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The Parthenon Sculptures
The Elgin Marbles
Gods, horsemen and centaurs from the Parthenon in Athens, and the most argued-over sculptures in the world.
The frieze ran round the Parthenon, the temple of Athena on the Acropolis: the procession of the Panathenaic festival, horsemen, chariots and animals for sacrifice, up to the gods seated waiting. Its pediments held the gods themselves, and its metopes the battle of the Lapiths and the centaurs.
From 1801 men working for Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which then ruled Athens, took down about half of what survived and shipped it to Britain. Parliament bought it in 1816. Greece has asked for the sculptures back since 1983 and built the Acropolis Museum (2009) with a gallery waiting for them. Stand before it in 3D ›
