UK government’s acquisition of the Marbles

The assertion by the British Museum on its website that the Parthenon Marbles were legally obtained is unproven and unsafe. The BCRPM therefore states on its own website in the name of balance and objectivity that the legality of the UK government’s acquisition of the Marbles remains entirely unproven.

For 200 years the Greeks have been yearning for the return of their marble sculptures taken by England from the Parthenon.

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The British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles

Find out about the various ways to get involved with the campaign, or simply learn more about the subject.

Leading Quotes

Supportive Views

"The British Museum could become a truly moral, world Museum of the 21st century, recognising that Athens, having built a home for the Parthenon sculptures, is worthy of exhibiting the surviving fragmented pieces in the Acropolis Museum."
- Dame Janet Suzman

"It would be a good thing if the British Museum gave the 2,500-year-old sculptures back to Greece. Even in England the polling is in favour of returning the marbles."
- George Clooney

"Recognising that what you did in the past isn't always the right thing for the present. You can't justify something now with what took place 200 years ago."
- Victoria Hislop

"If Lord Elgin decided he wanted to put those marbles in Edinburgh at the museums they would have been back years ago. I have no reservations about what's happening and how it is wrong. And it is theft. And those Elgin Marbles should go back to Greece."
- Brian Cox

Case for Return

The Case for the Return

The Parthenon Gallery in the Acropolis Museum, is the one place on earth where it is possible to experience simultaneously the Parthenon and its missing sculptures.

History of Marbles

The History of the Marbles

For 200 years the Greeks have been yearning for the return of their marble sculptures taken by England from the Parthenon.

Letter from British Ambassador to Constantinople (Istanbul), Robert Adair to Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin

: 23 September 2013

Theodore Theodorou's web site is dedicated to a letter from R. Adair to Lord Elgin concerning the legality of his removal of the Parthenon marbles.

The letter was written in 1811 by the British Ambassador to Constantinople (Istanbul), Robert Adair, and addressed to Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin.

It suggested the earl had no right to buy the 5th Century marbles.

The handwritten note was sold at Dominic Winter Auctions in Wiltshire on 6 November, 2002 for £7,000.

Thank you Theodore for also pointing out that when I posted this item on the BCRPM's web site at lunchtime today, the 23 September 2013, I wrongly quoted £50 as the amount paid for Adair's letter.

In fact lot 370 was another letter sold on the same day at Dominic Winter Auctions, also by Adair regarding the poor policing in Brussels. This letter sold for £50.

The letter by Adair to Lord Elgin regarding the Parthenon marbles, lot 408, sold for £7,000!

Clearly lot 370 not as important as lot 408 or indeed centuries after the events that spurred the Adair letters, the most valuable document was that regarding the 'removal' of the Parthenon sculptures.

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