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The foundation of Western civilization was posed by the former country of Greece. It is at the forefront of the Eastern Europe Peninsula with its capital in the beautiful city of Athens. Greece is known for its culture dating back to the age of the first stone and contains various relics of the ancient world. This rich culture is still preserved in the innumerable monuments that are scattered across the country.

These monuments act as windows in the past, which gave us insights of how the world used to be all these years. However, sometimes they can become a part of the controversies that can bitterly divide two nations. One of these treasures had two nations to a people with each other for decades.

Greece

Greece is a country whose historical and cultural heritage continues to shape the modern world. If you have already voted, look at a movie, read a book or watched in wonderful night sky, you can thank the old Greeks for that. They presented us from democracy, philosophy, writing contracts and taxes. The country is granted with aesthetically pleasant landmarks that have existed for thousands of years and are considered historically significant.

Tourism

During the 1700s, a new trend emerged in Europe, to travel the world or better known as tourism. After graduation, the sons of rich families would often say three years long excursions across the continent. These trips often cease where the origin of modern Europe is from Athens.

The Ottoman empire

At this stage of history, Greece had been governed by the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years. They have governed Greece for 400 years until the Greek war of independence in 1821. Under the Ottoman rule, a significant reference point of Athens has experienced major changes.

The Parthenon

Parthenon is one of Athens's most outstanding treasures and has been built thousands of years ago as a temple of the goddess Athena. Under the Ottoman rule, his functionality has changed a bit. At first, it was converted into garrison. Then, the Sultan, Mehmed II, turned the Parthenon into a mosque. Soon, troubles were knocking on their door.

Venice invasion

In 1687, the Ottoman Empire had to defend against the invasive army of Venice. For some reason, the Ottomans believed that the only logical thing to do is to use the Parthenon to store powdering. This, of course, caused a lot of damage to the structure. But the situation worst with worse when the opposing army attacked.

The attack

It is still unclear whether the opposition knew that Parthenon stored gun powders or not, but they targeted the monument and attacked three continuous days. Finally, a mortar hit the Parthenon who exploded the powder gun powder. This resulted in all the roof of Parthenon to explode, leaving only the columns that are there so far.

The booty of Morosini

After the explosion, the Venice army went to the Parthenon. Admiral Francesco Morosini, the Doge de Venice, tried to ride the Parthenon of his most precious treasures, but the destruction of most of it. He even broke a gigantic Statue of Poseidon in tiny pieces.

Black market

In the eighteenth century, Parthenon was in a sorry state. Since he was already exhausted, visitors did not feel shame to steal broken pieces at any time. This has happened so often that he has led to a fruitful black market company for collectors. People started selling stolen pieces and earn tons of money.

The ambassador

Thomas Bruce was a Scottish noble and the seventh Earl of Elgin. He was looking for a promising career as a politician. But when it was called to act as an ambassador of Sultan Ottoman, Selim III, he launched a trip that changed the course of history forever.

Employing artists

Even before accepting his position, Bruce had addressed many British government officials to ask if they wanted to recruit artists to create drawings and mussels of Parthenon's sculptures affirming that he wanted his embassy to be profitable for the progress of Fine arts in great Great Britain.

Noble noble noble

This apparently noble request on the Bruce part has been fueled by something totally different. He wanted to decorate his new mansion in Scotland with the best examples of Greek art. At its consternation, the British government rejected its request. So he decided to take it on himself and do the job anyway. It employed several artists to make drawings and casting of sculptures.

The trip

Bruce, as well as his artists, exposed on his trip to Greece, his ship freely navigating in the blue ocean. The ship was fashioned with an old oak, the rich wood was a brown almost black. The open sea was welcoming, constantly moving under the clouds that sail over. After days of navigation, Bruce spotted the magic land of Greece.

Access denied

Once he reached Greece, Bruce wanted to see the Parthenon in person and would check it. But when he approached the Ottomans about it, he was denied the entrance. They demanded Bruce to get a sultan sapor. A firman was a royal decree, issued by the leader in the Islamic states. Bruce has seen this as an opportunity to talk about drawings too.

Fir

The Sultan granted Bruce a firman, allowing his artists to make sketches of the Sculptures of Parthenon, but forbids the taking of molded parts or sculptures outside the Parthenon. The Sultan's decision was only inspired by the fact that there was a mosque built in the monument.

Conditions of renegun

A few months later, Bruce felt that a Greek rebellion was inevitable given the sensitive state of Europe, he did not know how long this part of Greece will be under the rule of Sultan. As a result, he decided to renegotiate the terms of the Firman.

New terms

By the year 1801, which was one year after becoming the British ambassador, Bruce managed to get the permission of the Sultan not only throwing the sculptures, but also remove any number of intriguing stone blocks with Ancient registrations and numbers.

Expedition in Great Britain

The flight of the marbles of Parthenon started immediately. Bruce workers have stripped over 60% of his sculptures in a few months and by the end of the year, they started packing them and export back to Britain.

The massive booty

The sculptures obtained from Greece included about fourteen and west cheese characters, fifteen metopes of the southern monument district and fifty-six of the ninety-seven blocks of the Friesland of Parthenon.

Greek greed

Unfortunately, Bruce's greed for Greek antiquities has not been confined to Parthenon. He managed to eliminate various architectural members and sculptures of the propylelaia and the Nike Temple, of the sacred rock with many inscriptions, tombstones and many other invaluable artifacts.

Endless shipping

In total, about 253 precious antiquities were shipped to Great Britain. Bruce and his workers shipped more than 200 boxes in two years. A few years later, the Greek war of independence has occurred to put an end to the looting of the cultural heritage of the country.

What survived?

About half of the Parthenon survived, which stands for 524 feet, 247 feet survived. This included 15 metopes and 17 digits of pediment. It also includes articles from other buildings on the Acropolis such as Proplayaia, Erechtheion and Athena Nike Temple.

The British Museum

Bruce tried to sell the balls stolen at the British Museum, but the British government showed no interest. Bruce demanded £ 74,000, which seemed too high for what they saw were poorly preserved sculptures.

Parliamentary hearing

However, in the coming years, the interest for classical Greek art began to grow. As a result, a parliamentary hearing was conducted by the House of Commons to determine the fate of stolen sculptures. A petition was deposited against Thomas Bruce and its ownership of the sculptures was contested.

Defend before the court

Bruce's only defense was that he received the written permission by the Ottomans, to remove the sculptures. He asserted that his only motive was to save these magnificent works of art of any additional vandalism. When he was invited to show the court to court, Bruce said he had not had it.

Bring witness

As a witness, Dr. Hunt was called to court. Dr. Hunt had been accompanied by Bruce as a chaplain at the British Embassy. He submitted an Italian translation of the "Firman" to the British Museum Committee written only from its memory of the original.

Translate the tree

According to Dr. Hunt, the substance of the fir granted Bruce and the artists employed by him the authorization "to see, draw, draw and model the ancient temples of idols and the sculptures on them, to make excavations and eliminate any stone that might seem interesting to them. "

No objection

Mr. Hunt added, "No objection has been made at any time, or no discontent shown by the Turkish government against the in-depth interpretation that has been put on this sapor." It has also been discussed that, soon, the sculptures could have been removed by their government of the original site anyway if they had not been taken away and guaranteed for this country by Thomas Bruce.

Closing of the transaction

The House of Commons excused Bruce and offered £ 35,000 for the stolen work, which it quickly accepted. The closed agreement and the sculptures were taken directly by the British Museum where they prevailed to date.

Adjustment

Bruce's proposal for the display of relics in public proved prosperous. Tourists from around the world have come to see the beautiful pieces of Greek history. The whole thing has become a massive success for tourism in London, making it the biggest exhibition at the British Museum.

Ruin restoration

The idea of ​​displaying the relics could have been a success, but other Bruce ideas were not so successful. He had planned to restore some of the artifacts to make them more attractive. But this idea did not execute well and the process ended up destroying the pieces. They broke even further and instead of improving their condition, they ended up being worse than before.

Winkle

In 1838 Michael Faraday was appointed to help the problem of marble surface degradation due to exposure to pollution. However, despite many efforts, he was unsuccessful. In 1857, a second attempt was made. Again, the concern was to clean it without damaging the surface, which did not seem possible.

The last attempt

A third attempt to clean the marbles was made in 1937, at the construction of the Duveen Gallery. Lord Duveen, the sponsor of the gallery, charged his team to kill the discoloration of the marbles, which, according to him, meant that the marbles are supposed to be brilliant white.

Ruined façade

The cleaning was carried out without authorization from the British Museum. They worked with copper scissors, metal brushes and powerful chemicals. The process was so precise that it scraped up to 2.5 mm of finer surface characteristics of many sculptures.

Minor scandal

Once this news has reached the museum, an effort to cover it has been done, but it was useless. The story was disclosed to the British press provoking a minor scandal. The British Museum recognized these accusations by simply declaring "the errors were made at that time".

The Second World War

Exposure with sculptures remained exposed to various locations until 1938, when they were displaced to storage to save bombardment damage during the Second World War. They had not been posted to the public for decades.

Always a controversy

Two hundred years later, the controversy of Parthenon has still not diminished. People around the world are heavily divided on the debate on which the collection belongs. Most of the Greek population naturally considers that the pieces should be returned home in Athens. The Greek government has consistently called Britain to return them for nearly two centuries.

Greek vs British

Great Britain is not interested in the return of marbles. The officials say that art is representative of European culture as a whole and not only of Greek culture. Therefore, they think they belong to Great Britain where they are exposed to one of the largest and most popular exhibitions at the British Museum.

Take museums

The British Museum states that the Athens Acropolis Museum recognizes the rest of Parthenon's sculptures in the backdrop of old history and ancient Athenian history, while the sculptures of Parthenon in London are a primary symbol of the Athenian culture old in the context of world history.

Recent advertising

This controversy had recently received tons of advertising. The reason being, Amal Clooney, who is a British lawyer, criticized Great Britain for kept sculptures. It is part of the legal team that advises the Greek government on various possibilities to get the return of marbles.

It's a no

Amal Clooney said Greece had "reasons simply reasons" to demand the return of Elgan's balls and that Great Britain should be embarrassed to keep them. Despite this statement, Neil MacGregor, leader of the British Museum refused to return them. According to him, sculptures should stay in London because they provide in this way "maximum public profit" in this way.

Criticism for Bruce

Many people reprimand Thomas Bruce for the impipeable way that art has been treated. The pieces were painted and cleaned aggressively to the point that the marble surface has been modified. Bruce's advocates claim to have done the right thing by taking the artifacts as he preserved the Parthenon to be stolen even further. At least if they are in Britain, they are still accessible to the public.

Stop

Currently, the two countries are stopped. But that did not prevent Greece from mocking Great Britain. The new Athens Acropolis Museum has a gigantic abandoned section entirely dedicated to stolen artifacts, just in case of decide to return them.

Distribution of sculptures

In addition to the Brith London Museum and the Acropolis Museum in Athens, which share about 30% of sculptures each, other major European museums show the remaining few pieces. This includes the Louvre Museum in Paris and the Vatican Museums in the Vatican City.

River God Llissos

The situation is only held to intensify after the British Museum said they would lend the marble sculpture of the God Llissos Russia river. Greece will be angry that the British Museum is ready to send part of Parthenon to Russia, but not back in Greece.

Give an example

What most people are not aware of it is that if the British Museum returns the sculptures, it would give an example to return all these innumerable other relics looted to their homelands. This would declare the end of the greatest museums of America as well as Europe. As noted by a critic, "the sun may have put on the British empire, but the old habits die strong".