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Originally Posted by VANDOO
THERE ARE STILL BAD FEELINGS ABOUT THE CARVEINGS FROM THE ACROPOLIS IN ATHENS BEING IN LONDON. BUT AT THE TIME THEY WERE TAKEN IT PROBABLY SAVED THEM FROM BEING DESTROYED AS SOME HAD ALREADY BEEN DESTROYED BY THE OCCUPING ARMY FOR FUN AND BULIDING MATERIALS. PERHAPS THEY WILL BE RETURNED SOME DAY BUT IN THE MANY YEARS IN LONDON VAST NUMBERS OF PEOPLE HAVE SEEN AND ENJOYED THEM. SO SOME GOOD HAS COME OF IT AS THEY WERE SAVED AND PRESERVED AND DISPLAYED FOR THE WORLD TO COME AND SEE THEM.
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This is the explanation the British use for Acropolis marbles. The pieces they got are part of a bigger complex of statues. The parts they are still in Greece are in better condition that the parts in the British museum. His curators for a lot of years used to rub with iron brush the marbles because they wanted them white!
As for Acropolis and weapons, its major destruction happened in 1687, when Morozini, from Venice, shot it with his cannons during a siege.
During the Greek revolution of 1821 it happened something extraordinary. Acropolis was under a siege (once again) and the Turkish guard was breaking the columns to extract the lead of their connections. They wanted the lead to make bullets for their flintlocks. The Greeks gave them bullets to shot just to avoid the destruction.
Also there is a famous phrase from Makrigiannis, a greek general of the revolution: "For these marbles we fight". So please, dont bite any word the British Museum sells on this matter, they just afraid that after Greece a lot of other countries will ask back the treasures that the colonial thiefs got. In this case there are a lot of British who say that the marbles must return.