Turkey rejects claim Lord Elgin had permission to
take Parthenon marbles
Official says no sign of permit in Ottoman archives,
in blow to British Museum, which defends legal right to statuary
Helena
Smith in Athens
Fri 7 Jun
2024 06.00 CEST
Greece has
won an unlikely ally in its campaign to retrieve the Parthenon marbles from the
British Museum after Turkey publicly rejected the claim that Lord Elgin had
received permission from Ottoman authorities to remove antiquities from the
Acropolis.
In a move
hailed by officials in Athens as a “hugely important” admission, Zeynep Boz,
the Turkish culture ministry’s top anti-smuggling official, this week said
there was no evidence to prove the peer had been given a permit to strip the
fifth-century BC monument of the sculptures.
“Turkey is
the country that would have the archived document pertaining to things that
were sold legally at that time. Historians have for years searched the Ottoman
archives and have not been able to find a ‘firman’ proving that the sale was
legal, as it is being claimed,” Boz told the Associated Press.
Boz, who
also spoke to Greece’s state broadcaster, ERT, said the only evidence that had
been found was an edict written in Italian but that it neither contained the
sultan’s signature nor seal, which would have confirmed it had come from the
Imperial court.
Officials
in Athens told the Guardian that Boz’s revelation was key to demolishing any
argument that the ancient carvings were acquired with the acquiescence of the
Ottoman authorities.
Elena
Korka, the honorary director of antiquities and cultural heritage at the Greek
culture ministry, said: “This is a very senior Turkish official who has all the
archives, all the services at her disposal and what she is saying, that nothing
has been found, that there is no document, is hugely important. “They looked
and couldn’t find it and that’s because it never existed.”
Crews
working at the behest of Elgin began removing statuary from the monumental
frieze that once adorned the Parthenon with marble saws and other machinery in
1801 – an endeavour that would take more than a decade. Even then, it was so
controversial, his contemporary, Lord Byron, felt compelled to decry it in
verse.
But the
British Museum, which would go on to buy the marbles from the then bankrupt
Scottish diplomat in 1816, has always maintained they were obtained legally.
Boz
conceded she had felt obliged to intervene when the UK’s representative in a
recent meeting of Unesco’s Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return
of Cultural Property in Paris reiterated that the sculptures were bought
legally during the Ottoman era.
Korka, who
wrote her PhD treatise on the ‘firman’ and spent nearly a decade sifting
through archives in England and Istanbul, said the only documents she had found
linked to the marbles were related to the shipments of the antiquities that
Elgin had made from the port of Piraeus to England.
“There were
two documents, written in Osmanli, the language of the day, describing what was
in the shipments as ceramics and bits of stone, some with images on them but
insignificant to the Ottomans,” she said. “Both stated he had bought the
objects in Athens. There was no reference, whatsoever, to the Parthenon marbles
and that’s because Elgin never got permission to remove anything from the
site.”
Greece has
won growing support since launching its campaign 40 years ago to reunite the
treasures – seen as the highpoint of classical art – with other relics in
Athens. Successive polls have shown the majority of Britons in favour of
restoring the antiquities to the country where they were carved.
“The
British Museum has always maintained that the treasures were purchased legally;
it’s been its central argument,” said Irene Stamatoudi, a professor of cultural
heritage law who advises the Greek government on the issue. “It’s now key that
the country in possession of the original archives, that might have the
document to prove so, says it just doesn’t exist. For us it’s a very positive
development.”
Describing
the artworks’ restoration to the place where they were designed 2,500 years ago
as a “national goal”, the Greek culture minister, Lina Mendoni, said Turkey’s
intervention had essentially bolstered Athens’ case.
“There was
never any Ottoman firman that allowed Elgin to treat the Parthenon sculptures
with the barbarity with which he treated them,” she said. “Turkey has come out
and confirmed what the Greek side has argued for years – that there was no
firman.”
In a
statement the British Museum said it recognised the depth of feeling that, more
than two centuries on, the cultural row was prone to evoke.
“The
British Museum acknowledges Greece’s strong desire for the return of the
Parthenon sculptures to Athens,” a museum spokesperson told Skai TV. “We understand and respect the deep emotions involved.”
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