December 11, 2014

One of the Elgin Marbles recently went on display at the Russian State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The statue of the Greek river god Ilissos is on loan from the British Museum in London, which holds the entire Elgin Marbles collection.

The sculptures were once part of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon in Athens. The government of Greece disputes ownership of the sculptures, claiming that they belong to the people of Greece. Greece holds that they were stolen by Lord Elgin, a British aristocrat, in the early 19^th century, when Greece was occupied by the Ottoman Turks.

A statue of the Greek god Ilissos, removed from the Parthenon in the early 1800′s, is on loan from the British Museum to Russia. © Helen Simonsson

The British have long maintained that by removing the statues from the Parthenon, Lord Elgin saved them because the Ottoman army was using the temple as a target for artillery practice. The Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, issued a statement on December 5 that the British Museum’s decision to lend one of the marbles to Russia is “an affront” to the Greek people.

Additional World Book articles:

• Ancient Greece
• Ancient Art’s Long Way Home (a special report)

Tags: british museum, elgin marbles, hermitage museum, ilissos