Most historians, however, believe this firman was issued to Elgin, citing contemporary supporting evidence for its existence. In the past these forces have sought to make their home capitols the "center of the art world" which meant acquiring as much original Greek art (versus Roman copies) as possible, since the Greek artists of the ancient world are continually lauded as the best and most advanced in skill. Elgin took claim to approximately half of the then surviving statuary at the Elgin claimed he was spurred toward this massive removal of pieces because the statuary was being continually damaged. Italy has continued a block for all countries except those within the Schengen zone. He cited that sometimes the poorly paid Turkish troops burned up pieces in an effort to gain lime, that they piled up fragments, along with statuary, to make fortification walls, and took down structures atop the Acropolis to remove the interior lead connecting pieces so they could be melted down into bullets. Elgin had to contrive favors from British military craft to carry boxes on to Britain, this at a time when Britain and France were in a continual state of conflict on the Mediterranean. The requests have continued for the last 184 years.Ownership arguments over the Parthenon Marbles are relatively simple. "Elgin believed he was rescuing the sculptures from the risk of further damage," writes Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, in The Times on Friday.Athens' Parthenon, a classical temple built by the ancient Greeks, was in a dilapidated state by the time Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin, became British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1799.Partially destroyed by early Christians, converted into a mosque and later used as a weapons store by the Ottoman Turks, some 40% of the Parthenon's 2,250-year-old sculptures had been destroyed by the time Elgin took up his diplomatic post in Constantinople.Elgin, an art lover, claimed the sculptures were better off in Britain than the perilous environment he found them in.In 1801, he negotiated what he claimed was permission from the Turks - who then controlled Athens - to remove statues from the Parthenon.The document upon which Elgin claimed legality has been cited by campaigners on both sides of the argument, whose interpretations of it inevitably differ.The British Museum maintains that Elgin was an official diplomat and had acted with the permission of Turkish authorities.Greek campaigners argue that the Turks were a foreign force acting against the will of the people they had invaded.The opposing sides agree on only one thing - that the Elgin Marbles form one of the most important collections of classical art in existence.The Marbles which were taken to Britain include about a half (some 75 metres) of the sculpted frieze that once ran all round the building, plus 17 life-sized marble figures from its gable ends (or pediments) and 15 of the 92 metopes, or sculpted panels, originally displayed high up above its columns.Plundering classical art was common practice in that era, which saw those on the Grand Tour regularly pilfer "souvenirs" from ancient sites.Fragments from the Parthenon alone ended up in some 10 European countries, or were lost altogether.On his return to England, Elgin told a Parliamentary inquest that a desire to protect what was left of the treasure was part of his motivation in taking them.
The Elgin Marbles is the nickname of a very large collection of marble sculptures that were taken from the ruins of the Parthenon in Greece and brought to Britain back in 1801 to 1805 by 7th Earl of Elgin… "It's time to heal the wounds of the monument with the return of the marbles which belong to it," said then Greek President Karolos Papoulias in 2009, at the opening of the Acropolis Museum.But so far British authorities have opposed all calls for the return of the marbles, with David Cameron saying last year that he did not believe in what he called "returnism".The BBC is not responsible for the content of external Internet sitesThe Scottish government u-turn follows an outcry over the downgrading of 125,000 results. Elgin's collection was consequently sold to the British government ten years later. The Elgin Marbles: Should They be Returned to Greece by C Hitchens (Verso Books, 1998) The Parthenon and its Impact in Modern Times by by P Tournikiotis (ed) (Harry N. … The Partheonon Marbles, also known as the Elgin Marbles are a collection of classical Greek sculptures dating back to 447BC. These are external links and will open in a new window "They are integral to the whole idea of the Universal Museum and the way museums over the last two centuries have come to display and interpret human culture," It was first argued they should be returned to Greece in 1925, and today Greece still refuses to recognise the Museum's ownership. The British Museum (itself modeled on a Greek building, the temple at Priene) refused, but offered plaster reproductions instead.
The "Elgin Marbles" are a large selection of antiquities taken by Lord Thomas Bruce, the Seventh Earl of Elgin, from Greece and shipped to Britain between 1801 and 1812. Lord Byron, the famous British poet who was particularly interested in Greece (and died in Missolonghi in 1824, having come to join the Greeks in the revolution against the Turks), mocked Elgin's efforts in his poem Elgin had been driven nearly to bankruptcy by his project of removing the marbles to England, had spent nearly 60,000 pounds in the process, and had suffered public humiliation through a divorce from his wife and also after being captured and imprisoned by Napoleon (the circumstances of his later parole forced him to quit the House of Lords).