Lord Elgin, in 1801, was ambassador to the Ottoman Sultan Selim III. He was passionate about the Acropolis and brought along a team of artists to paint the ancient sculptures which decorated the Parthenon. In order to get the artists access, Lord Elgin requested a firman, a special permissin from the sultan himself. That firman was granted.
And one particular passage in the firman may – or may not – have allowed Elgin to remove the famous marbles. “When they wish to take away some pieces of stone with old inscriptions and figures, no opposition be made.” Did this mean they could take sculptures which were part of the Parthenon itself? Elgin thought so. Did this mean items found in excavations conducted on the site, not artworks on the temple? That is what some contemporary objectors (including Lord Byron) and many modern scholars think. And of course, what the government in Greece says today.
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