Elgin descendant says Parthenon Sculptures were Sultan's gift, not stolen
- Written by E.Tsiliopoulos
The oft repeated argument that the Parthenon Sculptures were not stolen, but were the gift of Sultan Selim III, to British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, was reiterated by the descendant of Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin.
Lord Charles Bruce even claims that his ancestor had given in exchange to the Ottoman sultan ... a chandelier and a smallpox vaccine.
Elgin's 57-year-old son Elgin in an interview told The Times: ‘The marbles were a diplomatic gift. It’s a part of the story not clearly understood.
‘The British had cemented a military alliance with the Turks, and there was a personal friendship between Elgin and the sultan.
They exchanged gifts, and there’s a beautiful chandelier from Elgin which still hangs in the Topkapi Palace [in Istanbul] in a room where Lady Elgin taught the sultan’s family to dance the eightsome reel.
‘We also gave them the smallpox vaccine, which prevented an outbreak in Smyrna [now Izmir in Turkey], and later went on to Baghdad and Bombay, and was used to inoculate a million Indians.’
Lord Bruce also said that Sultan Selim III had given Lord Elgin an area of about 16 acres in Constantinople as well as £ 10,000 for the erection of the British embassy building.
