According to the current Lord Elgin, Greece has failed to protect the Elgin Marbles from pollution. This line of reasoning though fails to accept that Lord Elgin could not anticipate such things happening in the future & that this formed no part of his original reasoning for their removal. The Sculptures that remained on the Parthenon were there because it was very hard to remove them without destroying the integrity of the monument (something that Lord Elgin did not worry about). Surely if this was really the concern of the British, then they should have lent expertise to preserve them insitu, rather than ripping them from the building for their own benefit?
From:
The Herald (Scotland)
Web Issue 1919 – January 15 2004
Greeks ‘failed to protect marbles’
GRAEME SMITH and CATHERINE LYST
January 15 2004
THE Greeks cannot be trusted to look after the 2500-year-old Elgin marbles, which were taken from the Parthenon almost two centuries ago, Lord Elgin said yesterday.
Greece wants the marbles returned to their home in time for this year’s Olympic Games and has been backed by a campaign in Britain that has won the support of MPs and public figures including Dame Judi Dench and Vanessa Redgrave.
The British Museum, which bought the marble sculptures from Elgin and houses them, has refused to hand them over despite the campaign, which has been running for more than 40 years. Lord Elgin yesterday said the Greeks had failed to protect their artefacts from pollution and the marbles should not be given back.
They were taken from the Parthenon by Thomas Bruce, the seventh earl of Elgin, for his mansion, Broomhall in Fife, which was designed in the classical Greek style.
At the time the earl was British ambassador to the Ottoman empire and the Turks, who had conquered Greece, granted him permission to remove the sculptures, which were of no cultural significance to them.
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