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Sadly, I think they should be now. Elgin was allegedly given permission to take them, which I think saved them but Greece is a different place now and its time they got returned to their rightful home.
Elgin Marbles: What are they and how did they end up in the British Museum?
Seen as symbols of freedom in Greece, the Parthenon Marbles were controversially removed from the country by a British diplomat in a move which ignited a debate which has lasted for more than two centuries - and which could now be about to take another significant twist.
The Elgin Marbles could soon return to Greece - more than 200 years after they were shipped out of the country to Britain.
Greece has made repeated requests for the sculptures to be returned after they were controversially removed from one of the world's most historic monuments.
Now, the British Museum has drawn up an agreement with Athens to loan back the Elgin Marbles in a long-term "cultural exchange", according to the Daily Telegraph.
The museum has said it continues to have "constructive discussions" over their possible return.
What are the Elgin Marbles?
They are 17 sculptures which are 2,500 years old.
The marbles were part of a frieze that decorated the ancient Parthenon temple at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.
The marbles made up around half of the 160-metre frieze at the Parthenon, which is regarded as one of the world's greatest cultural monuments.
The sculptures are seen as symbols of freedom in Greece, where they are known as the Parthenon Marbles.
How did they end up in Britain?
British diplomat Lord Elgin removed the sculptures from the imposing Parthenon temple in the early 19th century.
At the time, he was the ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which then ruled Greece.
Beginning in 1801, Lord Elgin is said to have overseen the removal and shipping to the UK of the marbles in 170 crates.
He is said to have claimed he had been given permission by the Ottoman Empire for the transfer of the marbles - but despite the vast documentation from that period, nothing has been found to support his actions.
In the UK, Lord Elgin received support and criticism.
He sold them to the UK government in 1816 before the marbles were passed into the trusteeship of the British Museum.
When did the dispute begin - and how did it unfold?
The controversy can be traced back to when the marbles first arrived in Britain due to the criticism of their removal.
Then in 1832, Greece gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire before it set about trying to recover the sculptures and other artworks which had been taken from the country.
In the early 1980s, actress and then Greek minister for culture, Melina Mercouri, reignited the campaign when she made it her mission to secure the return of the marbles.
In 1983, she met the director of the British Museum, Dr David Wilson, in London, demanding the sculptures be returned.
She continued to put pressure on the museum and the British government up until her death in 1994.
Despite other requests and high-profile media coverage, no deal was reached in the years that followed.
Then in 2009, Greece stepped up its campaign for the return of the marbles after opening a new museum at the foot of the Acropolis hill that it hopes will one day house them.
In 2014, human rights barrister Amal Clooney called on Britain to start talks with Greece on the return of the Elgin Marbles.
"This is an injustice that has persisted for too long, and in a world of intractable conflicts," said the lawyer, who is the wife of Hollywood star George Clooney.
In 2015, Greece ruled out taking any legal action against the UK over the Elgin Marbles.
In May 2022, the so-called Fagan fragment - a piece showing the foot of the seated ancient Greek goddess Artemis, was permanently returned to Athens from a museum in Italy.
It had originally been a part of the fifth century BC temple's eastern frieze.
Think that is it actually. My partner was telling me she went to see it in Cairo ( there was a fair queue) and the guide said "Don't bother the real one is in London"
"Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination" - Mark Twain
They talked about this on the Newsagents podcast end of last year, I'll see if I can find the link. Gvnt seems to accept that they should be returned as they were most definitely stolen, and there is a big difference between that and other artefacts, they addressed that very question. Will post the link up
I think the Otterman soldiers were using them for target practice so he saved them.
"Elgin believed he was rescuing the sculptures from the risk of further damage," writes Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, in The Times on Friday.
Athens' Parthenon, a classical temple built by the ancient Greeks, was in a dilapidated state by the time Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin, became British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1799.
Partially destroyed by early Christians, converted into a mosque and later used as a weapons store by the Ottoman Turks, some 40% of the Parthenon's 2,250-year-old sculptures had been destroyed by the time Elgin took up his diplomatic post in Constantinople.
I better check the relief sculpture I have hanging on the wall in my place, I had it from an architectural salvage place years ago but I wonder where it originated, it took several rawl bolts into a thick stone wall to be able to hold it up.
Continually being banned by Planet Swans for Porthcawl and then being reinstated.
If we’ve half inched them, then they should be returned to their rightful owners.
The amount of stuff we half inched over the last few hundred years, the royal jewellery collection and many of the museums would be empty. Even the Egyptian Museum in Swansea has no real place there
"Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination" - Mark Twain
It's perfectly acceptable to believe that removing them from Greece at the time to preserve them was acceptable (which certainly appears to be the case), as well as thinking that they probably should have been returned by now.
Pain or damage don't end the world. Or despair, or f*cking beatings. The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man... and give some back.
It's perfectly acceptable to believe that removing them from Greece at the time to preserve them was acceptable (which certainly appears to be the case), as well as thinking that they probably should have been returned by now.
Indeed good case for both
"Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination" - Mark Twain
It's perfectly acceptable to believe that removing them from Greece at the time to preserve them was acceptable (which certainly appears to be the case), as well as thinking that they probably should have been returned by now.
Listen to the podcast, apparently we accept we just stole them.
It's perfectly acceptable to believe that removing them from Greece at the time to preserve them was acceptable (which certainly appears to be the case), as well as thinking that they probably should have been returned by now.
Yes, this, 100% and it should apply to every other artefact that was illegally removed, however many there are across the world.
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