The British Museum, the Acropolis Museum, and the Parthenon Marbles
- Ettienne LeFebre
- 5 days ago
- 8 min read
In December 2024, Groundwork Associate Cultural Resource Historian Ettienne LeFebre traveled to London, England. While there, she visited several historic buildings and sites that inspired this blog post series on historic preservation and resource interpretation at some of London’s most iconic historic places.
The Parthenon Marbles, also known as the Elgin Marbles, are a collection of 2,500 year old Greek statuary and friezes that were originally affixed to the Parthenon and other parts of the Acropolis complex of buildings in Athens, Greece. The Parthenon Marbles constitute about half of the surviving artistic features of the Parthenon that remained after a munitions explosion severely damaged the structure in the mid-seventeenth century. The Parthanon Marbles are primarily located in two locations - the British Museum in London and the Acropolis Museum in Athens - and there is a longstanding debate whether the British Museum should continue to display the marbles after years of the Greek government requesting they be repatriated. On a recent trip to London in December 2024, I had the opportunity to view the marbles at the British Museum. After researching the history of how the marbles arrived in London and observing how they are displayed at the British Museum, I believe that the statues should be repatriated to Greece where they can be displayed in context at the new Acropolis Museum.
The marbles displayed at the British Museum in London were removed from the Acropolis between 1801 and 1805 by Lord Elgin, (aka. Thomas Bruce), a Scottish nobleman. Elgin transported the statues to England, and by 1816 they were purchased by the British government and were first displayed at the British Museum in 1819. Since Greek Independence in the 1820s, Greece has demanded the British Museum return the Parthenon Marbles, arguing that they were illegally and unethically obtained by Lord Elgin. Elgin reportedly received permission to remove them by the Ottoman Empire, who were occupying Greece at the time, and Greece argues that they belong to their national heritage and are best understood in Greece. Greece’s requests have been continuously denied by the British Museum since then, who argue Elgin and the museum obtained the artifacts through the appropriate legal bodies at the time. However, in 2022, the Turkish government stated they have no Ottoman records indicating that Lord Elgin received a permit, which has further cast doubt on the legality of the acquisition. Lord Elgin claims to have obtained permission from an occupying imperial government, rather than the Greeks who have been demanding their return since their independence. Despite this, the British Museum insists that the marbles are an important part of world heritage that is best preserved and understood at the British Museum alongside other great civilizations of antiquities’ artifacts in the museum.
In addition to the ethical issues surrounding the marbles, there are major concerns over how they are displayed at the British Museum. The design of the displays do not properly represent or describe the historic spatial orientation of the statuary, metopes (sculpted relief panels), and friezes on the Parthenon. This lack of context makes it difficult for museum visitors to understand the full scale of the collection and that they historically served as architectural ornamentation on a temple and were not just standalone friezes and statuary. In their original configuration, the sculpted figures of gods and mythological figures were displayed on the east and west pediments of the Parthenon; the metopes were featured above the column lintels on all sides of the temple in pairs and portrayed a different Greek mythological event on each side; and the frieze ran around all four sides of the building inside the colonnade and conveyed a continuous image that commemorated Athena, to whom the temple was dedicated. The Duveen Gallery, the neoclassical hall in the British Museum where the collection is currently displayed, contains one large rectangular central hall with two smaller rooms located at the northeast and southwest ends of the room. The seventeen pediment statues are located in the northeast and southwest smaller rooms, roughly corresponding with the historic location of the statuary on the Parthenon, the fifteen metopes from the south facade of the building are displayed along the walls of the same rooms, and the fifty-six frieze slabs from all four facades are affixed to the north and south walls of the central hall.
The spatial orientation of this display described above fails to visually capture the historic orientation and scale of these architectural features for several reasons: most notably that the features are inverted as a consequence of being placed in a room rather than facing outwards on the outside of a building. In addition, the placement of the frieze blocks and metopes do not accurately depict the orientation of the features at the Parthenon. The frieze blocks in the collection are from multiple facades of the Parthenon, but in the Duveen Hall they are placed on only two walls when they historically were on different facades. Additionally, the arrangement does not always leave space for missing frieze slabs that are either located at other museums or were destroyed. These choices falsely convey a sense of completeness of the frieze, ignoring the story of their partial destruction throughout the centuries, and the removal of elements by the British Museum and others. By not contextualizing the Parthenon’s history through the display of the artifacts, the British Museum further divorces the marbles as significant elements of the Parthenon.
The metopes, originally located on the south facade of the Parthenon, are similarly misrepresented in the Duveen Hall where they are displayed alongside the pediment statues that were located on the east and west facades. The only visual aid present for any of the marbles in the hall are for the statuary located in the northeast and southwest ends of the hall, and even that aid is not displayed very prominently beside the statues. This may be intentional, as the British Museum has stated in the past that the marbles are now “museum objects,” instead of architectural features. While it is possible that museum tours describe the connection between these architectural elements and the Parthenon to visitors, for those like myself who did not take a tour, it was very difficult to imagine the collection as a part of a larger building rather than just a variety of artifacts loosely connected by a shared culture. This connection to the Parthenon in Athens is an incredibly important part of their context that should be interpreted.
One of the British Museum’s historic reasons for keeping the collection was the argument that the British Museum was the best place to preserve the treasured marbles and that the Greeks lacked adequate facilities and museums to properly preserve them. However, Greece constructed the new Acropolis Museum in Athens in 2009 to not only house the Parthenon Marbles and other artifacts from the Acropolis, but also to house objects currently on display in other museums, most notably the Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum. The Acropolis Museum has since become Greece’s biggest asset in arguing for the return of the collection to Athens.
The third floor of the Acropolis Museum houses the museum's own collection of Parthenon statuary, metopes, and frieze blocks, which constitutes about half of the Parthenon artifacts that exist today. Inside the third story, which is oriented parallel to the Parthenon’s east-west orientation, is a scaled representation of the top of the Parthenon that features the pediment statues, metopes, and frieze blocks. The floor features a catwalk that wraps around a rectangular core of what would be the building, allowing visitors to view the marbles facing outward. The pediment statues are displayed on the east and west facades of the rectangular core, representing their placement on the historic building, and behind the statuary and on all four facades are metal columns that feature a pair of metopes oriented just as they were on the Parthenon. Stepped back and down from the metopes are the frieze blocks inlaid into the exhibit wall, accurately representing the frieze in relation to the metopes and statuary. The metopes and frieze blocks that are missing are left as either blank spaces, to represent what was destroyed over the centuries, or by starkly white casts of the historic features, to represent what is located primarily at the British Museum or other museums. This prevents any false sense of completeness of the collection, while also sending a poignant message that they have left space for the collection to be reunited in the museum. Glass floor-to-ceiling windows surround the entire floor, which allow visitors to look out the windows at the Parthenon itself and provides greater context of the artifacts as architectural features, not simply museum objects.
Comparing the British Museum’s and the Acropolis Museum’s display of their portion of the Parthenon Marbles collection, it is clear that the Acropolis Museum provides visitors with a more accurate representation of their historic arrangement, a visual connection to the Parthenon located just outside its windows, and superior interpretation by connecting the marbles to their historic status as architectural features, not just artifacts. Meanwhile, the British Museum’s confusing spatial layout, false sense of completeness, and lack of visual aids to provide context feel disrespectful to the remaining features of one of the most architecturally inspiring buildings in Western History. The argument the British Museum uses for justifying their retention of the collection is related to the wider global repatriation movement and the idea that if they return the marbles at Greece’s request, they would likely be beholden to return other illegal or controversially acquired items in their collections. This justification is incredibly disappointing: rather than prioritizing ethical and best interpretive practices for the items in their collections, the British Museum seems far more concerned with retaining the stars of their 8 million item collection, much of which was acquired through questionable means. If the British Museum chooses to remain opposed to the international movement to repatriate illegally or unethically obtained collections, one can hope that they decide to invest in better display and interpretation of the artifacts they are claiming to preserve as world heritage. While the marbles remain separate, the Acropolis Museum continues to advocate for their reunification and remains specifically designed for this purpose.
About the Author
Ettienne LeFebre holds a Master’s degree in Public History from Sacramento State University, with a focus in historic preservation and cultural resources management. Her research centers around the diversification of historic resources, increasing public interest and engagement at historic sites, and the preservation of intangible heritage. She specializes in California and Southwestern U.S. history, and aims to preserve historic resources related to the complex and diverse histories of these regions for the benefit of contemporary communities. In her free time she enjoys hiking along the American River, reading, and creative writing.
References
“An introduction to the Parthenon and its sculptures.” The British Museum. July 11, 2018. https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/introduction-parthenon-and-its-sculptures.
BBC News. “WIll the Elgin Marbles return to Greece? - BBC News.” YouTube. January 12, 2023. https://youtu.be/EqwqQVbNOtk?feature=shared.
“For the 40th Year, UNESCO Can’t Solve Stolen Parthenon Marbles Dilemma." The National Herald. July 3, 2024. https://www.thenationalherald.com/for-40th-year-unesco-cant-solve-stolen-parthenon-marbles-dilemma/.
“Greece is buoyed by a Turkish comments about Parthenon sculptures taken by Britain.” AP News. June 5, 2024. https://apnews.com/article/greece-turkey-britain-parthenon-elgin-marbles-e147bfb7070aba568630c7798b0e7c63.
“Parthenon.” Harvard University. Accessed January 21, 2025. https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/whoseculture/parthenon.
Poggioli, Sylvia. “Greece Unveils Museum Meant for ‘Stolen’ Sculptures.” NPR. October 19, 2009. https://www.npr.org/2009/10/19/113889188/greece-unveils-museum-meant-for-stolen-sculptures.
“The Parthenon Gallery.” Acropolis Museum. Accessed January 21, 2025. https://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/en/exhibit-halls/parthenon-gallery.
“The Parthenon Sculptures.” The British Museum. Accessed January 21, 2025. https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/contested-objects-collection/parthenon-sculptures.
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