According to experts, Lord Elgin stole the Parthenon Sculptures from Athens without the Sultan’s permission, which defies the British Museum’s claim that there was an Ottoman permit that allowed the sculptures to be taken.
According to the British Museum, Elgin removed the Parthenon Sculptures with permission from the Sultan, however this document is not saved, and what the Museum has in its archives, is a later translation into Italian, of a friendly letter from Kaimakam Pasha, authorizing Elgin to take casts of the sculptures but did not authorize him to cause any damages to the monument, says the Honorary General Director of Antiquities, Eleni Korka.
Ms. Korka also stressed the fact that the letter was not by the Sultan himself but by Kaimakam Pasha, who was in Constantinople at the time, replacing the Grand Vizier, and is not an official Ottoman document.
The British have long argued that they have other documents besides this, however, Iranian researcher Shariat Panahi, one of the few historians who can read Ottoman Turkish has researched all official documents of the Ottoman Empire and underlines that there is no firman for the transfer of the sculptures.
*Source: archaeologynewsnetwork
Director of British Museum says Parthenon Sculptures do not belong to Greece
