The Parthenon Sculptures

One of the exhibitions I visited in the British Museum was the room that contained the Elgin Marbles, so named because Lord Elgin who was passionate about ancient Greek transported the marbles to Britain. After a parliamentary select committee inquiry which investigated the legality of Lord Elgin's actions, the marbles were acquired by the British Museum and have been on permanent display ever since.

The Parthenon in Athens is a building with a long and complex history. Built nearly 2,500 years ago as a temple dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, it was for a thousand years the church of the Virgin Mary of the Athenians, then a mosque, and finally an archaeological ruin. The building was altered and the sculptures much damaged over the course of the centuries. The first major loss occurred around AD 500 when the Parthenon was converted into a church. When the city was under siege by the Venetians in 1687, the Parthenon itself was used as a gunpowder store. A huge explosion blew the roof off and destroyed a large portion of the remaining sculptures. The building has been a ruin ever since. Archaeologists worldwide are agreed that the surviving sculptures could never be re-attached to the structure.

By 1800 only about half of the original sculptural decoration remained. Between 1801 and 1805 Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire of which Athens had been a part for some 350 years, acting with the full knowledge and permission of the Ottoman authorities, removed about half of the remaining sculptures from the fallen ruins and from the building itself. Lord Elgin was passionate about ancient Greek culture and transported the sculptures back to Britain. The arrival of the sculptures in London had a profound effect on the European public, regenerating interest in ancient Greek culture and influencing contemporary artistic trends.

These sculptures were acquired from Lord Elgin by the British Museum in 1816 following a Parliamentary Select Committee enquiry which fully investigated and approved the legality of Lord Elgin’s actions. Since then the sculptures have all been on display to the public in the British Museum, free of entry charge.

The Parthenon Sculptures are scattered around 8 different countries, the majority of which are located in the cities of Athens and London. Other locations where the sculptures can be found are:

Musée du Louvre, Paris
Vatican Museums
National Museum, Copenhagen
Kunsthistorisches Museum,Vienna
University Museum, Würzburg
Glyptothek, Munich

Since th 1980s the Greek Government have disputed the legality of the British Museum's ownership of these sculptures. More information on their claim can be found here.