So, Greece built the Acropolis Museum to house them, which was opened to the public in 2009. It was also said that Greece had nowhere to put the Parthenon marbles. One of the arguments that was reportedly put forward was that the marbles were safer in the British Museum, safe from polluted air, acid rain and the bombings of world wars. "That call has been effectively, consistently made over the decades and centuries."īut for the last 200 years, those calls have fallen on deaf ears. "King Otto, the first king of the modern state of Greece, actually made a call … in the mid-1830s for their return," Vardas says.
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Once Greece re-emerged as its own country in 1821, free of the occupying Turks, the country's leaders called for the return of the marbles. "It's just a very ugly episode in human history that we can wantonly destroy something so perfect and so unique, a unique part of humanity." Safer in Britain? She describes the Parthenon as "a crime scene", because of what happened there. It's why she studied archaeology and it's why she moved to Athens. That's why Symons has spent the last eight years campaigning for the return of the marbles. And so always in my mind, I wanted to do something about it." "I remember as a child feeling so strongly about it that it was unfair and unjust and that was a wrong that needs to be put right. There's a lot of damage to the front of the building," she says, of the evidence of the transgression that occurred there nearly 200 years ago. " hacked the front half of the marble up with literally a hacksaw. ( Supplied: Elly Symons)Įven as a child, and like many other visitors to the historic site, she noticed something was amiss. Now based in Athens, the Australian-born archaeologist first visited the temple as a 12-year-old while on a family holiday with her "very Greek parents" from Melbourne.Īustralian archaeologist Elly Symons remembers feeling that something was missing when she first saw the Parthenon. Vardas is not the only Greek-Australian pushing to have the British Museum return the marbles.Įlly Symons is the vice-president of the Australian Parthenon Committee and a founder of the Acropolis Research Group. The museum was the winner." 'I wanted to do something about it' "He lived a miserly life after that and and literally disappeared.
He eventually became a bankrupt," Vardas says. So they paid him half of what he asked, namely 35,000 pounds. The British government agreed to buy his collection, ultimately to be displayed in the British Museum.īut because he gained it during his time as ambassador, it was decided that Elgin should not profit from it. He was in serious debt, thanks to his expedition, the bribes and the transportation of the marbles to England. This wasn't Elgin's only concern at the time. "There were quite a few members of parliament who openly criticised Elgin for taking them, abusing his diplomatic posting to do that," Vardas says.
People travelled from far and wide to view them.īut not everyone approved of the circumstances surrounding their arrival. Once the marbles arrived in the UK, they were put on display in London. The Parthenon was used as a church, a mosque, a treasury and even an ammunition storehouse. Then, between 18, he had many of the sculptures removed and shipped off to Britain. That's because Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin and the British ambassador to Turkey, made a dubious deal with the Ottoman Empire, which occupied Greece at the time.
The Parthenon temple sits on top of the Acropolis of Athens, the two-thousand-year-old fortress above the Greek city.īuilt between 447 and 432 BC, the temple is one of the most iconic buildings on earth, once used as a church, a mosque, a treasury and an ammunition store.Ĭenturies ago, the Parthenon featured breathtaking sculptures of gods, goddesses and the battle between Centaurs and Lapiths at the marriage-feast of Peirithoos – all hand-etched from solid marble.īut today, when you step beyond the columns, they're nowhere to be seen. There are campaigns and meetings like this happening all around the world, where the Greek diaspora is agitating to convince their home nations - but also Greece itself - that it's time to push this issue in the United Nations' International Court of Justice.Īnd this group is playing a key role. "World opinion overwhelmingly, and for many years now, has supported the return of the sculptures." One of the arguments for keeping the marbles in the British Museum has been about keeping them safe.
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