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Italy Sending Parthenon Fragment to Athens in Nudge to UK

This photo released by Archeological Museum Antonino Salinas on Wednesday Jan. 5, 2022, shows a fragment exposed in the Museum in Palermo, Italy, belonging to a draped figure on the east side of the Parthenon frieze, the temple built between 449 and 438BC on the Acropolis of Athens. An Italian museum is sending a fragment of the Parthenon marbles back to Greece in what both sides hope will be a permanent return that will encourage others - the British Museums, in particular to return its Parthenon statues. (Archeological Museum Antonino Salinas via AP)
This photo released by Archeological Museum Antonino Salinas on Wednesday Jan. 5, 2022, shows a fragment exposed in the Museum in Palermo, Italy, belonging to a draped figure on the east side of the Parthenon frieze, the temple built between 449 and 438BC on the Acropolis of Athens. An Italian museum is sending a fragment of the Parthenon marbles back to Greece in what both sides hope will be a permanent return that will encourage others - the British Museums, in particular to return its Parthenon statues. (Archeological Museum Antonino Salinas via AP)
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (NICOLE WINFIELD)

Rome (AP) -- An Italian museum is lending a fragment of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece, in what both sides hope will become a permanent return that might encourage others — the British Museum, in particular — to send their own pieces of the works back, too.

Sicily’s regional archaeological museum said Wednesday it had signed an agreement with the Acropolis Museum in Athens for a once-renewable, four-year loan of the small white marble piece it has, in exchange for a loan of a statue and vase. But the ultimate aim, Sicily’s A. Salinas Archaeological Museum said in a statement, is the “indefinite return” of the fragment to Athens.