Yeshiva University, Cardozo School of Law LARC @ Cardozo Law Articles Faculty 2002 Lord Elgin and the Ottomans: The Question of Permission David Rudenstine Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/faculty-articles Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation David Rudenstine, Lord Elgin and the Ottomans: The Question of Permission, 23 Cardozo Law Review 449 (2002). Available at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/faculty-articles/167 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty at LARC @ Cardozo Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by an authorized administrator of LARC @ Cardozo Law. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. LORD ELGIN AND THE OTTOMANS: THE QUESTION OF PERMISSION David Rudenstine* In the early morning light on July 31, 1801, a ship-carpenter, five crew members, and twenty Athenian laborers "mounted the walls" of the Parthenon and with the aid of ropes and pulleys detached and lowered a sculptured marble block depicting a youth and centaur in combatJ The next day the group lowered a second sculptured marble from the magnificent templet Within months, the workers had lowered dozens of additional marble sculptures, and within a few years, most of the rest of the Parthenon's priceless marbles were removed.^ These fabulous marbles, sculptured during the age of Pericles'' under the guiding hand of Phidias' out of fine white Pentelic marble quarried ten miles from Athens and hauled by ox-cart to the Acropolis,® had remained on the Parthenon for 2,200 years before being removed.