The Elgin Marbles comprise of a wide collection of stone objects—sculptures, inscriptions, and architectural features—removed in an ambiguous manner by Lord Elgin from the Parthenon between 1801 and 1805, while he was serving as an ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. The objects were purchased by the British Parliament in 1816 and have been on display at the British Museum ever since (currently held in the collection of room 18).
In 1925, Courtenay Pollock suggested for the first time, in an exchange of correspondence in a newspaper, that it was about time for the marbles to return to Athens. Since then, the issue has evolved into one of the longest and most complex cultural controversies in Europe. Greek authorities have long now questioned the legality of the acquisition of the marbles by Lord Elgin, alleging that Turkish officials were bribed to allow the transaction to happen in the first place. Experts still find it impossible to verify the authenticity of the document that Lord Elgin submitted in Italian while arranging their sale to the British government, suggesting that they might have even been stolen.
The reunification of the sculptures held in the British Museum with the remaining surviving sculptures in Athens has recently gained great publicity, particularly after the establishment of the New Acropolis Museum in June 2009 only 280 meters away from the Parthenon—literally at the foot of the Acropolis. The October 2014 addition of human rights lawyer Amal Clooney to the legal team advising the Greek government on possible legal actions, as well as the loan of the statue of the river god Ilissos to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg in December 2014, drew even more attention to the issue. The combination of these events has reinforced the Greek campaigners’ arguments that the marbles should be “reunited” not only for ethical, aesthetic, and scholarly reasons, but also in the name of respect for a monument of global significance.
Being deprived of the privilege to observe and admire the full collection of marbles in my numerous visits in the New Acropolis Museum, I was incredibly enthusiastic about the prospect of witnessing the collection of room 18 during my stay in London. I was so eager to see with my own eyes what was missing from the Athenian collection that I decided to visit the museum less than a week after I had arrived.
It would be cliché to go on describing the astonishment and pride that surrounded me, in regard to my ancestors’ senses of artistry and creativeness, when encountering these archaeological ornaments. It would also be convenient for me to highlight the arguments of the Greek side in favor of the marbles’ return, but I won’t follow this direction either. Instead, I thought it would be more fruitful to investigate and better understand the arguments of the Britons who oppose this initiative. What proportion of them is against the marbles’ return? Do they really care about it? And what are their main arguments against it?
Some consider these marbles to be relics of an Athenian civilization, which has a different cultural entity than the modern Greek state. They believe that what was once the home of Socrates and Plato cannot be represented by twenty-first century Greece and that had Lord Elgin not plundered these objects, they would “have ended up in the footings of some kebab stand.”
Others argue that valuable antiquities are possessions of humanity in general, rather than of the territory in which they were found. In our modern (or post-nationalist, as many would like to describe) world, diverse cultural components are what connects rather than divides ethnic groups; in that sense, some Britons feel that the marbles are as much British as they are Greek.
Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum, has stated that the marbles in London have been preserved in a better condition than those in Athens. He thinks that the free entry, the convenient location, and the great number of visitors that the British Museum attracts provide the marbles with the universal attention they deserve.
Experts, such as the leading Oxford historian Sir John Boardman, maintain that returning the marbles would set a disturbing precedent to major museums. “You would get all mixed up with nationalities and who owned what when,” he says.
But it seems that these arguments—regardless of how biased, anachronistic, and inaccurate they are—represent only a quarter of the overall British population, according to a recent poll. The rest say that Britain should give its colonial booty back soon, while some even feel deeply ashamed that his historic wrong has not been already rectified. In reality, very few are those who believe that returning the marbles would mean confining them to a small stage.
Last, but not least, let me recall the London mayor’s recent acknowledgement of the marbles’ effects on him as a teenager: “to see them, was to witness the arrival of the individual,” he said. Now, imagine how young Greeks—who regard these carvings as symbols of their culture, heritage, and past—would feel, were they able to see them without having to travel all the way to London. Why then deprive them of this magical sensation? Would the response be the same if it were a British national symbol that suffered this fate? I truly, truly doubt it…
