Editing Elgin Marbles (section)

===Rationale for remaining in London===
A range of arguments has been presented by scholars, British political leaders and the British Museum for the retention of the Elgin Marbles in London.<ref name="newsweek stones22"/> These include the following:

* Elgin acquired the marbles legally and no court of law would find in favour of a Greek complainant.<ref>Jenkins (2016). p 99</ref><ref>Herman (2023), chapter 3.</ref>
* Elgin rescued the marbles from destruction and those in the British Museum are in better condition than those left behind. The British Museum has a right to retain and publicly display what it preserved from destruction.<ref name="guardian faq2">{{cite news |last=King |first=Dorothy |date=21 July 2004 |title=Elgin Marbles: fact or fiction? |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2004/jul/21/highereducation.parthenon |access-date=25 June 2009}}</ref>
* Bringing the Parthenon sculptures together as a unified whole is impossible as half had been lost or destroyed by 1800.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Parthenon Sculptures, the Trustees' statement |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/contested-objects-collection/parthenon-sculptures/parthenon |access-date=9 January 2023 |website=The British Museum}}</ref>
* The British Museum display allows the marbles to be better viewed in the context of other major ancient cultures and thus complements the perspective provided by the Acropolis Museum collection.<ref name=":233"/>
* Fulfilling all restitution claims would empty most of the world's great museums{{snd}}this has also caused concerns among other European and American museums, with one potential target being the [[Nefertiti Bust]] in Berlin's [[Neues Museum]]; in addition, portions of Parthenon marbles are kept by many other European museums.<ref name="guardian faq2" />
* The British Museum receives about 6 million visitors per year as opposed to 1.5 million visitors to the Acropolis Museum. The removal of the marbles to Greece would significantly reduce the number of people who have the opportunity to visit the marbles.<ref>{{cite news |last=Trend |first=Nick |date=5 June 2018 |title=Why returning the Elgin Marbles would be madness |website=The Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/comment/why-returning-the-elgin-marbles-would-be-madness/ |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |access-date=25 December 2018 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/comment/why-returning-the-elgin-marbles-would-be-madness/ |archive-date=12 January 2022}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
* The Elgin Marbles have been on public display in England since 1807<ref name="Jenkins 2016. p. 102"/> and in that time have become a part of the British cultural heritage.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Merryman paper |url=https://law.wustl.edu/harris/Conferences/imperialism/Merryman_PAPER_FINALelgin2.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422040718/https://law.wustl.edu/harris/Conferences/imperialism/Merryman_PAPER_FINALelgin2.pdf |archive-date=22 April 2018 |access-date=20 August 2018}}</ref>