Today, such practice would be totally unacceptable

  Key points about the seizure

 
  • In 1801, the British Ambassador to the Ottoman empire seized more than half (60%) of the sculptures that adorned the Parthenon.

  • His name was Thomas Bruce (he was the 7th Earl of Elgin, thus, today he is widely known as "Elgin") and, because he liked the Parthenon sculptures, he removed as much as he could from the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis, and shipped them to his house in Britain.

  • Elgin did not have explicit consent of the British Government or the Sultan to commit his deeds.

  • At the time in history when Elgin took the Sculptures, there was no Greek state; well into a 400-year Ottoman occupation, the Greeks where engaged in a fierce fight against the Ottoman forces, in a desperate effort to free themselves and form an independent Greek state.

  • Elgin bribed the Turkish guards at the Acropolis of Athens, in order to perform his deeds unobstructed.


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    Did you know? most British people support the Return of the Marbles to Athens.

    The authority who decides whether to keep the Parthenon Sculptures in London or return them to Athens is the English Parliament. All it takes to return the Parthenon sculptures to Athens is a new Act of Parliament.

    		        

    Far from an act of art conservation

      Art removal (Elgin-style)

     
  • Elgin broke pieces of the Parthenon apart, cutting their artistic facade off their architectural extension with a saw. He then shipped the artistic part of the marbles to Britain. He abandoned the architectural parts on the Acropolis, which you can still see today (one is on display in the Acropolis Museum, where you can see the gross marks from the saw).

  • On its way to Britain, Elgin's ship that carried the Sculptures, 'The Mentor', sank outside the Island of Cythera, leaving some of the finest sculptures of the Parthenon in sea water for two years.

  • The Sculptures suffered bad treatment by Elgin. They were placed in a dirty, damp shed at his house, where they remained for years decaying.

  • At the end of Elgin's financially devastating adventures, after a British government enquiry that aimed to investigate Elgin's suspicious deeds, the British Museum bought the Scuptures. Today, the British Museum persistently keeps the Marbles in London, refusing to reunite them with the surviving set in the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

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