How The Parthenon Marbles Ended Up In The British Museum

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SOURCES
William St. Clair, "Lord Elgin and The Marbles"
www.amazon.com/Lord-Elgin-Mar...
MUSIC (via Epidemic Sound)
Mary Riddle, "Trade and Fortune"
George Prokopiou, "Olympus Mountain
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The Nerdwriter is a series of video essays about art, culture, politics, philosophy and more.

[@Dev._.]

“Why are there Pyramids in Giza?” “Because they’re too big to put in a British museum”

[@imnotgoodwithnamesbruh6018]

Saladin (or his son, can't exactly remember which) did try to have them torn down but it was too arduous a process.

[@shaygarden9831]

🤣

[@macgonzo]

😂😂😂

[@hargibson18]

Lmao exactly.

[@MrThatguyaaron]

Would you rather they be kept where they are if they degrade over time, or perhaps in the hands of a Country who can preserve them for anyone to see in the future?

[@Syco198]

Imagine the Parthenon still standing today. The initial mortar round is a tragedy of its own.

[@mostlyholy6301]

The mortar round (and the utter barbarism of the Turks, using a sacred site like this to store gunpowder) is indeed the real tragedy and the cause of all the rest. Had the Parthenon not been lying in neglected ruins, there is no possibility Elgin or anyone else could have salvaged these marbles.

[@jawharz9759]

@@mostlyholy6301 "barbarism of the turks" nobody gave a shit about historical ruins until recently. They werent considered sacred or human heritage until the late 20th century. The ottomans, as well as anybody else probably, just saw it as an empty old building on a strategic location.

[@rollo8459]

@@jawharz9759 roach cope, ruins all over Europe were maintained for over a thousand years at that point and somehow they all avoided being used as black powder silos, only turks would be so scornful of a heritage they were stewards over, perhaps because they have no heritage of their own worth preserving

[@HelenParsons]

Lots of peoples looted ancient ruins. Many peices of marble from the Roman Forum went into the building of St Peter's Basilica. Despite the renaissanse interest in Roman arts the usefulness of nearby, ready dressed marble was too good of an oppurinity for the chruch builders to miss.

[@mostlyholy6301]

@@jawharz9759 But the British are "looters" and "thieves" for taking sculptures from this "empty old building" they were given full permission to take?

[@illneas]

Hi, I'm Greek so I'm kinda biased. Despite the barbarous nature of the removal, an argument can be made that the British museum was a great place for safekeeping an international treasure through the years of European and Greek instability. Right now Athens has a state of the art museum next to the Parthenon and Greece is as stable as any other European country. The marbles have to come back, there is no excuse other than pride and profit, the Greek citizens want them back and have the means to preserve and showcase them in their natural environment. It's about time...

[@ClarksonNo1]

As a brit, while it would suck to not be able to see them they really should go back now.

[@matieking]

How about you get some crown jewels, much more interesting for everyone to have pieces from different cultures no?

[@illneas]

@@matieking I want the clock face of Big Ben showing midnight and you have a deal!

[@calj2405]

@@matieking That's some Civ 6 logic

[@nikossideris5245]

Also a greek, definetly agree with you. The acropolis museum was built exactly for this reason and is held up to extremely high standards. The room where the marbles are supposed to be as well as the missing caryatid are really sad to see

[@Resuarus]

How did these priceless cultural artifacts end up in a British museum? Join us on this 194 part series.

[@coreygolpheneee]

Pomp and circumstance is the classical fortunate son.

[@TheZabadabadoo]

For those making the argument that the Marbles should still not go back because the BM can take care of them now, it should be noted that only 50 years ago, the British Museum conservation team decided to "clean" the marbles by chiseling and scraping the marble itself so as to make the white marble more brilliant, thus damaging the marbles themselves.

[@maxdavis7722]

Interesting point but without comparison. What was the standards of the museums in Greece or the rest of the world?

[@maxdavis7722]

@@Dimitris_Balf I thought we were talking about 50 years ago?

[@renatopereira2315]

@@maxdavis7722 The greeks never did that to their own artifacts. In the Acropolis Museum you see statues as they are ... many still showing pigments from the original paint - yes the statues were painted not white marble. That is a renaissance thing

[@dubudubudan]

if by fifty years ago you actually mean 84 years ago lol

[@billpetrak]

Fast forward 6 months. The British Museum lost more than 1500 ancient artefacts, that weren't even catalogued, including Greek artefacts. Just type "the guardian" "nobody was expecting it" and read a pretty enlightening article.

[@washipuppy]

I know it's not normally the 'done thing' for old art, but the fact that the Museum hasn't made themselves replicas of the Parthenon Marbles to keep in situ and sent the originals back is so weird to me. You can keep the exhibit, you can keep the story - you just add another chapter now, stating when and how the originals were returned. Same with a lot of the carvings that the British Museum has nicked - You can make replicas, return the originals and tell the story / provenience of them. We do casts all the time for prehistoric animal skeletons, even filling in the bones that are missing with sculpted replicas from other known skeletons. You have the known history to say "Yes, we sure did have the original carvings at one time, and we made these highly detailed casts / replicas of them while we did. They are exact copies. We acquired the originals though some jiggery pokery though, and we've since returned them to their home country." and still keep the exhibit up as long as you'd like, with all the information it originally contained.

[@maxdavis7722]

Shit take, countries don’t return everything to where it was built, that’s silly.

[@JoannaFalkowska]

@@maxdavis7722 You are silly.

[@violettaguess4408]

Money.If they return everything they won't have a museum

[@slax4884]

You're right actually good point. Problem is people wouldn't go for fakes

[@milesrout]

Why would they return them? They don't belong to Greece. They've never belonged to Greece. The modern Greek state doesn't maintain any real continuous connection to the city state of Athens that built the Parthenon. These sculptures were disappearing *fast* when they were rescued by the Earl of Elgin. They weren't acquired 'through some jiggery pokery'. They would not still be around if they hadn't been taken. They weren't 'nicked'.

[@JaffaCakeGecko]

I personally feel that the marbles are not well-served by their current environment. The Duveen Gallery feels dingy and cramped. By comparison, the Acropolis Museum looks spectacular - in the parthenon gallery the friezes are displayed around a central core which has the same dimensions of the original building, and the entire gallery has glass walls, out of which you can directly see the monument from which the marbles came. You can't get better than that for placing historical artefacts within context!

[@LongBonbon]

As a historian those anachronistic maps give me the chills.

[@persapientiam3818]

why?

[@PNEfc001]

As a Brit, I absolutely agree that they should be returned to their rightful home. The Acropolis museum in Athens that's been built specifically to house them is the perfect place and I'm sure as a swap the Greeks will allow us to have their plaster mould replicas that currently are in that museum. It's a crime that we even try to justify us keeping them. It's embarrassing, and to make it worse we have the audacity to call them the 'Elgin marbles', truly cringeworthy. They should be returned. So should every Egyptian artifact, and everything else we've robbed from countries we've previously invaded and plundered.

[@lucasnunes6033]

Nah, it's safer in Britain. Not all peoples care for history and architecture. That's a very very western concept. Just see what ISIS has been doing to the artefacts in the Middle East. Museums are a very western thing and not all cultures care for that. Many non western folk valued archeology so much that much of the archeological stuff was hidden and forgotten until the westerners decided it'd be cool to have them preserved. Now, if those things are valued it's because it's a western cultural construct that has influenced a few other peoples around the world. (Not all, sadly, though.)

6:53 I tried to find more about Broomhall, but I couldn’t find anything in that area on Wikipedia. Turns out, it’s Broomhall castle, and it does not have a Wikipedia page.

[@littlston5319]

There is an australian podcast called "Stuff the british stole" which tells stories of a lot more stuff the british stole, there is an episode on the marbles, but also two season worth of other stories, that I can recommend

[@samfong4658]

Lol it's crazy that the British stole enough for a whole podcast to be centered around the topic

[@JoannaFalkowska]

@@samfong4658 Seriously. Centuries of stealing, looting, exploiting, enslaving, raping and razing, and then some Brits still have the audacity to say they "deserve" to keep all this stolen stuff. What about actually *creating* your own cultural heritage that isn't based on continuous stealing from everyone else???

[@mankytoes]

Is "the island of Australia" one of the episodes?

[@fatemehshahmohammad8191]

Thanks:))))))))

[@triniscout]

They didn't steal the marble.

[@FelicitasSews]

The Elgin's really made a business of looting historical architecture didn't they? his son destroyed the old summer palace in Beijing. this video sent me down a bit of a wiki hole because I recognized his name from like a million streets and towns here. it turns out his son was governor general of Canada for a while and also loved looting

[@HNCS2006]

As someone from a Chinese background, this detail just makes the whole endeavour that much more personal

[@yuyutubee8435]

@@HNCS2006 It shouldn't take a personal stake to feel strongly that all of this is wrong. Be a human.

[@skylerleonard8966]

The music in your video has some vibes from the video game Hades, and I am so here for it.

[@uno23sleep]

Welcome back! 😃 Thank you for making great content as always. 👍

[@omarmyousry]

Add to the list the Rosetta Stone from the same museum, and the Bust of Nefertiti from Berlin to Egypt, a couple among many taken too.

[@therocketboost]

The Rosetta stone was being used as a makeshift brick in a wall without any care when it was purchased.

[@OhSome1HasThisName]

@@therocketboost exactly the rosetta stone is only significant because of it's discovery by Europeans

[@willek1335]

As far as I know, the French ruled the land when they excavated what you call the Rosetta stone.. At the time it wasn't called that, it was called a building block of a house. It was turned into the Rosetta Stone by the French and British. They made it what it is today. Should the English return it to the French? Should the French return it to the Ottomans? Should the Ottomans return it to the Arabs? Should the Arabs return it to the Roman Christians? Should the Romans return it to the Macedonian dynasty who ruled Egypt, wasn't indigenous, but they made the stone. In other words, you want the Rosetta Stone to return to Northen Macedonia? Or Greece? I'm not sure. Let's have these two have a civil debate about who owns a block of granite. 😇 Alternatively, we can pretend we care about history, more than we are nationalistic revisionists and irrendentists. There are few thing I find more detestable then when some leverage others limited understanding of history for their personal gain and hate of others.

[@renatopereira2315]

@@willek1335 Yes exactly that is the kind of thinking that benefits the British Museum: "Now that the looting is done lets not think about how/where/when to return stuff"

[@willek1335]

@@renatopereira2315 This isn't a football game. I'm not rooting for the British Museum. History is what matter. That's the core issue. The object is safe and preserved. If UK descended into civil war, then you could make a strong argument that it shouldn't be there. If you come into this discussion with that type of "my team vs their team" framing, then you don't belong. You don't care about history.

[@yunleung2631]

Kind of insane that the 7th Earl of Elgin was basically bankrupt but left SUCH a lasting legacy... Also, his son ordered for the looting of the Old Summer Palace in the 2nd Opium War.

[@benmoore5325]

They say of the Acropolis where the Parthenon is…

[@therocketboost]

This better be bloody good Stephen

[@grizzlygreenwood2989]

What do they say, what do they say?

[@cruciferum]

Being Greek I just wish these monuments of human artistry will stay wherever they are best preserved. And having experienced the latest Greek government CEMENTING a part of the Parthenon's rock to make it accesible to people in wheelchairs (noble cause, stupid method), i believe these marbles are safest the further away they are from Greece!

[@petercharles8799]

The Greek government did what? It doesn’t sound like an appropriate thing to do to a 2,500 year old site

[@lizmoss]

great video and interesting story!

[@hugocampbell9209]

Hi there, I am very keen on the Parthenon sculptures on remaining at the British museum. But I can understand why some want to return them, I really like your win-win attitude for both the British and acropolis museums. I was Wondering if complete replicas of the sculptures be made from the same marble as the originals could occupy the Parthenon gallery in London whilst the originals go to Athens. This is a win-win for everyone the Parthenon sculptures can be compared with other cultures in the British museum, whilst the originals are sent to Athens. Both the British and Greeks can admire the marble. Another solution that can benefits both museums is sharing the Parthenon marbles between the museums. The marbles should be shared between the British museum and the Acropolis museum in Athens I believe the British Museum should loan Them to Greece for a decade then they come back the uk for a decade and repeat the process, a decade in Greece and a decade in Britain. Both the Greeks and the British people can admire the marbles. 🇬🇧🤝🇬🇷

[@Ioanna.1313]

There is absolutely no reason for our marbles to be in Britain. We don't want to share them. You've had them long enough.

[@djfottiredhot7157]

Great thought but dont you think that most fair is british people to admire the marbels as a tourists?

[@siddus19]

Great video and, as a Brit, I agree that they ought to go back. Any chance of a follow-up that explains anything that may be blocking such a thing occuring?

[@basilb4524]

the making plaster molds for architectural research to ransacking cultural symbols pipeline

[@chris52622]

Thanks for the support Nerdwriter ❤️ Every bit of pressure upon the British Museum is much needed. Also im going to add the argument that a permission from a country's foreign conquerors as were the ottomans does not hold much value ethically

[@ohwellwhateverr]

They’re ours now. Tough luck.

[@shen-qf9mc]

​@@ohwellwhateverrthe idea of spending so much effort on boosting the algorithm for a channel you hate is incomprehensible to me. why bother commenting if your argument adds nothing?

[@alexiaspil]

Thank you for the support!

[@christoschatoglou8642]

Excellent video as always. Greetings from Athens, Greece!

[@rakanishumai]

Temple gets bombed. British: its free real estate

[@Alliefrownie]

not just are they there. They're in a weird section of the British Museum where not a lot of people end up. Nearly a third of the people are in the room looking at the marble than the other rooms because it's just an empty room with a bunch of rocks if you don't know what you are looking at. I don't think they will be missed.

[@StaticArt]

I wrote an essay on this in college back in 2020, wished I had this video for reference.

[@KMakrozahopoulos]

Lord Elgin clearly stole the sculptures and severely damaged the Parthenon.

[@persapientiam3818]

Interesting to say. Eljin? (Primordial/Noahic) Kin, referring to the devil -> Jin, referring to the devil -> Gin -> Gen -> (Latin) Genius, referring to the devil -> Gen- -> Jen- -> Jin -> (Arabic) Jinn, referring to the devil -> al-Jinn -> alJinn -> Aljinn -> Aljin -> Eljin -> Elgin, referring to the Elgin marbles, or the Stone of the Devil.

[@Erickrojastang]

Great vídeo, no surprise there about England, but great vídeo ❤❤❤

[@mileslewis461]

I loved your book! Been a subscriber for a couple years, watched your videos for longer. I really enjoy the video essays you create. Hope all is well :)

[@LoukasAitherovamon]

Immagine that the UK was occupied by a foreign power, and that power gave permission for the Stonehenge to be dismembered and shipped to Greece. That's what happened with the Parthenon Marbles; the fact that some people rely on the Ottoman firman to claim that the removal was legal is hurtful and and infuriating. Furthermore, we have to keep in mind that monuments are not created in vacuo; Parthenon was made to be seen overlooking the city of Athens, in close contact with the city's hills, under the bright light of Attica's sun. This is why the Parthenon Gallery in the Acropolis Museum is designed to be covered in sunlight and why seing the Marbles in the British Museum is diminished experience. Finally, keep in mind that the Parthenon Friezes are a continuous visual naration. Elgin stealing pieces of the Frieze was like taking off some crucial letters from a text, because they look shiny and beautiful. The narative continuity of the Parthenon is broken, and the only way for it to be restored is for the Sculptures to return home.

[@CESSKAR]

Imagine that Athens was occupied by a foreign power called the Republic of Greece, and that power believed to be the moral owner of thigns they never did. That's what happened with the Parthenon Marbles [...] By the way, if those marbles are given away (not returned), they will certainly be put in a museum and not in the temple, I guarantee you.

[@LoukasAitherovamon]

@@CESSKAR Sorry if I didn't make it as clear as I would like, but according to me the "owner" of these pieces of art is not Greece (that clearly doesn't "occupy" Athens nonetheless) but Athens itself, as the place of origin and the context of Parthenon. And surely the marbles are going to be put in the Museum, this is why I insisted on the importance of the architecture of the Acropolis Museum, that takes advantage of its location in order to create a direct and vision connection with the Parthenon. Thanks for the reply though :)

[@onemorechris]

so much of the behaviour in the the past is justified, both at the time and now, by saying it was legal. However, if you are the one with all the power, and you’re the one making up the rules, and the rules benefit you, that’s hardly a justifiable point of you.

[@xisumavoid]

I was there just last week! These things and many others should absolutely be returned. Although wonderful to visit, the Museum is sadly a testament to the ways of times gone by and we should figure out a new way to enjoy history and cultural without uprooting it for display elsewhere.

[@gavranarh]

there's a controversial opinion. kumbaya my lord.

[@MrThatguyaaron]

Nah most of the stuff in there wouldn't even exist today if the British didnt preserve them. They only care about them because they let their own stuff get destroyed.

[@gavranarh]

@@Dimitris_Balf It's common, I grant you that, but it's not common sense, more common sentiment, common feeling, and a very _du jour_ feeling at that. It's a sentiment born from the false, Fukuyamist sense that we've entered an age discontinuous from all things prior, that we've turned some corner in time and from now on the upheavals and upsets that have plagued human history so far will henceforth cease. So we can let go of our rigid old pose and open up to everything: our hatches will never again need battening so why keep them? In fact it's far more likely that we've been living in a lull, whose end is even now visible on the aproaching horizon.

[@XxCorvette1xX]

@@gavranarhthis is the most masturbatory shit I’ve ever seen man people must hate spending any time around you lmfao

[@gavranarh]

@@XxCorvette1xX thank you, er.. what is it...Xx..Corvette (?), 1..xX. I will think deeply on your comment.

[@lizhasasthma]

I don't remember where I read this, but apparently there is evidence that part of the reason that the Parthenon was so badly damaged during the world wars was because it had suffered so much structural damage from Elgin stealing the marbles. Through his theft Elgin actually helped cause more damage to a historical site than he may have actually preserved.

[@eldritchpalmerable]

He used heavy saws to cut out what he considered dead weight from the frieze which however was necessary for the structural support

[@nothingposted9056]

The fact that the Turks were storing explosives in the Parthenon and it exploded makes a part of me die inside

[@persapientiam3818]

Old Persian derived the clear Persian dialect Classical Greek derived the Celtized Greek dialect Ciceronian Latin derived the Germanized Latin dialect Medieval Latin derived the Saracen Barbarian (Bourbon) Gaullicized Latin dialect of French as spoken by the Saracen 🤫 and Barbarian (Bourbon) House of Frankia in Paris, maternally Germanogaullic and paternally 🤫 conqueror. And that is why the essence of the Frankish (French) city of Pars (Paris) is Parsyan (Persian). Pars and Paris and Parsyan and Persian and Perseus and Parsia and Parthia and Parthenon and part and party and particular 🤷. LOOK DEEP ENOUGH INTO NOSTRA DOMINA (the Notre Dame) AND YOU WILL SEE THE HEART OF PERSIA IN THE HORRID AND GROTESQUE DESIGNS OF THE CATHEDRAL OF GOTHICA (Gothica is the proper name for Western pseudocivilization).

[@kassios]

the barbarism is truly astounding

[@persapientiam3818]

@@kassios ok. it's 2023. the money the resources the workers the knowledge is all available. so why not rebuild? because its ultimate function was once sacred and no longer relevant?

[@kassios]

@@persapientiam3818 there are restorations happening on the building for decades. They aim on using the scattered parts in the same location. But all that is for the structure, not the marble statues. You cannot really recreate the ones stollen. If that's the case then it is far more ethical for the British museum to recreate copies of the originals and exhibit those and ship the originals back to where they belong.

[@persapientiam3818]

@@kassios What was it for? What do you need it for? Anything sacred?

[@handsfree1000]

Would be interesting to see the acropolis sympathetically restored

[@Ishwolv]

Why did you take down your Ghost In The Shell video? I loved that one.

[@TonyK_13]

Parthenon Sculptures!

[@therocketboost]

*Elgin Marbles

[@TonyK_13]

@@therocketboost Parthenon Sculptures!

[@therocketboost]

@@TonyK_13 Nah

[@valq10]

Interesting sidenote: Napoleon's army in Egypt discovered the Rosetta Stone at the same time as this, allowing Egyptian hieroglyphs to be deciphered for the first time since the fall of the Ancient Egyptian Civilisation. When the British defeated the French, naturally it fell into British hands. The Rosetta Stone is also in the British Museum.

[@JiveTrkey]

The Rosetta Stone was being used as a random bit of stone in the foundations of an old fort. The French literally rescued it from obscurity and indifference

[@AnimeRookie]

A lot of national treasures lie in the British museum 🖼️🎨

[@onemorechris]

treasures of nations that aren’t British 🤷‍♀️

[@subinmdr]

What do they say of the Acropolis where the Parthenon is?

[@gameking501]

Fascinating video as always, but “Ottoman” would be a far more appropriate ethnonym within this context. Much of the empire’s chief governing officials and administrators were not ethnically Turkish, and the majority of the empire’s population was not Turkish. “Ottoman” more effectively articulates the multicultural and heterogeneous population that comprised the empire.

[@MeowjinBoo]

Yeah and what religion where they? 🙄

[@mostlyholy6301]

@@MeowjinBoo Mostly Christian, but what does that have to do with the Empire's name?

[@bombaytalkie.]

Ditto.

[@mostlyholy6301]

@@Dimitris_Balf And modern Greeks are Christians, while the Parthenon is a pagan building. Also while the Ottomans themselves were Muslims, the vast majority of their subjects were not, even into the 19th and 20th centuries Islam was a minority religion in large parts of the Middle East.

[@mostlyholy6301]

@@vlasisv3415 Exactly, the notion that only PuRe BlOoDeD GrEeKs can ever legitimately rule Greece is nothing but racism. The Turks ruled Greece on the exact same basis that the Romans did: By right of conquest.

[@juma__]

Exactly like Nashville

[@jackiechan8840]

Because we knicked em!

[@JustABoy]

Great video as always. One critique is the background music was a bit distracting while you were speaking.

[@blackbird1413]

Friend, I came back to your channel to watch one of my favorite videos, the deconstructed of Rihanna’s song Work. But the video is gone 😢 Any chance you can upload it again? It’s such a great video and I really want to watch it

[@brett123]

Is that google earth or some other program for those location clips??!!

[@onemorechris]

i think it was a mix Google Earth and Google Maps 3D view (Apple maps has the same feature so it could have been that). inside the British Museum shot was likely the interior 360 view that Google Maps can do or from the British Museum website itself

[@thekidfromcanada]

How big is the British museum that every country has a national treasure there?

[@onemorechris]

it’s really big. What’s wild is almost all the stuff they have isn’t on display.

[@anaz5918]

There’s a couple walk in tours of the museum in KZbin, they have sections of many different countries fill with artifacts .

[@brostelio]

Brilliant.

[@nuffzed2001]

hey Evan, I'd love to see a write-up for Jeanne Dielmann -directed by Chantal Akerman, which Sight and Sound magazine made the baller move of listing it top of great cinematic works, although you've already kinda covered slow cinema, it in the video about Tarkovsky

[@prenticeclark1454]

My mother was a classicist (professor of ancient history) and always referred to them as the “Elgin Marbles” (and pronounced it “Eljin” with a soft G). That was probably the old way of referencing them but of course they’re more properly called the Parthenon Marbles, rather than naming them after the guy that stole them. My American mom certainly agreed that they should be returned. I never knew the whole story before so thanks for this video!

[@persapientiam3818]

Eljin? (Primordial/Noahic) Kin, referring to the devil > Jin, referring to the devil > Gin > Gen > (Latin) Genius, referring to the devil -> Gen -> Jen -> Jin -> (Arabic) Jinn, referring to the devil -> al-Jinn -> alJinn -> Aljinn -> Aljin -> Eljin -> Elgin, referring to the Elgin marbles, or the Stone of the Devil.

[@TheDukeOfWaltham]

I don't like memorialising Elgin either, but there's also the matter of accuracy: not all the marbles are from the Parthenon. (There is a caryatid from the Erechtheion, for example.)

[@joshuasimons9887]

I'm British and ngl up until today I thought the "Parthenon Marbles" were like, marbles the toy glass balls you'd play with as a kid, not like, sculptures made of marble. 🤦‍♂🤦‍♂ Never learned how or when they were taken. Our Govt should give them back already FFS...

[@superzigzagoon]

As a Brit, all I can say is that sounds like one of our better excuses for taking stuff to the British Museum. I still think we shouldn't have taken them to begin with.

[@DroggeIbecher]

i heared an interview with a historian on the radio. it was about the genocide of the nama and herero commited by the germans, and how germany still has statues of bismark and others anyways. he says that he acknowledges that bismark has done great things in germany, but that the bad sides shouldn't be forgotten either. his idea for a solution would be to change the monuments a bit. for example add barb wire around the monuments or put the statues in cages, just like what they did with the nama and herero. or maybe flip the monument upside down if possible, so it still looks pretty, but rather off, so that people ask why this monument is upside down. i like this idea. i wondered if the parthenon isn't rebuild because it's current state is part of it's history. so my idea was to rebuild it, but with diffrent colored stones. white marble is the original part, black marble is the new stuff, in memory of it's history. just like some artworks are so broken when they get restored, that they only get restored in a diffrent style.

[@Ritza.Elefteria.Michaki]

The most important ancient artefact 1:09 is in Crete Greece. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@nickhawdon9139]

Nice touch using the proper version of the British flag without the added Irish cross

[@TheSanityInspector]

What happened to the statues that Lord Elgin observed being carried off by others? Are they safe? Have they been studied? Have they or will they be returned to Greece? Or were they destroyed long ago for their lime or used as spolia, by indifferent people who cared nothing at all for the Greco-Roman heritage?

[@stroows6806]

The thing is that if the British museum returns the marbles to Greece then they’ll have to return every other stolen artifact leaving it pretty much empty. So sadly I don’t think it’ll happen any time soon

[@cryhavoc999]

But we have the receipts?

[@DSQueenie]

Yes as the video explains. There is clear evidence that Elgin got permission to take pieces from the site. Now in retrospect the Ottomans most likely didn’t mean to give him permission to break sculptures off the actual structure but because the permission was so vague legally speaking Elgin is in the clear. Morally the argument to return them is clear - they should be returned to Greece. However legally in international court Greece would never win.

[@cryhavoc999]

@@DSQueenie It was like a joke only smaller. However I agree - but in all seriousness much of the 'loot' in the Museums in London and elsewhere would almost certainly have not survived otherwise. But their 'retrospective' task of keeping all this stuff safe is complete.

[@QuinceStudios]

Great video!

[@charlieparkeris]

Ottoman empire? What was this, a whole empire based on putting your feet up?

[@WoodyBanter]

I know this isn't reddit but does anyone know how they would they have salvaged the marble pieces that sunk off the coast of Kythira? Edit: I'm not confident this is the right answer but I'm content enough to believe it was completed through similar techniques as this. From Wikipedia: "a diver went overboard to get it. Freediving, he was usually naked and carried a 15 kilograms (33 lb) skandalopetra, a rounded stone tied on a rope to the boat, to take him down to the bottom quickly. The diver then cut the sponge loose from the bottom and put it into a net bag. Depth and bottom time depended on the diver's lung capacity. They often went down about 30 metres (100 ft) for up to 5 minutes".

[@aaronleigh8296]

Thanks, that was interesting

[@Chadhogan111]

They can come and visit them whenever they like

[@CaCriGuz]

Thank you. Amazing video. :)

[@AntonioPeralesdelHierro]

Give back the Belgian Marbles! 🍷😮

[@Animefreak242]

Notification gang!

[@nicklaskos6779]

I'm Greek and I appreciate you making this video. I was very surprised to see this in my subscription feed and I think it's great that videos like this exist to raise awareness about this situation.

[@mechailreydon3784]

Hard to believe that a building can be so valuable that it’s ruins can be stolen and stored in a museum.

[@petercharles8799]

You should look up what the Parthenon was being used before some of the sculptures were removed by Elgin. A mosque, church, explosive storage, and a source of building materials by the locals.

[@tylnd20]

Once again for the people in the back, it is not Constantinople… the city got renamed in 1453, and it is called Istanbul

[@odysseas_kratsas]

The city was called constantinople until 1453 after that the ottomans and of course the local greeks, jews, armenians and bulgarians living in the city and close by kept calling in it that in their respective language. Istanbul comes from the greek phrase "eis tin polin" or "to the city" because constantinople was the capital and the most important and splendid city for miles (this pattern appears in other place names of greek origin such as istanköy for the island of kos [eis tin ko]). The city wasn't officially renamed to istanbul until 1923 after the collapse of the ottoman empire and the rise of the modern turkish republic. Greeks continue to refer it as constantinople becauseof pride and habit, even though turkish mail authorities tried to promote the new name by not delivering letters and packages marked for "constantinople".

[@memoryofsalem4474]

Constantinople

[@DetectiveTrupo203]

Yay

[@awatercolourist]

Yay indeed 😂👍🏼

[@NikitaSamourai]

35 thousand pounds is less than an art student's debt nowadays

[@xyoxus]

Was so confused when there was a british flag but only the center red cros was there 2:29 Turns out it's the Flag of the Kingdom of Great Britain used from 1707-1801.

[@onemorechris]

We have a long history…most of it involving stealing other peoples stuff; when someone else joined in, we added them to the flag ☺️

[@KTSamurai1]

the answer to the question "how did X get into the british museum?" is always "it was stolen and the owners want it back yesterday"

[@milesrout]

These were not stolen in any sense at all.

[@KTSamurai1]

@@milesrout yeah they were

[@paisan8766]

This music gives real White Lotus vibes

[@KasSommers]

I agree that Britain should give back the Parthenon marbles. The first time I saw them was about a week after I had holidayed in Greece. I cried to think they were so far from home.

[@abhijithasok4314]

This is how Renaissance diplomacy worked. Not much has changed. Blood, brutality and people who take advantage of the situation.

[@kenleyabaka7242]

5:42

[@namu5583]

The book is mahal lah

[@lucasnunes6033]

So the brilliant Ottoman, and their love and care for history (irony) stored gunpowder inside it and they ended up exploding the entire building. It's still safer in London at the British Museum.

[@evathebanana1958]

As a greek person thank you !

[@emanfey]

Europe has loads of treasures from other places

[@joaofarias6473]

Perfidious Albion

[@hargibson18]

They stole them.

[@therocketboost]

Bought them.

[@hargibson18]

@@therocketboost "Bought" meaning Thomas Bruce looted them and then sold them for a profit to the British government. So basically the equivalent of me stealing a TV from my neighbor and then selling it to you, sure that's how you got the TV... you "bought" it.

[@therocketboost]

@@hargibson18 Nope. There was a legal agreement. So, bought.

[@ianpowder3187]

Bond company stooge as a representative of the British museum: "Well... We fucking stole it, man." *shrugs*

[@yorkieandthecat]

It is about time to bring them back home!

[@everest2842]

Went to Greece a few summers ago with my mom and we visited the Parthenon and Parthenon Museum. Nothing was funnier than how salty we could tell the tour guides were about the British Museum.

[@spyz1448]

What did you expect...?Congratulate the British museum...?Not your fault of course...

[@benjaminread5287]

But the statues are not in good condition. Surely it makes more sense for Greece to make moulds and then perfect or 'restore' them and replace them on the parthenon. To add extra pieces to the originals seems wrong and there's little else to stop a world class museum from foregoing it's property.

[@yeungeddie]

WOW

[@Don_Catan]

John Oliver does a good bit about how museums have basically stolen artifacts from these other countries, but I love the detail that went into this piece with Britain and Greece.

[@onemorechris]

so does James Acaster in his Netflix show 👍

[@joeshar.]

Germans has transferred whole Pergamon city from Milet (Turkey) to Berlin.

[@pikaficha]

Ubirajara Jubatus!

[@DerDop]

See Palmyra and Isis before judging ;)

[@serenissima4092]

To insinuate that Greece, an EU member state and a NATO member is anywhere near as unstable a country as Syria has been in recent years is just laughable.

[@DerDop]

@@serenissima4092 I fail to see how 18th century Greece is to be compared to 21st century Greece… come on man!!!!!!!

[@Muhammed_Gb]

pleasr do a video on Nathan new show "The Rehearsal"

[@sean..L]

I'm glad Britain held on to their pilfered riches and has continuously buffered plans for repatriation of ancient ancestral artefacts. It's just cool to have everything all in one place y'know?

[@Blaze92NL]

That did not look like his arm...

[@egdapo]

The English LOVED thisr five finger discounts... jeez!

[@JiveTrkey]

"Bribed and threatened" is the most important part of the story, yet not one sentence more is spent exploring it. What is the evidence that the Ottomans were bribed and threatened as opposed to just paid? Perhaps that evidence exists, but you'd expect a documentarian to at least show some shred of interest in the one detail the entire narrative hangs on

[@Gazmus]

"Give it back? I dont think so, we're still looking at it!" I think James Acaster's standup routine pretty much sums up the thoughts of everyone in the UK under about 50 :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/rmiWgZ6Lq6algLs

[@Mixcoatl]

Moral of the story: if you have the chance to save priceless artifacts that have been abanadoned, don't bother. You'll only be called a thief for doing so.

[@tinykender1341]

I guess you missed the part where they bribed and threatened officials to let them remove sculptures that were still attached, doing great damage to the structure. But hey, at least they "saved" priceless artifacts, that were definitely kept super safe and well preserved and were not, let's say, irreparably damaged with chisels and wire brushes in the 1930's to make them look whiter.

[@applegal3058]

You should check out the series "Stuff the British Stole". The British empire took all kinds of artifacts from all of their colonies.

[@hairyneil]

And while you're at it, ponder how many of these things wouldn't exist now if they hadn't been stored in the museum.

[@hosseinkiani2415]

@@hairyneil all of them would have existed like the thousands of years they did. Don’t justify the actions of a bunch of thieves.

[@hairyneil]

@@hosseinkiani2415 the Pantheon lasted well enough, except for the mortar that blew the roof off and destroyed gos knows how much of it, other than that it was doing absolutely fine....

[@hairyneil]

@@hosseinkiani2415 also, "thieves". Did you watch the video? At what point did Elgin steal anything?

[@hairyneil]

*Parthenon. Thanks autocor-wrong.