History

An Introduction to the Golden Age

The Parthenon is one of the longest-standing buildings that remain from Ancient Greece. This structure was built by the Athenians between 447 and 438 BC under the auspices of Pericles and was as a temple to the goddess Athena. The Parthenon had been built on the site of an older temple which had been destroyed by the Persians when they invaded Athens in the 5th century BC. It was built to celebrate the victory of the Athenian Democracy that encouraged the creation and development of all the arts as well as of politics, philosophy, theatre and science.
 
The Parthenon, built of local Pendelic Marble was constructed on a hill named the Acropolis which is visible throughout Athens. The outside of the structure consisted of pillars which supported marble beams to which were attached metopes, high up on its four walls. This frieze was a series of sculptures depicting various periods of Greek History that were sculptured into the existing marble walls. These sculptures were not added to the building but actually formed part of it.

Early damage to the Parthenon

Over the two centuries since it was first built the Parthenon has been damaged in numerous ways following occupation by numerous armies including the Ottomans as well as the Venetians. In 1687, the Italian General Francesco Morosini fired on the Acropolis, which at the time was being used as a weapons armory by the Ottoman Empire. One of the shells landed in the Parthenon and did extensive damage, including blowing the roof off and destroying everything inside. The frieze however remained largely intact.

Lord Elgin and the removal of the Parthenon Marbles

Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin, was appointed the British Ambassador to Constantinople (Istanbul) the seat of the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the 19th century.
 
At the time, the elite believed that Ancient Greek Antiquities were the highest expression of art and civilization and that by bringing copies of them back to England they could be used to inspire the masses and raise the artistic standard in British Society. It is alleged that Lord Elgin wished to bring back drawings and molds of the ancient antiquities in order to use them to decorate his country home. After the British Government refused to bankroll his request, Lord Elgin decided to carry out the work at his own expense.
 
In August of 1800 his artists (under the supervision of Giovani Lusieri & Reverend Philip Hunt) arrived in Athens. Athens at the time was occupied by the Ottoman Empire. Since the Acropolis was a military installation protecting the city, not even bribes could help and they would require an official letter (or “firman”) from the Sultan in Constantinople that would permit them to access the Acropolis.
 
The Supposed Firman & the Removal of the Marbles
 
On July 6th 1801 the Ottoman Empire, supposedly gave Lord Elgin his “firman”, giving his crew the right to enter the Acropolis and to erect scaffolding, draw, make molds, remove obstructions and to take away anything of interest.
In spite of claims by Elgin's men as well as the British Museum, no "firman" has ever been  produced either at the British Parliament’s Select Committee in 1816 or in later years.
 
The only evidence of such a “firman” is a supposed Italian translation of it discovered in Reverend Hunt’s papers. It authorises Elgin 'to remove some stones with inscriptions and figures'. Even if this is an authentic translation, it only gives, Lord Elgin permission to draw, copy, mould and excavate around the Parthenon and did not give him any permission to saw sculptures off the monument.
Under the bribeable Ottomans, Lord Elgin’s men realized that the Parthenon sculptures were there not only for copying but also for the taking. They soon began sawing off the metopes from the Parthenon in order to take them to Britain. Their reasoning being that if they did not remove them, someone else would and in taking them to England they were protecting history and encouraging the appreciation of art. The frieze and the metopes however were sculpted on the temple and removing them lead to the destruction of the building and much of the magnificent cornice work and marble masonry.
 
As the crates of ancient antiquities were piling up, Lord Elgin hired ships to transport them to England over the next few years. One of these ships with seventeen cases on board, including some of the finest sections from the Parthenon freize, sank in a storm at the entrance to the harbor of Kythera. The ship and frieze was later recovered.  
 
The Parthenon Marbles arrive in England
 
The excavation and removal was completed in 1812 at a personal cost of £74,240 (about $4 million today) and when Lord Elgin returned to England, he was broke and was labeled a looter and a vandal by his peers, including the famous poet, Lord Byron. (Read Lord Byron’s attack on Lord Elgin in "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" here).
 
After a long debate in the House of Commons over whether a British Ambassador was justified in using his position to acquire antiquities, the marbles were sold to the British Government in 1806. While initially requesting 75,000 pounds for them, the British Government paid him 35,000 pounds and placed them in the British Museum.
 
The legality of the sale was in question then and now. There is no direct documentary proof of the right to remove the marbles. The “firman” which granted Lord Elgin the right to remove the marbles was never produced and its existence has been disputed.

The Campaign to return the Parthenon Marbles back to Athens

In August 1982, well known film-star and Greek Foreign Minister Melina Mercouri made a passionate appeal at the International Conference of Ministers of Culture in Mexico to help return the Parthenon Marbles to their rightful home. (Read Mercouri’s thoughts about the issue in an 1986 speech here).
 
In August 1983, The British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles was established with the objective "To secure the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece” and to “present the case as fully as possible to the British public and to bring the most effective pressure on the Trustees of the British Museum and the British Government." Various global committees have subsequently been setup with the intention of changing public perception to support the return of the marbles to Athens.
 
In 1998, the campaign gathered momentum when it was revealed that the British Museum had irreparably damaged the Parthenon Marbles and had attempted to cover it up; a revelation which the museum later admitted to. The irreparably damaged occurred between 1937-1938 when staff used metal tools and harsh abrasives to make the marbles appear white. What the staff failed to understand was that the Pentelic Marble, naturally acquires a tan colour when exposed to air. Much of the detail which had made the marbles unique both aesthetically and archaeologically was lost. The British Museum has repeatedly refused to publish the extent of the damage.
 
In 2002 an Ipsos MORI poll appears to show large British support for their return. When asked "If there were a referendum on whether or not the Elgin Marbles should be returned to Greece, how would you vote?" the general adult population in Britain responded:

• 40% in favour of returning the marbles to Greece
• 16% in favour of keeping them at the British Museum (The remainder did not vote or have an opinion).

In June 2009 the £100m, New Acropolis Museum was opened in Athens and is one of the most dazzling and technologically-advanced museums in the world. Built in the shadow of the Acropolis, in it’s natural lighting, it displays hundreds of sculptures including the sections of the marbles owned by Greece alongside copies of the “missing” marbles. The British Museum had offered to loan the originals to the new museum on condition that the Greek Government recognized the British Museum as their legal owners. The Greek Government declined stating that accepting the offer would condone “the snatching of the Marbles and the monument’s carving-up 207 years ago”.