Editing Elgin Marbles (section)

===British Museum===

[[File:Tools used for the cleaning of the Elgin Marbles.JPG|thumb|upright|Tools used to clean the marbles in 1937–38<ref>[[William Andrew Oddy|Oddy, Andrew]], [http://www.iiconservation.org/publications/sic/2002/sic47abstracts.php Andrew Oddy The Conservation of Marble Sculptures in the British Museum before 1975] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160402032539/http://www.iiconservation.org/publications/sic/2002/sic47abstracts.php |date=2 April 2016}}, '''47'''(3).</ref> ]]
The artefacts held in London suffered from 19th-century pollution which persisted until the mid-20th century and have suffered irreparable damage by previous cleaning methods employed by British Museum staff.<ref>[[William Andrew Oddy|Oddy, Andrew]], "The Conservation of Marble Sculptures in the British Museum before 1975", in ''Studies in Conservation'', vol. 47, no. 3, (2002), pp. 145–146, Quote: "However, for a short time in the late 1930s copper scrapers were used to remove areas of discolouration from the surface of the Elgin Marbles. New information is presented about this lamentable episode."</ref>

As early as 1838, scientist [[Michael Faraday]] was asked to provide a solution to the problem of the deteriorating surface of the marbles. The outcome is described in the following excerpt from the letter he sent to Henry Milman, a commissioner for the [[National Gallery, London|National Gallery]].<ref>[[William Andrew Oddy|Oddy, Andrew]], "The Conservation of Marble Sculptures in the British Museum before 1975", in ''Studies in Conservation'', vol. 47, no. 3, (2002), p. 146</ref><ref>Jenkins, I., '"Sir, they are scrubbing the Elgin Marbles!"&nbsp;– some controversial cleanings of the Parthenon Sculptures', ''Minerva'' 10(6) (1999) 43–45.</ref>
<blockquote>
The marbles generally were very dirty&nbsp;... from a deposit of dust and soot.&nbsp;... I found the body of the marble beneath the surface white.&nbsp;... The application of water, applied by a sponge or soft cloth, removed the coarsest dirt.&nbsp;... The use of fine, gritty powder, with the water and rubbing, though it more quickly removed the upper dirt, left much embedded in the cellular surface of the marble. I then applied alkalies, both carbonated and caustic; these quickened the loosening of the surface dirt&nbsp;... but they fell far short of restoring the marble surface to its proper hue and state of cleanliness. I finally used dilute nitric acid, and even this failed.&nbsp;... The examination has made me despair of the possibility of presenting the marbles in the British Museum in that state of purity and whiteness which they originally possessed.</blockquote>

A further effort to clean the marbles ensued in 1858. [[Richard Westmacott]], who was appointed superintendent of the "moving and cleaning the sculptures" in 1857, in a letter approved by the British Museum Standing Committee on 13 March 1858 concluded<ref>[[William Andrew Oddy|Oddy, Andrew]], "The Conservation of Marble Sculptures in the British Museum before 1975", in ''Studies in Conservation'', vol. 47, no. 3, (2002), p. 148</ref>
<blockquote>
I think it my duty to say that some of the works are much damaged by ignorant or careless moulding&nbsp;– with oil and lard&nbsp;– and by restorations in wax and resin. These mistakes have caused discolouration. I shall endeavour to remedy this without, however, having recourse to any composition that can injure the surface of the marble.</blockquote>
Yet another effort to clean the marbles occurred in 1937–38. This time the incentive was provided by the construction of a new Gallery to house the collection. The Pentelic marble mined from [[Mount Pentelicus]] north of Athens, from which the sculptures are made, naturally acquires a tan colour similar to honey when exposed to air; this colouring is often known as the marble's "patina"<ref>Gardner, Ernest Arthur: A Handbook of Greek Sculpture. Published 1896 Macmillan; [https://web.archive.org/web/20200220080513/https://books.google.com/books/pdf/A_Handbook_of_Greek_Sculpture.pdf%3Fid%3DFZkCAAAAYAAJ%26output%3Dpdf%26sig%3DSxrIRuctayFp6t99OkFn_OoksOw]</ref> but [[Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen|Lord Duveen]], who financed the whole undertaking, acting under the misconception that the marbles were originally white<ref name="oddy149">[[William Andrew Oddy|Oddy, Andrew]], "The Conservation of Marble Sculptures in the British Museum before 1975", in ''Studies in Conservation'', vol. 47, no. 3, (2002), p. 149</ref> probably arranged for the team of masons working in the project to remove discolouration from some of the sculptures. The tools used were seven scrapers, one chisel and a piece of [[Silicon carbide|carborundum]] stone. They are now deposited in the British Museum's Department of Preservation.<ref name="oddy149"/><ref name="BMScandal">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/543077.stm|title=Museum admits 'scandal' of Elgin Marbles|work=[[BBC News Online]] |date=1 December 1999 |access-date=3 January 2010}}</ref> The cleaning process scraped away some of the detailed tone of many carvings.<ref>Paterakis AB. [Untitled]. Studies in Conservation 46(1): 79–80, 2001 [https://web.archive.org/web/20181004151928/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1506885]</ref> According to [[Harold Plenderleith]], the surface removed in some places may have been as much as {{convert|1/10|in|mm|adj=pre|of a|spell=in}}.<ref name="oddy149"/>

The British Museum responded by saying that "mistakes were made at that time."<ref name="guardian">[https://www.theguardian.com/parthenon/article/0,,195563,00.html mistakes were made at that time] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605154549/http://www.guardian.co.uk/parthenon/article/0%2C%2C195563%2C00.html |date=5 June 2008}}, ''[[The Guardian]]''.</ref> On another occasion, it was said that "the damage had been exaggerated for political reasons" and that "the Greeks were guilty of excessive cleaning of the marbles before they were brought to Britain."<ref name=BMScandal/> During the international symposium on the cleaning of the marbles, organised by the British Museum in 1999, curator [[Ian Jenkins (curator)|Ian Jenkins]], deputy keeper of Greek and Roman antiquities, remarked that "The British Museum is not infallible, it is not the Pope. Its history has been a series of good intentions marred by the occasional cock-up, and the 1930s cleaning was such a cock-up". Nonetheless, he claimed that the prime cause for the damage inflicted upon the marbles was the 2000-year-long weathering on the Acropolis.<ref name="autogenerated7">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/dec/01/maevkennedy |title=Mutual attacks mar Elgin Marbles debate | work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=29 December 2008 | location=London | first=Maev | last=Kennedy | date=1 December 1999}}</ref>

In a newspaper article, American archaeologist [[Dorothy King]] wrote that techniques similar to those used in 1937–1938 were applied by Greeks as well in more recent decades than the British, and maintained that Italians still find them acceptable.<ref name="guardian faq">{{cite news |last=King |first=Dorothy |date=21 July 2004 |title=Elgin Marbles: fact or fiction? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2004/jul/21/highereducation.parthenon |access-date=25 June 2009 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref> The British Museum said that a similar cleaning of the [[Temple of Hephaestus]] in the [[Ancient Agora of Athens|Athenian Agora]] was carried out by the conservation team of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens<ref name="autogenerated3">J. M. Cook and John Boardman, "Archaeology in Greece, 1953", The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 74, (1954), p. 147</ref> in 1953 using steel chisels and brass wire.<ref name="British Museum releases"/> According to the [[Ministry of Culture (Greece)|Greek ministry of Culture]], the cleaning was carefully limited to surface salt crusts.<ref name=autogenerated7 /> The 1953 American report concluded that the techniques applied were aimed at removing the black deposit formed by rain-water and "brought out the high technical quality of the carving" revealing at the same time "a few surviving particles of colour".<ref name="autogenerated3" />
[[File:Elgin marbles frieze.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Section of a frieze from the Elgin (Parthenon) Marbles]]

A 2023 study by Emma Payne concluded that the damage from the 1930s cleaning was minor and needed to be considered in the context of the time.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2023/2023.08.24/ | title= Casting the Parthenon sculptures: from the eighteenth century to the digital age | journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review | date=24 August 2023}}</ref> Studies of the surface of the sculptures with archaeometric techniques, including Visible-Induced Luminescence (VIL), have revealed multiple traces of ancient polychromy on the sculptures, corroborating the idea that the cleaning damage was less extensive than previously thought.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Verri |first1=Giovanni |last2=Granger-Taylor |first2=Hero |last3=Jenkins |first3=Ian |last4=Sweek |first4=Tracey |last5=Weglowska |first5=Katarzyna |last6=Wootton |first6=William Thomas |title=The goddess' new clothes: the carving and polychromy of the Parthenon Sculptures |journal=Antiquity |date=October 2023 |volume=97 |issue=395 |pages=1173–1192 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2023.130 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/goddess-new-clothes-the-carving-and-polychromy-of-the-parthenon-sculptures/9D7277925E339AC98642081CBAAD8794 |access-date=24 September 2024}}</ref>

Documents released by the British Museum under the [[Freedom of Information Act 2000|Freedom of Information Act]] revealed that a series of minor accidents, thefts and acts of vandalism by visitors have inflicted further damage to the sculptures.<ref name="telegraph">Hastings, Chris. [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1490023/Revealed-how-rowdy-schoolboys-knocked-a-leg-off-one-of-the-Elgin-Marbles.html Revealed: how rowdy schoolboys knocked a leg off one of the Elgin Marbles] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407143411/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1490023/Revealed-how-rowdy-schoolboys-knocked-a-leg-off-one-of-the-Elgin-Marbles.html |date=7 April 2016}}, ''The Daily Telegraph'', 15 May 2005. Retrieved 6 March 2010.</ref> This includes an incident in 1961 when two schoolboys knocked off a part of a [[centaur]]'s leg, and in 1966 four shallow lines were scratched on the back of one of the figures by vandals. In 1970, letters were scratched on to the upper right thigh of another figure. Four years later, the dowel hole in a centaur's hoof was damaged by thieves trying to extract pieces of lead.<ref name="telegraph"/> In June 1981, a west pediment figure was slightly chipped by a falling glass skylight.