20 July: The Elgin Marbles

This day in 1766 saw the birth of Thomas Bruce 7th Earl of Elgin, the one who brought the Elgin Marbles to Britain. 10 things you might not know about the Elgin Marbles.

1. They were originally sculpted for the Parthenon, a temple in ancient Greece, built for the Goddess Athena 2,500 years ago. The building changed purpose a few times – it became a Christian church, then a mosque. All the changes took their toll on the statues within. At one point, in 1687, the building was used as a gunpowder store and a huge explosion blew the roof off and damaged the sculptures even more.
2. By the 19^th century, about half the sculptures had been destroyed completely. Since the building that housed them was a ruin, archaeologists were generally agreed it was never going to be possible to restore them in their original places.
3. This is where Lord Elgin comes in. He was the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and with the Empire’s agreement, he removed what was left of the sculptures from the Parthenon, to preserve them, and brought them to Britain, where, initially, he displayed them in a temporary museum.
4. In 1817, the Marbles went on display in the British Museum, where they have been ever since.
5. Not all the surviving sculptures ended up in London, however. The Musée du Louvre in Paris, Vatican Museums, the National Museum in Copenhagen, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the University Museum in Würzburg, and the Glyptothek in Munich have some of the pieces as well. Some are still in Greece, in the Acropolis Museum in Athens.
6. So what do the Elgin Marbles actually consist of? 21 statues, 15 panels from metopes (a type of wall panel - there were originally 92 of these) and 75 metres of a frieze which was originally 160 metres long.
7. The artist in charge of creating the decoration for the Parthenon was called Phidas. His most famous work was the statue of Zeus at Olympia, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidas wouldn’t have carved all of them, but rather supervised others to do most of the work.
8. What do they depict? Many are tales of war, from soldiers getting ready for battle to the celebrations of victory afterwards. There would certainly have been tales from Greek mythology, but many of these were probably destroyed by the early Christians when they turned it into a church.
9. The marble they were made from was transported 19km from a quarry at Mount Pentelicus. While what we see in the British Museum are White statues, they would have been painted and embellished with metal detail. Traces of paint have been found on some, telling archaeologists that the background was painted Blue, but nothing else is known about the colouring.
10. Controversy rages as to whether the Elgin Marbles should be returned to Greece. Lord Elgin claimed he had permission from the Ottoman authorities to take them, but it has been suggested he bribed the Sultan in order to get his hands on them, and it was more plunder then preservation. There have been many calls to return the marbles to Greece, because that is where they belong, and Britain argues that moving them could end up destroying them completely, not to mention setting a precedent which would see UK museums emptied of most of their ancient art as countries of origin would demand things back. About 40% of British people think the Elgin Marbles should be returned to Greece, as do UNESCO and George Clooney.

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