Temporary loans in exchange for other items on temporary loan (which is what this is), is legally the only way the British Museum can let material leave their collections.
I realise that there is a lot of meme-age worthy material that the British Museum is full of stolen property, but it's worth remembering that most of the items were donated at a time when legal provenance was virtually impossible to establish (particularly if you have to assume a peer of the realm like Elgin is an honest man, lest you find yourself under attack from the entire establishment), and the Museum is prevented by an Act of Parliament from giving items away regardless of later legal claims.
To return the Elgin/Parthenon Marbles to Greece, for example, requires a new Act, which - given the current government's legislative programme - is unlikely to happen in the next 3-4 years, and there's little appetite for it.
A temporary loan deal would be more realistic if both the British and Greek governments trusted each other to make the returns. That means the Greeks would basically need to loan out half the museum of Athens to make it work...
I realise that there is a lot of meme-age worthy material that the British Museum is full of stolen property, but it's worth remembering that most of the items were donated at a time when legal provenance was virtually impossible to establish (particularly if you have to assume a peer of the realm like Elgin is an honest man, lest you find yourself under attack from the entire establishment), and the Museum is prevented by an Act of Parliament from giving items away regardless of later legal claims.
To return the Elgin/Parthenon Marbles to Greece, for example, requires a new Act, which - given the current government's legislative programme - is unlikely to happen in the next 3-4 years, and there's little appetite for it.
A temporary loan deal would be more realistic if both the British and Greek governments trusted each other to make the returns. That means the Greeks would basically need to loan out half the museum of Athens to make it work...