Sharon Lorenzo gives us Part 3 of this ‘Works of Art’ series.

The Parthenon, Athens, Greece, 447 B.C.

On the perimeter of today’s city of Athens sits a mountain top known as the Acropolis where in 447 B.C. a temple was constructed to honor the virgin goddess, Athena. It stood as a symbol of Greek democracy and was built by stonemasons who were experts in selecting marble which could withstand the weight of massive Doric columns as well as the triglyphs, metopes and pediments on top which were carved with many references to Greek mythology. A frieze of figures tells the story of a procession to this location which took place every four years to honor Athena. The building also served as the city treasury for over a decade. In the following centuries, it became first a Christian church then later a Muslim mosque when there was an invasion from the Ottoman armies of Turkey who tried to take over the whole country of Greece. They stored dynamite and ammunition in the temple during the conflict, and a fire and explosion killed 300 people there in 1687. (1)

In 1798, Thomas Bruce, the Seventh Earl of Elgin, was appointed as ambassador- at-large from the United Kingdom to Greece. He secured a legal document called a firman which some scholars say granted him permission to remove works of art from the temple under the theory that he was saving them from further destruction. Apparently, he paid workers to help remove them and loaded them on a boat which stopped in Malta then arrived in the UK about 1811. Due to a divorce with his wife and the cost of the entire endeavor in Athens, Lord Elgin sold the marbles to the English Parliament in 1812 for 74,200 British pounds. (2) Title still remains with Parliament today, and the marbles are located in the British Museum in London in a wing of their own, endowed by a famous art collector and dealer, Lord Duveen in 1939. (3)

Portrait of Lord Elgin, Anton Graff, 1788

Duveen Gallery, British Museum

Marble Sculptures.

There is so much written about this case that I venture to say it is the most contested of all debates on what is known as spoliation or cultural misappropriation. Obviously, the Greek government has enlisted every possible means of support they can find for the return of these art works to the Parthenon. A new museum was built in 2009 to house them in proximity to the Acropolis, and copies have been made to send back to the British Museum in exchange. The government of Turkey even issued an edict suggesting that they feel the marbles should be in Greece. One of the figures seen below was loaned to Russia for a one-year visit to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg to celebrate its 250^th anniversary, and it did not suffer any damage in the voyage back and forth, according to a press release from the British Museum on December 5, 2014.

Marble figure of Greek god Ilissos, son of Poseidon.

A survey was taken in 2021 of residents of the UK as to whether the marbles should be returned to Greece. 59% said yes -send them back- which was surprising! The rest of those polled wanted them to stay in London. Most art scholars feel that Elgin’s firman was a weak argument for their departure, and that Parliament should return them in exchange for loans of all kinds in the future. The fact that they are an integral part of the original building makes them different from a separate work of art. (4)

My view is that the leadership of the British Museum and the UK government executives are worried that the return of the marbles would open the door to multiple requests from countries all over the globe for the restitution of works of art of all kinds. The concept today of an encyclopedic museum that teaches its audience about global culture is indeed under challenge at this time. I feel that the end result will be a political decision made by Parliament when it is advantageous for the British to be recognized as “gracious givers.” Only time will tell when and if this event will occur.

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