The strange journey of the Parthenon Marbles to the British Museum

With origins in the 5th century BCE, the Parthenon Marbles are a collection of architectural sculptures that were built into the temple of Athena, also known as the Parthenon – a masterpiece of classical Greek architecture and an enduring symbol of ancient Greece. In this video essay, Evan Puschak (aka the Nerdwriter) explains how, in the early 19th century, roughly half of the these sculptures, with some additional items from the Acropolis of Athens, came to be housed at the British Museum in London, where they’re still on display today, some 2,000 miles away from their original site. In his dive into the ongoing controversy over the Marbles, Puschak details the historical tides and vague legal language that led to the transfer of these priceless antiquities from Ottoman-controlled Greece to England. In doing so, he hints at the broader reckoning around artefacts, ethics and the legacy of colonialism facing museums around the world.