Lord Elgin and the Marbles

by William St. Clair

Book Overview

Based on a detailed study of both original records and recent discoveries, Lord Elgin and the Marbles is the authoritative historical account of the extraordinary circumstances in which the Elgin Marbles were acquired, of the tremendous impact which they made on modern appreciation of Greek
art, and of the bitter reaction of Napoleon, Byron, and many others to their appropriation. In the concluding chapters of his book, St. Clair adds further fuel...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0192880535
• ISBN13: 9780192880536
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 456 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A most comprehensive study

In Greece there is an unusual idiomatic expression: to hold a memorial service with someone else's 'kollyva'. Kollyva is special boiled wheat with nuts and pomegranate seeds which is served at memorials and it is invariably provided by the family who hold the memorial service. Therefore the hypothetical disgrace and anomaly of a family so mean as to use someone else's kollyva is used merely as an idiom for someone who makes a gift of that which does not belong to them. This was what the Ottomans did when they gave Elgin the marbles from the Parthenon.Despite the misnomer 'Elgin Marbles', the marbles were not his possession but belonged to one of the most historic monuments in the world, the Acropolis, from which they were stolen. His theft is partially understandable only if one uses the dubious argument that he wanted to share these marbles. By bringing them to Britain he would be making them accessible to others who would not normally have had the opportunity to see them. Thus he was not a vandal in the same degree as those thieves who (acting completely unchecked by the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq) looted the treasures of the Baghdad Museum. Now amidst the genocide of over 1.5 million innocent Iraqi dead, some evil profiteers have been selling these priceless pieces of Assyrian/Babylonian art to private collectors/fences. I remember watching a documentary a couple of years ago in which some academics and pseudo-intellectuals expressed their views about the proposed return of these marbles. One rather ignorant woman (without any substantial evidence) tried to argue that the marbles should remain in the British Museum since if they returned to Greece the Greek state would not look after them properly. Her spiteful remarks were a slight on Greece and not just on the practical problem of the 'nephos' or pollution that enshrouds Athens. I was impressed to read that St. Clair does not try to hide the real evidence. He is prepared to uncover every detail. We learn that far from protecting the marbles, the caretakers in the British Museum also damaged them irreparably by applying caustic bleaches to clean them - the greatest act of vandalism which the marble friezes suffered since they were chipped off carelessly by the vandal Elgin himself. Perhaps there is ONLY one positive argument that could be recognised for the initial transportation of the marbles to Btitain. Inadvertantly, when these beautiful pieces were exhibited, they did serve to inspire an interest in and love for Greece. By extension, their exhibition in London brought attention to the contemporary problems of Greece; and this indirectly also served to muster support for Lord Byron and other philhellenes who joined the Greek struggle against the Turks. Were the British government to honour 'promises' to have the marbles returned, then without doubt the marbles would be once again safe and protected. It is unlikely that they would be replaced in their pristine posi