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Thanks for these, they're informative and interesting. As to the Parthenon marbles, yeah, I agree with you. It would be good to see an Imperial theft redressed

Thanks for these, they're informative and interesting. As to the Parthenon marbles, yeah, I agree with you. It would be good to see an Imperial theft redressed. Even a couple of centuries after Elgin did his deed, it matters.

sebkomianos 11y ago
I wonder why my comment is getting downvoted though. :/
- jcr 11y ago
  Don't be surprised if your comment about down-voting also gets down-voted. It's against the HN site guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html >"Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading." As for the the cause of the down-votes, it's most likely the snarky part, "Really, British Museum?!" It was unnecessary to make your case. On the bright side, the links were interesting and appreciated. Thanks.
  - chinpokomon 11y ago
    Your comment about downvoting comments about comments about downvoting, has been downvoted.
  - sebkomianos 11y ago
    In the risk of getting downvoted again, I must say this fierce rally to blindly remove any "non-neutral" way of expression from the web (and the whole world) is plain stupid.
wtbob 11y ago
> It would be good to see an Imperial theft redressed. It wasn't a theft, but a duly-authorised removal. What's more, had the Earl of Elgin not removed them, they might have bee destroyed along with so much else a few years later during the Greek Revolution.
- wavefunction 11y ago
  They might have prevented the Greek Revolution. I think what actually happened is more important, which is that Elgin received a controversial OK to remove the marble from the Ottoman Turks who have a certain questionable history with the Greek people. But however you want to spin it I guess.
  - eru 11y ago
    The Ottoman's approved removal of artifacts from their Anatolia, too. (Eg for Schliemann in Troy.) They didn't just want to spite the Greek.
- mjn 11y ago
  We have some pretty good differential evidence suggesting that they would not have been destroyed in the Greek Revolution, if that's the specific threat you're worried about. Elgin did not remove all the marbles, but only a portion, so we can easily see what happened to the ones left behind. He removed 1 of the 6 caryatids from the Erechtheion, for example; the 5 that remained in Greece are still extant. In addition, he removed about 80 meters of the Parthenon frieze; the 50 meters that were left are also still extant. These are all in the Acropolis Museum today. Oddly neither WW2 nor the Greek Civil War caused any significant damage either. The main damage that has taken place is post-WW2 due to the rise of car-driven air pollution, especially acid rain. To protect them, the remaining 5 caryatids were moved indoors in 1979 (replaced by replicas), and the last 20-meter segment of frieze remaining on the Parthenon was moved indoors in 1993. These would probably have been in better condition if they had been removed earlier.

sebkomianos 11y ago

I wonder why my comment is getting downvoted though. :/

jcr 11y ago
Don't be surprised if your comment about down-voting also gets down-voted. It's against the HN site guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html >"Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading." As for the the cause of the down-votes, it's most likely the snarky part, "Really, British Museum?!" It was unnecessary to make your case. On the bright side, the links were interesting and appreciated. Thanks.
- chinpokomon 11y ago
  Your comment about downvoting comments about comments about downvoting, has been downvoted.
- sebkomianos 11y ago
  In the risk of getting downvoted again, I must say this fierce rally to blindly remove any "non-neutral" way of expression from the web (and the whole world) is plain stupid.

wtbob 11y ago

> It would be good to see an Imperial theft redressed. It wasn't a theft, but a duly-authorised removal. What's more, had the Earl of Elgin not removed them, they might have bee destroyed along with so much else a few years later during the Greek Revolution.

wavefunction 11y ago
They might have prevented the Greek Revolution. I think what actually happened is more important, which is that Elgin received a controversial OK to remove the marble from the Ottoman Turks who have a certain questionable history with the Greek people. But however you want to spin it I guess.
- eru 11y ago
  The Ottoman's approved removal of artifacts from their Anatolia, too. (Eg for Schliemann in Troy.) They didn't just want to spite the Greek.
mjn 11y ago
We have some pretty good differential evidence suggesting that they would not have been destroyed in the Greek Revolution, if that's the specific threat you're worried about. Elgin did not remove all the marbles, but only a portion, so we can easily see what happened to the ones left behind. He removed 1 of the 6 caryatids from the Erechtheion, for example; the 5 that remained in Greece are still extant. In addition, he removed about 80 meters of the Parthenon frieze; the 50 meters that were left are also still extant. These are all in the Acropolis Museum today. Oddly neither WW2 nor the Greek Civil War caused any significant damage either. The main damage that has taken place is post-WW2 due to the rise of car-driven air pollution, especially acid rain. To protect them, the remaining 5 caryatids were moved indoors in 1979 (replaced by replicas), and the last 20-meter segment of frieze remaining on the Parthenon was moved indoors in 1993. These would probably have been in better condition if they had been removed earlier.