Perhaps the longest outstanding claim has been for the return of the Elgin marbles from the British Museum to their home in Greece. This stunning collection was removed from its resting place in the Parthenon in Athens. Built 2,500 years ago on the Acropolis as a temple to honour the goddess Athena, the Parthenon served as a church for another thousand years before being converted into a mosque by the conquering Ottoman Turks who turned Greece into a province of their far-flung empire. It then fell into disuse and was a dilapidated ruin when Lord Elgin arrived in Constantinople as the British ambassador in the late 18th century.

During his travels, he was amazed and captivated by the marble frieze at the Parthenon, and requested the Turkish emperor to allow him to remove some of the sculptures and take them to Britain with him. In 1801, duly armed with a royal firman, he organised a team of workers to clamber up the front of the temple and rip out many of the marble masterpieces.

These pieces entranced his guests at his English home until he went bankrupt. He then petitioned the government to buy the collection, which then went to the British Museum where they can be viewed in a special gallery to this day.

Since Greece gained its independence from Turkey nearly a century ago, successive governments have been clamouring for the return of the Elgin marbles as they have come to be called. Thus far, the stock response of the British government has been that as Greece lacked the facilities to display the Parthenon frieze and other sculptures, the collection was much better viewed in the British Museum.

But last month, the Greeks blew a hole in this argument by opening the stunning new Acropolis Museum. Built at a cost of $200 million, and designed by a Swiss architect, the museum has a vast gallery for the Parthenon frieze. Here, the remaining marbles have been displayed with gaps clearly indicating the items that were literally ripped off by Lord Elgin. After the museum was opened, the Greeks renewed their demand for the return of the collection.