The Elgin Marbles are a collection of Ancient Greek sculptures from the Parthenon and other structures from the Acropolis of Athens, removed from Ottoman Greece and shipped to Britain by agents of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, and now held in the British Museum in London. The majority of the sculptures were created in the 5th century BC under the direction of sculptor and architect Phidias.
Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine,, often known as Lord Elgin, was a British nobleman, diplomat, and collector, known primarily for the controversial procurement of marble sculptures from the Parthenon and other structures on the Acropolis of Athens.
Christopher Eric Hitchens was a British and American author, journalist, and educator. Author of 18 books on faith, culture, politics and literature. He was born and educated in Britain, graduating in the 1970s from Oxford with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics. In the early 1980s, he emigrated to the United States and wrote for The Nation and Vanity Fair. Known as "one of the 'four horsemen'" of New Atheism, he gained prominence as a columnist and speaker. His epistemological razor, which states that "what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence", is still of mark in philosophy and law.
James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, was a British colonial administrator and diplomat. He served as Governor of Jamaica (1842–1846), Governor General of the Province of Canada (1847–1854), and Viceroy of India (1862–1863). In 1857, he was appointed High Commissioner and Plenipotentiary in China and the Far East to assist in the process of opening up China and Japan to Western trade. In 1860, during the Second Opium War in China, he ordered the destruction of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, an architectural wonder with immeasurable collections of artworks and historic antiques, inflicting incalculable loss of cultural heritage. Subsequently, he compelled the Qing dynasty to sign the Convention of Peking, adding Kowloon Peninsula to the British crown colony of Hong Kong.
Earl of Elgin is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1633 for Thomas Bruce, 3rd Lord Kinloss. He was later created Baron Bruce, of Whorlton in the County of York, in the Peerage of England on 30 July 1641. The Earl of Elgin is the hereditary Clan Chief of Clan Bruce.
The title Earl of Kincardine was created in 1647 in the Peerage of Scotland for Edward Bruce, grandson of George Bruce of Carnock, who was the younger brother of the 1st Lord Kinloss, he in turn being the father of the 1st Earl of Elgin.
The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles (BCRPM) is a group of British people who support the return of the Parthenon (Elgin) marbles to Athens, Greece. Members include Dame Janet Suzman (chairperson) and professors Anthony Snodgrass (honorary president), Paul Cartledge (Vice-Chair), and Andrew Wallace-Hadrill.
Sir Richard Peter Lambert is a British journalist and business executive. He served as director-general of the CBI, chancellor of the University of Warwick, editor of the Financial Times newspaper and chairman of the board of the British Museum.
Events from the year 1802 in the United Kingdom.
The British Museum Act 1816 or the Elgin Marbles Act was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Greek–British relations are foreign relations between Greece and the United Kingdom. Greece and the United Kingdom maintain excellent and cordial relations and consider each other an ally with the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, paying an official visit to London in 2021. Greece and the United Kingdom are both members of the United Nations, NATO and the Council of Europe.
Dorothy Louise Victoria Lobel King is an American author who lives and works in England.
Christopher Hitchens was a prolific British and American author, political journalist and literary critic. His books, essays, and journalistic career spanned more than four decades. Recognized as a public intellectual, he was a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits. Hitchens was a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and a variety of other media outlets.
Edward John Burrow, D.D, F.R.S was an English divine and miscellaneous writer.
Giovanni Battista Lusieri (1755–1821) was an Italian landscape painter from Naples. He was court painter to Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies before working for Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and becoming involved in the removal and shipping of the Elgin Marbles to England.
Matthew Taylor is an architect and campaigner for the return of the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum to Athens, Greece.
Philip Hunt (1772–1838) was an English Anglican priest and antiquarian. Chaplain to Lord Elgin, he is now remembered as a figure in the history of the Elgin Marbles. Hunt applied bribery to acquire antiquities for export to Elgin's collection through agents. He also excavated at the Parthenon.
The Tweddell remains affair was a British scandal that came to a head in the years 1815–17. It was a controversy over the papers, paintings and other possessions of John Tweddell, a young barrister and scholar who had died in 1799 in Athens. It was conducted mostly by publications in periodicals and a book by Robert Tweddell, who directed animus for the apparent neglect of the remains at Lord Elgin. William St Clair calls the affair a "first-class scandal". In the background, the Levant Company had felt that their monopoly on trade around the Aegean Sea had been threatened by Elgin as ambassador in Constantinople, and wished to undermine further such appointments.
Archaeological looting is the illicit removal of artifacts from an archaeological site. Such looting is the major source of artifacts for the antiquities market. Looting typically involves either the illegal exportation of artifacts from their country of origin or the domestic distribution of looted goods. Looting has been linked to the economic and political stability of the possessing nation, with levels of looting increasing during times of crisis, but it has been known to occur during peacetimes and some looters take part in the practice as a means of income, referred to as subsistence looting. However, looting is also endemic in so-called "archaeological countries" like Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and other areas of the Mediterranean Basin, as well as many areas of Africa, South East Asia and Central and South America, which have a rich heritage of archaeological sites, a large proportion of which are still unknown to formal archaeological science. Many countries have antique looting laws which state that the removal of the cultural object without formal permission is illegal and considered theft. Looting is not only illegal; the practice may also threaten access to cultural heritage.
The Mentor was a brig bought by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, in order to transport antiquities from Athens. The cargo included a significant number of sculptures from the Parthenon.
