Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Athens will "ramp up" pressure on both the British Museum and the UK government to return the Parthenon marbles, admitting for the first time that talks on a proposed exchange of antiquities have made no progress. He said he would press the case firmly with new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who long backed their return but recently called it "an issue for the British Museum" (which has held about 160 metres of the fifth-century BC frieze since 1816). The dispute matters because Mitsotakis is framing it as a European issue tied to Burnham's wish for closer UK-EU ties, while offering Greek treasures on loan in exchange for reunifying the sculptures in Athens.