Rodin and Elgin Marbles to share exhibition

The controversial Elgin Marbles will go back under the spotlight at the British Museum in a new exhibition which compares them with Rodin’s sculptures.

The Marbles, or Parthenon sculptures, have long been the subject of dispute over their home in the British Museum, where they have been on permanent, public display since 1817.

Greek governments have called for their return to Athens since the 1980s.

Now a new exhibition at the British Museum will see 18 of the treasures removed from the space where they are on permanent display, to be shown alongside Rodin’s work.

Rodin And The Art Of Ancient Greece will show how the French artist was inspired by the Marbles and how Rodin’s much-loved work The Kiss evokes two female goddesses, originally on the Parthenon temple, where the Elgin Marbles once stood.

Rodin And The Art Of Ancient Greece runs from April 26 to July 29.

Auguste Rodin’s The Kiss.