Elgin Marbles

Elgin Marbles

Details:

The Elgin marbles (so-called after the British aristocrat, James Bruce, Lord [named after] Elgin* who removed them from Athens to London), is a collection of hundreds of pieces of ancient Greek sculptures and architectural pieces taken from the Parthenon,  which sits on the summit of the Athenian Acropolis. 

The marbles include friezes,  pediment sculptures, and fragments of statues as well as columns, capitals,  blocks of wall and a caryatid (a figure supporting the beam running along at the top of columns) from the Erechtheum, a temple of Athena.

For the last sixty years controversy has surrounded the marbles, as the Greek government has repeatedly demanded their return.  The British Museum (where the marbles are seen by over five million people a year) has refused,  on the grounds that its rules forbid giving any item back. 

The Greek government is meantime building a museum to house the marbles, confident that in the end they will be returned to Athens.

Oneliner: The Elgin marbles

Bibliography:

• Encyclopedia Britannica.
• Athens Guide to the Elgin Marbles, http://www.athensguide.com/elgin

Wikipedia:

The Parthenon Marbles, also known as the Elgin Marbles (/ˈɛlɡɪn/ *el-gin*),^[1] are a collection of Classical Greek marble sculptures (made mostly by Greeksculptor Phidias and his assistants), inscriptions and architectural pieces that were originally part of the temple of Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens.^[2][3 

Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin obtained in 1801 a controversial permit to remove them and another one to ship them. ^[4] from the Sublime Porte, which then ruled Greece.

From 1801 to 1812, Elgin's agents removed about half of the surviving sculptures of the Parthenon, as well as architectural members and sculpture from thePropylaea and Erechtheum.^[5] The Marbles were transported by sea to Britain. In Britain, the acquisition of the collection was supported by some,^[6] while others likened Elgin's actions to vandalism^[7] or looting.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

Following a public debate in Parliament^[13] and the subsequent exoneration of Elgin, the marbles were purchased from Elgin by the British government in 1816 and were passed to the British Museum,^[14] where they stand now on display in the purpose-built Duveen Gallery.

After gaining its independence from the Ottoman Empire, Greece began major projects for the restoration of the country's monuments, and has expressed its disapproval of Elgin's actions to remove the Marbles from the Acropolis and the Parthenon,^[15] which is regarded as one of the world's greatest cultural monuments. ^[16] Greece disputes the subsequent purchase of the Marbles by the British Government and urges the return of the marbles to Greece for their unification.

In 2014, UNESCO offered to mediate between Greece and the United Kingdom in resolving the dispute of the Elgin Marbles, although this was later turned down by the UK as they though the request was self-serving.^[17][18][19]

Contents

• 1 Acquisition
• 2 Description
• 3 Legality of the removal from Athens
• 4 Contemporary reaction
• 5 Damage
  • 5.1 Morosini
  • 5.2 War of Independence
  • 5.3 Elgin
  • 5.4 British Museum
  • 5.5 Athens

• 6 Relocation debate
  • 6.1 Rationale for returning to Athens
  • 6.2 Rationale for retaining in London

• 7 Public perception of the issue
  • 7.1 Popular support for restitution
  • 7.2 Opinion polls

• 8 Other displaced Parthenon art
• 9 British Museum loan
• 10 See also
• 11 References
• 12 Further reading
• 13 External links
  • 13.1 Pros and cons of restitution

Acquisition

Parthenon Selene Horse

Metope from the Elgin marbles depicting a Centaur and a Lapithfighting

In November of 1798, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, was appointed as "Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty to the Sublime Porte of Selim III, Sultan of Ottoman Empire" (Greece was then part of the Ottoman realm). Before his departure to take up the post he had approached at least three officials of the British government to inquire if they would be interested in employing artists to take casts and drawings of the sculptured portions of the Parthenon. According to Lord Elgin, "the answer of the Government ... was entirely negative."^[6]

Lord Elgin decided to carry out the work at his own expense and employed artists to take casts and drawings under the supervision of the Neapolitan court painter Giovani Lusieri.^[6] 

However, while conducting surveys, he found that Parthenon statuary that had been documented in a 17th-century survey was now missing, and so he investigated. According to a Turkish local, marble sculptures that fell were burned to obtain lime for building.^[6] Although the original intention was only to document the sculptures, in 1801 Lord Elgin began to remove material from the Parthenon and its surrounding structures^[20] under the supervision of Lusieri.

The excavation and removal was completed in 1812 at a personal cost of around £70,000.^[21] Elgin intended the marbles for display in the British Museum, selling them to the British government for less than the cost of bringing them to Britain and declining higher offers from other potential buyers, including Napoleon.^[20]

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Multimedia:

Connections 3 Eposode 10. "In Touch"