John Cam Hobhouse (1786–1869) delivers one of the most telling British accounts of the intense debate triggered by Lord Elgin’s archaeological expedition in Greece and the removal of major architectural sculptures from the Parthenon and other ancient monuments of the Athenian Acropolis. Against the background of the raging Napoleonic wars, Hobhouse treats the removed assets as an object of dispute between the French and the British imperial powers, while denying local inhabitants any claim to them or any understanding of their historical and aesthetic value.

commented by Eleonora Vratskidou

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