Case for Parthenon Marbles’ return boosted

Drawing on data gleaned from 19th century Ottoman archives, Acropolis Museum director Dimitrios Pandermalis has challenged claims by the British Museum that Lord Elgin had obtained permission from the sultan when Greece was under Turkish rule to transfer the Parthenon Marbles from Athens to London.
"There was no firman - meaning a sultan's decree - for the removal and transfer of the sculptures by Lord Elgin," Pandermalis said in an address Monday to an international workshop titled "Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures" - co-organized by the Greek Presidency, the Culture Ministry, the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures and the Acropolis Museum.
More specifically, he said that an examination of the Ottoman archives between 1800 and 1830 by two Turkish experts revealed that Elgin was only granted permission to dig around the...