A tiebreaker? King Charles's Greek flag tie rekindles row over marbles

He may simply have been embracing his Greek ancestry, or thought it went well with his suit. 

- Caroline Davies , Helena Smith

But King Charles's decision to sport a tie bearing the Greek flag when he addressed Cop28 alongside the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, was bound to raise eyebrows, given the recent diplomatic spat over the Parthenon sculptures.

The king, whose father was born in Corfu as a prince of Greece, may also have been taking a leaf out of his mother Queen Elizabeth II's sartorial handbook in statement dressing. Displayed before the cameras on the world stage, his neckwear was certainly regarded in Greece as an implicit sign of support after the row between Sunak and his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, over what are known by some in the UK as the Elgin marbles.

Earlier this week Sunak abruptly cancelled a face-to-face meeting with the Greek PM after an interview with the BBC in which Mitsotakis described the retention of the marbles at the British Museum as akin to the Mona Lisa being cut in half. A spokesperson for Sunak said later that he felt any talks were likely to be "dominated" by the row over the sculptures, which Greece wants back.