Greece rebuts British Museum claim Parthenon marbles were ‘removed from rubble’

Museum's deputy director had told Unesco meeting contested treasures were not all hacked' from Greek temple

The dispute over the Parthenon sculptures has deepened after Greece rejected a claim by the British Museum that much of the statuary, removed at the behest of Lord Elgin, was retrieved in the rubble" around the monument.

The assertion, made at a Unesco meeting on Friday, added a new twist to the long-running cultural row and came only days after it emerged that the UK was willing to discuss Greece's demand for the ancient carvings to be reunified with other treasures in Athens.