Professor Elizabeth Rankin – Lord Elgin & The Marbles
Professor Elizabeth Rankin – Lord Elgin & The Marbles
Professor Elizabeth Rankin – Lord Elgin & The Marbles

Professor Elizabeth Rankin – Lord Elgin & The Marbles

Date: Sunday, August 29, 2010

Time: 2pm

Price: Free with admission

Professor Elizabeth Rankin considers the Parthenon and its sculptures, exploring how the marble works came to be in the British Museum, and whose legacy they are.

Lecture. It has long been disputed whether Britain has a legal right to the classical sculptures removed in the early 19th century from the Parthenon, Athens, by Lord Elgin. At a time when significant artworks are being repatriated world-wide, the recent building of a new Acropolis Museum, with spaces left for the display of these works, pressure has increased on the British Museum to return the sculptures to their ‘rightful owners’. Elizabeth Rankin, Professor of Art History at The University of Auckland will consider the Parthenon and its sculptures from Athens’ Golden Age, and the subsequent history of the temple. In exploring how the works came to be in the British Museum, London, she will try to answer the question: whose legacy are they?

Images:
A horse from the chariot of Selene
Lord Elgin c. 1795. Drawing by G P Harding after Anton Graff
A centaur and a Lapith in combat