THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS 

The Acropolis of Athens, the so-called 'sacred rock', is the most important archaeological site in Greece and is located on a hill in the center of modern day Athens. The Acropolis of Athens possesses three marble temples, the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, and the Temple of Nike. It also possesses a monumental gateway called the Propylea. All monuments on the Acropolis of Athens were erected during the Golden Age of Pericles, known as the Classical Period (450-330 BC).

The Parthenon was devoted to the worship of the Goddess Athena who was the protector of the city-state of Athens. It was built by the architects Iktinos and Kallikrates under the supervision of the Athenian sculptor Phidias. There were also two colossal statues of the Goddess Athena made by Phidias. One of the two statues stood inside the Parthenon Temple. It was made of gold and ivory and was 9 metres tall. The other colossal statue was made of bronze and stood outside.

        Just opposite the Parthenon is the Erechtheum Temple. It is the temple whose six columns are shaped in the figures of young girls known as the Caryatides.

        Architects, builders, coppersmiths, stone masons, painters, blacksmiths, carpenters, moulders, founders, braziers, stone cutters, dyers, goldsmiths, ivory workers, embroiderers, turners, craftsmen, artists and many others worked for eight years to build these marvelous and unique monuments devoted to the gods. As Pericles said, "they were erected by the people for the people".                

        Nearly all the monuments on the Acropolis of Athens had survived for about 20 centuries, for 2000 whole years. They had survived fires, earthquakes, invasions, wars and conquerors. Unfortunately, however, they did not manage to escape from the thievery and vandalism of Lord Elgin.

        Elgin, then the British Ambassador in Constantinople, envisioned removing entire sculptures from the monuments and transporting them to his country.

        As British Ambassador, he obtained an official document from the Ottoman Sultan, allowing him to take some works of art from the Acropolis. It is beyond imagination that he had a document which gave him permission to do what he did next.

          What exactly did he do? Elgin looted the majority of the sculptural decorations of the monuments, uprooted columns, removed hundreds of items, transferred them to England and then sold them to the British Museum. They are still exhibited there.

        In 1801 after receiving the document from the Sultan, he hired three hundred and fifty men who worked for him on a daily basis for days on end. What exactly did these men do?

        They removed statues from the places where they had stood for centuries and placed them in crates. Those that were too big were cut; they cut off the heads, legs or arms or whatever was too big to fit in the crates. They broke columns into pieces and took them, they moved whole parts of temples, and they took many individual items away. 

        Elgin confiscated a total of 253 whole statues, parts of monuments, sections of columns, marble relief, vases and many other precious artifacts. The crates were loaded into his ship, which sailed for Britain in December 1801. Soon after the ship sailed, it sank and all the crates fell to the bottom of the sea.

But he was a determined man and he knew what he had to do. So he did the same thing a second time. This time, among other treasures, he even took one of the columns from the Erechtheum Temple, a column that resembled a young woman - one of the Caryatides. This time he loaded 200 crates full of ancient monuments. He had full coverage and help from his government since he himself along with his "luggage" traveled to Britain aboard a British warship.

        He returned to Greece in 1806 and managed to retrieve the heavy crates that had sunk in the sea. He transported all of them back to Britain.

        He returned to Greece a third time in 1810, this time managing to take another 253 pieces along with numerous vases. His men continued to work for him and in 1812 he confiscated the last 80 crates.

For almost ten years the man cut, destroyed and removed pieces of art, monumental items of extraordinary cultural value, most of which were integral parts of unique standing monuments.

Greece is conducting ongoing efforts for the return of the Parthenon treasures to their home. UNESCO and other international organizations have been given a thorough description of all items taken and this list is part of the world bibliography. Most items are not individual pieces but integral parts of monuments which represent symbols of western civilization.

Elgin sold his merchandise to the British Museum for 35,000 pounds. They are still exhibited there!

FOR MORE INFORMATION

http://www.mfa.gr