My views about the proper home for the Parthenon marbles began at an early age. By the age of 16, most of our class had joined the Labour Party, partly because we were studying the emergence of democracy in 5^th century Athens. At the time Britain was engaged in decolonisation, first of India and then, eventually, of the rest of its empire. The British Empire was coming to an end. Towards the end of the second world war, a suggestion was made in parliament that the Parthenon marbles be sent back to Greece as an act of gratitude for the courage and sacrifices of the Greeks in defence of democracy. The idea was rejected at the time because there were more important issues to tackle. It then took years of civil war and military dictatorship in Greece to produce a politician – in Melina Mercouri - who understood, like Pericles, that a vibrant democracy cannot flourish without live evidence of its history and cultural heritage. The return of the Parthenon marbles would strengthen Greek democracy.

Unfortunately today a welter of linguistic hypocrisy has infected the powerful museums of the world who warn against ‘floodgates’ in museum returns looted objects to their country of origin, talk as though they ‘own’ the world’s heritage rebrand themselves as ‘universal’ and ‘encyclopaedic’ - as if the imperial thefts of the past are essential for ordinary citizens in former imperial nations to comprehend the cultural history of the world. This hypocrisy has a British long pedigree. Our 18^th and 19^th century imperial ancestors, force-fed at school, as I once was, with idealised portraits of ancient Athens, convinced themselves that they, the British, had become authentic ‘Greeks’ and that modern Greeks ones had degenerated into barbarians.

This tide is now turning, as imperial arrogance wanes and global justice is taken more seriously. Museums with collections of aboriginal human remains – collected in the 19^th century in the hope by these bones would prove the aboriginals were some inferior Darwinian species – are now being sent back to their country of origin in recognition of their sacred status. It will take a little longer for sacred stones to follow these sacred bones, but the signs are hopeful. Both UNESCO and the EU are encouraging the mobility of cultural objects. Opinion polls in Britain constantly reveal a large majority for returning the marbles to the newly opened Acropolis Museum in Athens with direct views to the Acropolis where they were created. They also show that nearly 90% of those questioned believe that the marbles will go home one day. Their return will take time and careful diplomatic negotiation between governments and museums. So, I tell my grandchildren that I am certain they will go back in their lifetime.

Christopher Price is a former British Member of Parliament and university vice chancellor. He is deputy chairman of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.