to digitally assemble the fragments and create a true-to-scale reconstruction of the sculptural group.
The exhibition will bring together loans from international collections, including the British Museum, alongside works from the Liebieghaus collection.
Greece Rejects Request for Nine Fragments
The German museum had also requested the temporary loan of nine Parthenon fragments from the Acropolis Museum in Athens for the exhibition.
The request was examined by Greece’s Central Archaeological Council (KAS), which issued a unanimous negative recommendation.
The decision came after it became clear that the exhibition would also include Parthenon fragments from the British Museum. The Greek-held fragments would therefore have been displayed alongside pieces from the British collection that Greece is seeking to have returned to Athens.
Greece has consistently called for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures in Athens. The Ministry of Culture reiterated that position at UNESCO in May 2026, supporting the request for their permanent reunification.
The Parthenon Sculptures Dispute
The Frankfurt exhibition comes amid the long-running dispute over the Parthenon Sculptures held by the British Museum.
The museum describes the objects in its collection as part of the Parthenon Sculptures, while Greece maintains that the sculptures removed from the monument should be reunited with those preserved at the Acropolis Museum. The British Museum continues to maintain its own position on the sculptures and their ownership.
The Frankfurt exhibition will therefore proceed with the participation of the British Museum, but without the nine additional Parthenon fragments requested from the Acropolis Museum.
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