British Museum Top Ten Treasures

[Bereta_Eder]

Kind of like when the Germans couldn't protect their ladies when the Russians came marching to town eh?
Actually the Parthenon was intact up to the beggining of the 19th century untill Elgin tore the statues down with hammers.

[Peter Triggs]

I thought he bought them from some Greek bloke. You mean he got ripped off?

[Bereta_Eder]

Well you thought wrong. He made a deal with the Turkish Pasha of Athens to take them down. Parhenon got ripped off not elgin. Funny who the destroyers of one of the most precious temples of antiquity are eh? well byron likes to think its just the scotts, being really engilsh i guess.

[Immortal Wombat]

Pish. Clearly Locutus should be on that list.

[Ecthy]

Germany on the other hand has no treasures. We had the amber chamber but the rooskies burned it.

[Bereta_Eder]

I saw good bye lenin

[Peter Triggs]

Well at least in the British Museum they're safe from all that pollution you have in Athens. Here in Oxford they have to keep cleaning the surfaces of the old stonework in the center of town every few years. It eventually gets so screwed up that it has to be replaced.

[Bereta_Eder]

Actually you destroyed them further by bleaching them.
Also it is impossible to mount them back at the parthenon the way they were before they were hammered down.

[Peter Triggs]

Hey IW,

Was it you or Locutus who took the pictures of the Elgin Marbles when we were at the BM ?

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by paiktis22
Kind of like when the Germans couldn't protect their ladies when the Russians came marching to town eh?
Actually the Parthenon was intact up to the beggining of the 19th century untill Elgin tore the statues down with hammers.

It would be nice if we could keep ill-informed petty nationalist insults out of this.

From the Greek Ministry of Culture site:

‘The Turks used the Parthenon as a powder magazine when the Venetians, under Admiral Morosini, sieged the Acropolis in 1687. One of the Venetian bombs fell on the Parthenon and caused a tremendous explosion that destroyed a great part of the monument which had been preserved in a good condition until then.’

http://www.culture.gr/2/21/toc/index.html

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/The_Parthenon.html

The British Museum’s holdings reflect the history of the peoples that live/d in the British Isles as well as the history of the British Empire and all humankind. Even without any non-British artefacts, there would still be Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Celtic, Roman, Romano-British, Anglo-Saxon, Viking/Norse, and Norman artefacts, let alone items from the Middle Ages, the Elizabethan era and later. One thing the United Kingdom isn’t short of, is history.

http://www.info-world.com/elgin.marbles/times/

I suggest if you want to start a thread about restoring the Parthenon frieze then please do so.

[Bereta_Eder]

Venetians didnt destroy the unique facade of parthenon though did they? (thank god)

eggy did when there wasnt even a war.

http://www.museum-security.org/Will%20Britain%20lose%20its%20Marbles.htm

http://www.museum-security.org/elginmarbles.html

as for what the british museum would have without the greek egyptian and other stuff it "borrowed", anyone can see their grandiose "importance" I think.

i wonder who's being a nationalist (while not even english)

[Ecthy]

seen that movie too

[Peter Triggs]

For those of you who might not know what I'm referrring to, there was a Poly meet in London last August. The Pub we met in was just around the corner from the British Museum and a few of us, before we got into the serious drinking, did a tour. There were quite a few pictures posted here but, since then Markos has done something to the database which means that, at least for me, they don't show up.

@ Molly Bloom: Sorry about this meandering, but when you bring up the British Museum, it's hard to stay on topic. It's absolutely amazing what they've got there.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by paiktis22
Venetians didnt destroy the unique facade of parthenon though did they? (thank god)

eggy did when there wasnt even a war.

http://www.museum-security.org/Will%20Britain%20lose%20its%20Marbles.htm

http://www.museum-security.org/elginmarbles.html

as for what the british museum would have without the greek egyptian and other stuff it "borrowed", anyone can see their grandiose "importance" I think.

i wonder who's being a nationalist (while not even english)

As I said, If you want to start a thread about the restitution of the Parthenon frieze, feel free. Just do it in a separate thread.

Ill-informed comments about artefacts from British history and the purpose of the British Museum notwithstanding, you also had to make an insulting remark about Germans and German history. I'm glad Ecthelion didn't respond in kind.

As for not being 'English'- no, I'm not. I'm British. And I haven't succumbed to the temptation of making any petty nationalist slurs.

The so-called 'bleaching' of the frieze:

http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/parthenon/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/543362.stm

[Ecthy]

btw, if the English had a deal with local rulers, it's perfectly OK.