The Elgin Marbles - The Partheon Marbles of Greece
The Elgin Marbles also known as the Parthenon Marbles, are a collection of Classical Greek marble sculptures (made mostly by Greek sculptor Phidias and his assistants), inscriptions and architectural pieces that were originally part of the temple of the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens. Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin claimed to obtain in 1801 a controversial permit from the Sublime Porte, which then ruled Greece.
Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine by Anton Graff (around 1788)
The Duveen Gallery of the British Museum
Statuary from the east pediment
Frise West, II, 2
Parthenon Selene Horse
A portrait depicting the Elgin Marbles in a temporary Elgin Room at the British Museum surrounded by English staff, a trustee and visitors, 1819. Statuary from the east pediment and the Selene Horse are visible
- Dull is the eye that will not weep to see
- Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed
- By British hands, which it had best behoved
- To guard those relics ne'er to be restored.
- Curst be the hour when from their isle they roved,
- And once again thy hapless bosom gored,
- And snatch'd thy shrinking gods to northern climes abhorred!
- "The Honourable Lord has taken advantage of the most unjustifiable means and has committed the most flagrant pillages. It was, it seems, fatal that a representative of our country loot those objects that the Turks and other barbarians had considered sacred," said Sir John Newport.
Text and photos from Wikipedia.com.
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