Who Really Owns the Elgin Marbles?
The new Museum features 226,000 square feet of stunning Greek artifacts. Beneath the Museum, excavators work to preserve an ancient site discovered during construction of the Museum. Inside the museum, visitors tour the sculpture gallery focused on the two centuries at the peak of Greek civilization, between the seventh and fifth centuries BC. On the top floor of the Museum, visitors find the Parthenon Gallery, a custom-built home for the Elgin Marbles. The only problem is, the Marbles are still in the British Museum in London. And there’s no sign they’ll be returning to Athens anytime soon. Two main problems stand in the way of their return. The first is a preservation problem. After 200 years of exposure to London’s air pollution, and after some ill-advised attempts at cleaning the Marbles, experts express concern over whether the Marbles may simply be too fragile to be moved. The second problem is political and legal. The Marbles were originally removed from Greece to Britain by Tho
