Athens (AFP)

Greece has asked France to lend him a piece of the Parthenon frieze currently in the Louvre, on the occasion of the celebrations of the bicentenary of its independence in 2021, told a Greek official.

"There is a proposal (in order to get this loan) from the Greek side and it is being tested positively," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The details will be developed by the ministries of culture of both countries, it is a temporary exchange," he said.

The loan was discussed during the meeting in Paris Thursday between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the Greek news agency ANA.

The frieze, dating from the fifth century BC JC, depicts a scene of a mythical battle between centaurs and men.

In exchange, Greece will lend to the Louvre a collection of ancient bronzes, still according to ANA.

The piece of frieze, said the Louvre, was found at the foot of the Parthenon in 1788 by Louis Francois Sebastien Fauvel, a French diplomat and amateur archaeologist.

Along with Britain and Russia, France defeated the Ottoman forces in a naval battle in Navarino in 1827, in the war to help Greece regain its independence.

Subsequently, the three powers were very active in Greek politics during the decades following independence.

The British Museum, in London, holds a much larger collection of Parthenon friezes, detached from the monument and taken away in 1806 by Lord Elgin, then British ambassador to the Ottoman court and passionate about Greek art.

Basically paid, the Ottoman rulers in Greece had granted him permission to carry them away. Great Britain therefore considers that they have been legally purchased.

Athens, which argues that the permission in question was granted by the occupier and not by Greece, has been asking for their return to Greece for two centuries, but the British Museum has always refused.

© 2019 AFP