Elgin Marbles Essay

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“Elgin Marbles” The Greek Government is facing a moral issue that seems to be very unjustly and just not right. Thomas Bruce of Great Britain removed the “Elgin Marbles” from the Parthenon in 1806, in which they had no right to remove any of the Greek history from its proper grounds. The British Museum still feels they have an obligation to protect these marble sculptures even longer. Greek government to this day still requests to retrieve what was rightfully theirs in yet the British Museum still refuses. These Marble sculptures were dove the name “Elgin Marbles”, in which terms represent the collections of these stone sculptures. These sculptures were not the only thing that Thomas had taken but also an estimated 247 ft of frieze was also with it. Also mentioned after numerous evaluations and studies were “We believe that Elgin took around half of what was surviving at the Parthenon at that time.” (Wilde) With that said, Thomas showed no signs of sympathy towards the victims of the ruins or towards the original owners of this property. At the time Thomas Bruce served as an ambassador to the court of the Ottoman Sultan in Istanbul. Thomas in fact had permission from the rulers of Athens at that time to obtain these artifacts, but he obviously showed no moral acknowledgment to what significant value these sculptures have to the Greek people. Once Thomas obtained these sculptures he personally transported them back to Great Britain. His choice of transportation was a vessel known as “Mentor” which was the ship that had sunk. Once Thomas and the crew set sail they entered a windy storm near cape Tainaro. The winds were far too strong to keep the vessel secure so the ship ended up crashing into rocks, off the island of Kythyra which is in Avlemonas. “Elgin, at his own expense, made great efforts to salvage the stolen treasures from the sunken ship”(Pavlou) Once

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