(1766-1841). British diplomat best known for transporting the marble sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens to London. Since 1816 these sculptures, known as the ‘Elgin Marbles’, have been among the prime exhibits of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities of the British Museum. The removal of these sculptures from their source has often been criticized and the issue of their possible return to Greece is raised from time to time, most recently in the early 1980s, though it is not easy to foresee a mutually agreed solution to the problem.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied