Nice debate, folks. I have seen them and they ARE "knocked about a bit"!

Completely agree that to return them to Greece now would embarrass the Greek nation financially........but that's their problem, not an adequate defence for our retention.
The issue for me is the BM's core policy on all this. I can think of many examples of artifacts there which many Brits think of as stolen.........think of Sutton Hoo, Lewis Chessmen and many examples of hoards found all over the British Isles. The BM will ALWAYS have a case for retention, but where do they REALLY belong?
If a "new broom" policy were introduced, the claims for rehabilitation from all over the World would be endless.