Vatican set to return Parthenon fragments to Greece

The marble head of a young man, a tiny fragment from the 2,500-year-old decoration of the Parthenon Temple on the ancient Acropolis, is displayed at the Acropolis Museum in Athens,(Thanassis Stavrakis/AP)

The Vatican and Greece are finalising a deal for the return of three sculpture fragments from the Parthenon that have been in the collection of the Vatican Museums for two centuries.

The Vatican has termed the return an ecumenical “donation” to the Orthodox Christian archbishop of Athens and all Greece, not necessarily a state-to-state transfer.