Turkey rejects claim Lord Elgin had permission to take Parthenon marbles | Official says no sign of permit in Ottoman archives, in blow to British Museum, which defends legal right to statuary

9 comments

1. https://i.imgur.com/Qgce9WX.jpeg

2. Poor British Museum, now they have to come up with a new excuse.

3. if it was all so legal then the BM should have the documentary to prove it, no?

4. Firstly, I’m not opposed to the marbles being sent back. Secondly, Elgin removed those sculpture sover a period of years. Even if he was doing it under cover of night and sneaking them under his shirt surely the Ottoman authorities would have known what he was up to so why didn’t they stop him if they disapproved or he didn’t have permission? Athens had a population of 10,000 during that period, the Acropolis is the most conspicuous part of the city and there was a mosque up there so it’s not like they could have done it discreetly.

5. Does it matter? They don’t belong in the UK. They should be returned. The BM trying to claim they had permission from a country that no longer exists is desperate.

6. Lord Byron about Lord Elgin in 1811:

   > ‘Scaped from the ravage of the Turk and Goth,
   >
   > Thy country sends a spoiler worse than both.

7. I’m getting wildly roasted in the UK’s sub over this. The audacity to claim they have right to keep these is beyond wild.

8. That belongs to Greece. Punkt!

   British Museum had enough stolen historical things to exhibit in their museum…

9. Imagine 200 years ago people who found those objects and thought they were broken pieces of stuff without any value, and sold them to rich people interested in them. They both were happy. If someone came to your poor land and started excavating he needed food and manpower so everyone was kinda happy to help. No wonder now that their value is stellar everyone wants them and everyone is outraged, but they were literally left there to rot or underground before the first archeologists arrival.