Athens by Bruce Clark

Author:Bruce Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2022-01-04T00:00:00+00:00

Lusieri’s extractions were not completed till 1805, a couple of years after Elgin had left his post. In total he took about half the surviving Parthenon frieze, around 75 metres of the 160-metre total, plus fifteen of the ninety-two metopes and seventeen figures from the pediments, as well as pieces from the other monuments on the Acropolis: the Erechtheion, the Propylaea and the temple of Athena Nike.

Transporting the sculptures to Britain proved much more complicated than extracting them from the Acropolis temples, especially after the diplomatic climate worsened from Britain’s viewpoint. France made peace with the Ottomans, who were disappointed by a new British alliance with Russia. As a result, Fauvel was free to return to Athens, full of bitterness over British actions. As he saw things, it was British pressure on the sultan that had led to his own incarceration and to the ruin of many French citizens in Athens. Fauvel was appalled, and jealous, over the British depredations on the Acropolis monuments, and immediately did his best to obstruct the despatch of precious artefacts to England. There was also a more specific bone of contention: a consignment of antiquities, including a metope from the Parthenon, which Fauvel had despatched to his own homeland in a French corvette, was intercepted by the British, and the objects were added to Elgin’s haul.

Elgin himself was intercepted en route northwards, and held prisoner by the French for three years. Only in 1806 did he reach his native shores, and he immediately set about gathering up his collection. One part was lying in various English ports, including some artefacts that sank off the Greek island of Kythera and had to be salvaged. Many more cases of precious sculptures had yet to leave Athens, and Fauvel did everything possible to obstruct their departure. In 1808, the indefatigable Lusieri wrote to the new British ambassador in Istanbul, Sir Robert Adair, asking for a firman authorizing the release of the artefacts from Athens. This became easier after Britain and the Ottomans made a renewed alliance in 1809, and the Ottoman authorities did eventually issue the necessary instructions to the voivode in Athens. Thanks to some research that was presented in 2015 by Eleni Korka, in collaboration with Seyyed Mohammed Taghi Shariat-Panahi, the relevant correspondence can now be studied in all its revealing detail. At least on this occasion it seems clear that the sultan, the grand vizier and his deputy were involved in the transaction.

A letter sent by the grand vizier’s deputy to the voivode in Athens reads in part:

The [new] ambassador of England… pleads for the transport of the aforementioned stones with images. These stones are not acceptable in Islam, but they are acceptable in the European countries. There is no harm in conceding a permit for the transport of the aforementioned stones. The transport and safe passage of these stones should not be hindered.

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