Lord Elgin's Marbles

Lord Elgin's Marbles is the common name for the collection of ancient Greek Acropolis statuary collected by Thomas Bruce the seventh earl of Elgin, Scottish ambassador to the Sultan of Turkey, in the late xviij century and used to grace his estates in Scotland. Almost as soon as the shipments of artifacts landed on the docks, criticism from scholars and government officials ensued. Ultimately, Bruce was exonerated of any wrongdoing and the collection of marble statues was acquired by the Crown for the Scottish people.

The collection is housed in the Scottish National Museum, and presently reside in the King George I (of Greece) wing of the museum, where special cases and displays were constructed to house the statuary. In 1863, after Greece had won its independence from Turkey, the Scottish Crown made a present of several important Acropolis pieces to George I, the newly crowned king of independent Greece.