Parthenon Marbles facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Parthenon Marbles Elgin Marbles
Artist	Phidias
Year	c. 447–438 BCE
Type	Marble
Dimensions	75 m (246 ft)
Location	British Museum, London

The Parthenon Marbles, sometimes called the Elgin Marbles, are a series of ancient Greek sculptures made from marble. They were originally part of the Parthenon temple in Athens but they were taken by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin in the early 1800s.

Many people, including the Greek government, have argued that Elgin stole the marbles and did not take them legally. They are on display in the British Museum. The Greek government asked to have them back many times. In 2014 UNESCO offered to mediate but the museum declined.

Images for kids

• 

  Parthenon Selene Horse

• 

  Statuary from the east pediment

• 

  Western frieze, II, 2

• 

  A portrait depicting the Parthenon Marbles in a temporary Elgin Room at the British Museum surrounded by museum staff, a trustee and visitors, 1819

• 

  East Pediment

• 

  Tools used to clean the marbles in 1937–38.

• 

  Section of a frieze from the Parthenon Marbles

• 

  The Parthenon. The treatment of the first drum filling from the fifth column of the south colonnade (1993).

• 

  The Parthenon. Shaping a column-capital filling from the pronaos with the use of a pointing device (2001)

• 

  Sculpture of Dionysus from the Parthenon's East Pediment