Give the Parthenon marbles back to Greece – tech advances mean there are no more excuses | Simon Jenkins

Artefacts can now be replicated with microscopic accuracy. Will the British Museum, and our prime minister, see sense?

One day a British government will return the Parthenon marbles to Athens. The only question is: who will obtain Greece's undying credit and thanks?

The obvious candidate was surely Boris Johnson. In 1986, the classics scholar invited the Greek culture minister Melina Mercouri to speak at Oxford University, pledging to help her restore the Parthenon's glory. Yet this week it became yet another of Johnson's Don Giovanni promises - words meant only at the time. Visiting London earlier this week, the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, challenged him to think out of the box in terms of global Britannia" and stage a fantastic coup for public diplomacy". Johnson pretended the issue was for the British Museum to decide, and nothing to do with him.

Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist