Theodore Vrettos - The Elgin Affair: The True Story of the Greatest Theft in History

Copyright 1997, 2011 by Theodore Vrettos

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-61145-315-7

Printed in the United States of America

T HE LONG, COMPLEX, AND BYZANTINE STORY of the Elgin Marbles has fascinated and preoccupied me for many years. Among my friends and fellow writers, there are those who would say that the proper term is obsessed.

Almost twenty-five years ago I published a book entitled A Shadow of Magnitude, in which I described Lord Elgins grand adventure, based on the best research then available. Later, I wrote a novel entitled Lord Elgins Lady, which was based on the same story, but told this time from the viewpoint of his Scottish bride, Mary Nisbet, whom Elgin married in 1799 when Mary was only twenty-one.

Two reasons compelled me to take up the elements of the early books and retell the story: For one thing, the issue of the ownership of the marbles, which are arguably among the most precious and stunning sculptures of ancient Greece, once again came to the fore. Increasingly, various voices not only from Greece but from around the world were calling for the return of the marbles to their original home. So great was the outcry that thirty-three British MPs introduced into the House of Commons at their political risk and peril, it must be said a draft resolution urging the British government to take that heroic step, citing a recent television poll that showed 92.5 percent of the 100,000 viewers polled in favor of the move. The Greek authorities for their part were threatening to take the case to the international court. Thus by the mid-1990s, the Elgin Marbles had become a burning moral issue of international interest.

My second and more important reason was that considerable additional material has come to light over the past two and a half decades, which offers important new insights about Lord Elgins picaresque adventure and needed absolutely to be incorporated into the story, both for accuracy and currency. Further, the earlier book on the subject was embarrassingly filled with misspellings, typographical errors even missing pages and I have long felt the need to correct it. Thus, though The Elgin Affair follows roughly the same structure as A Shadow of Magnitude, the new book, which contains at least thirty-five percent new material, completely supersedes it.

T HEODORE V RETTOS
J ULY 1997

T AM GRATEFUL TO THE STAFF of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum; also to the trustees of the British Museum for permission to reproduce their photographs. I am equally indebted to the trustees and the librarians of the National Library of Scotland for their patient help in tracking down elusive documents, particularly the court records on the adultery trial against Lady Elgin and Robert Fergusson in Edinburgh. I owe additional thanks to the staff of the Scottish Records Office in Edinburgh.

I wish to thank John Murray (Publishers) Ltd., London, for permission to quote from The Letters of Mary Nisbet, Countess of Elgin, and Oxford University Press, for permission to quote from Lord Elgin and the Marbles, by William St. Clair.

I received much help from the Gennadios Library in Athens, the Library of Lambeth Palace in London, and Widener Library at Harvard University. Dr. David Mitten of Harvards Fogg Art Museum was especially cooperative, as were the staffs of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Greater London Council, the National Archaeological Museum at Athens, and the Archeological Museum at Olympia.

I am deeply grateful to Richard Seaver, president and publisher of Arcade Publishing, for his astute editorial counsel and support; also to Katherine Balch, Timothy Bent, and Calvert Barksdale.

Further gratitude is owed to Dr. Michael L. Dertouzos and his staff at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, chiefly Mark Pear-row and Kyle Pope. Barbara Harrison offered generous and gracious assistance, as did Jeff Snyder and Olga Pelensky.

Above all, my greatest debt of gratitude is to my wife, Vas, whose invaluable labor and love provided the necessary encouragement to complete the task.

N APOLEON B ONAPARTE (17691821), emperor of France

T HOMAS B RUCE, seventh earl of Elgin and eleventh of Kincardine, (17661841), British diplomat, art collector, and ambassador to Turkey under King George III

G EORGE G ORDON B YRON (17881824), English romantic poet

J OSEPH D ACRE C ARLYLE (17601804), professor of Arabic at Cambridge and classical scholar attached to Lord Elgins embassy

V ICOMTE F RANCOIS -A UGUST -R EN DE C HATEAUBRIAND (17681848), diplomat, traveler, and author, one of the first romantic writers in France

C OMTE DE C HOISEUL -G OUFFIER , French collector and antiquarian

E DWARD D ANIEL C LARKE (17691822), English mineralogist, traveler, and writer

G EORGE C RUIKSHANK (17921878), English artist, caricaturist, and illustrator

R OBERT F ERGUSSON OF R AITH, S COTLAND (17771846), second husband of Lady Elgin and subject of the scandalous trial for adultery.

J OHN F LAXMAN (17551826), English sculptor and draftsman

J OHN G ALT (17791839), Scottish novelist and traveler

K ING G EORGE III (17381820), king of Great Britain and Ireland

W ILLIAM W YNDHAM G RENVILLE (17591834), British foreign secretary under King George III

L ADY E MMA H AMILTON (17651815), wife of Sir William Hamilton and famous as the mistress of Lord Nelson

S IR W ILLIAM H AMILTON (17301803), British diplomat, archaeologist, and notable collector

W ILLIAM R ICHARD H AMILTON (17771859), Lord Elgins first private secretary; studied at Oxford and Cambridge

T HOMAS H ARDY (18401928), English novelist and poet

B ENJAMIN R OBERT H AYDON (17861846), English historical painter and writer

J OHN C AM H OBHOUSE (17861869), close friend of Lord Byron, and fellow traveler

R EV. P HILIP H UNT (17711867), chaplain of Lord Elgins embassy in Constantinople

J OHN K EATS (17951821), one of Englands greatest poets

R ICHARD P AYNE K NIGHT (17501824), English patron of the arts and writer