Elgin Marbles, collection of ancient Greek sculptures and architectural details in the British Museum, London, where they are now called the Parthenon Sculptures. The objects were removed from the Parthenon at Athens and from other ancient buildings and shipped to England by arrangement of Thomas Bruce, 7th Lord Elgin, who was British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (1799–1803). The removal created a storm of controversy that exemplified questions about the ownership of cultural artifacts and the return of antiquities to their places of origin.Elgin was a lover of art and antiquities. By his own account, he was concerned about damage being done to important artworks in the temples of Greece, then under Ottoman sway. Fearing that they would eventually be destroyed because of Turkish indifference, he asked permission of the Sublime Porte to have artists measure, sketch, and copy important pieces of sculpture and architectural detail for posterity.
