The Elgin marbles: repatriation and cultural ownership disputes

Western Culture

The Parthenon was built approximately 2500 years ago and dedicated as a temple to Athena, the Greek goddess. It was used by the Athenians first as a church, then as a mosque, before later becoming an archeological ruin (British Museum, n.d.). Its use as a gunpowder store during the 1687 Venetian reign in Athens caused its roof to be blown off, leaving the Parthenon a mere ruin, and destroying most of the sculptural decorations. Just as the nineteenth century was commencing, Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which controlled Athens at the time, obtained permission from the Ottoman rulers to remove the surviving structures and transport them to Britain. They are, to this day, on the display in the British museum. The Greek government has, since the 1980s, fought to have the sculptures returned to Athens, a stand that has been supported by the EU, UNESCO, and a bulk of the British population. The British government, on the other hand, objects to this stand and continues to hold on to the sculptures, arguing that they do not represent the Greek culture only, as they have since transcended political boundaries and become a shared symbol of the world's heritage (TED Case Studies, n.d.).