Elgin Marbles were rescued from rubble, insists British Museum

‘Lord Elgin used illicit means to seize and export the sculptures without real legal permission to do so’

THE Elgin Marbles were rescued from rubble and not “hacked” from the Parthenon, the British Museum has claimed, as a row over their repatriation intensifies.

Greek and UK ministers have agreed to talks on the future of the Marbles, which campaigners for repatriation have long claimed were violently stolen from the Acropolis on the orders of Lord Elgin in the early 19th century.

The British Museum has suggested that the sculptures were not prised from the Parthenon but rescued from nearby rubble, as the institution responded to mounting pressure for the return of the 2,500-year-old Marbles.

Dr Jonathan Williams, deputy director of the British Museum, told a Unesco meeting called to discuss the dispute that many of the Marbles were “in fact removed from the rubble around the Parthenon”.

He added: “These objects were not all hacked from the building as has been suggested.”

Unesco’s Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property has waded into the debate on the sculptures and insisted Britain adopt a more cooperative stance towards those demanding they be returned to Greece.

Lina Mendoni, the Greek culture minister, has contested the museum’s claim, saying that Lord Elgin had committed “blatant serial theft” by taking the Marbles in the early 19th century.

In response to mounting pressure for their return, the British Museum has attempted to reject accusations that the Marbles were violently “hacked” from the Parthenon temple before being taken to the UK, but its historical expertise has been questioned.

Prof Paul Cartledge, a renowned Cambridge classicist who supports the return of the sculptures to Athens as part of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, said that “undoubtedly a lot of hacking went on”.

He said that it also “makes no difference” to the moral case for the Marbles being returned, adding: “They should all go back, however obtained.”

Letters from the 19th-century team who obtained the sculptures would appear to support Prof Cartledge’s claim and undermined the British Museum’s position, with a note from Giovanni Battista Lusieri – who oversaw the removal of the Marbles – to his boss Lord Elgin stating he had “been obliged to be a little barbarous” in removing certain sculptures. Ms Mendoni has put these charges to the British Museum, saying: “Greek authorities and the international scientific community have demonstrated with unshakeable arguments the true events surrounding the removal of the Parthenon sculptures.”

She added: “Lord Elgin used illicit and inequitable means to seize and export the Parthenon sculptures, without real legal permission to do so.”

The Marbles were acquired by Lord Elgin in the early years of the 19th century, before being bought by the British Museum in 1816.