Why Is There One Caryatid at the British Museum and Five in Athens?

The caryatid in the British Museum once had five sisters, with whom she stood for centuries. Today, she stands alone in the corner of a room at the British Museum while her sisters wait for her at the Acropolis Museum. The caryatid was one of many treasures taken by Lord Elgin, a British diplomat, after he received permission from Greece’s oppressive Ottoman rulers, with whom the Greeks fought for freedom.

In Greece, local authorities told Lord Elgin he could take what would not harm the integrity of the structures. He hacked them off of the sides of the buildings. When Greece won its independence, they requested the objects back, but the British Museum says their ownership of the objects is legal and continually refuses repatriation. Their website explains it would harm the integrity of their worldwide collection.

The Acropolis in Athens is one of Greece’s most important cultural landmarks. Its story never stops, reminding us that it is our responsibility as members of the human species to ensure the continuation of cultural heritage across the world for future generations to experience the human experience of connection, art, and belonging. With that goal of preservation in mind, it brings into question the many cultural objects from across the world—Greece, Benin, Egypt, and elsewhere—that have ended up at Western institutions. It also questions the ethics behind the refusals to return those cultural artifacts to their cultures or regions of origin.

Currently, the Erechtheion, a temple that faces the Parthenon at the Acropolis, sports replicas of the caryatids, as the original sculptures were brought into the new Acropolis Museum in Athens. The caryatids are all unique in subtle ways. However, they are majorly similar in appearance, likely from the designer hoping to bring a sense of uniformity to the overall composition of the Erechtheion.

What Exactly Are The Caryatids?

The caryatids show beautiful young women, sculpted to be columns so that they could serve a functional and visual purpose. They are situated to gaze out at the Parthenon, illusionistically draped in fine garments that fall loosely in elegant folds. Their hair is braided into elaborate styles that center down the middle of their backs. They are the ideal Greek beauties of the 5th century BCE. The caryatids were the product of a popular technique used since the Archaic period in Greece, in which columns were turned into young women for visual interest. These, including the caryatids on the Erechtheion, would have been called korai (girls). Instead, the word caryatid was adopted after Vitruvius used it to describe them in the first century BCE.

In the early 5th century BCE, Athens was attacked by the Persians who focused heavily on the city’s citadel—the Acropolis. It was destroyed, and the city of Athens celebrated its success in the war against the Persians by rebuilding the Acropolis to be even bigger and more impressive than it was before. Pericles, a prominent Athenian politician, was in charge of the project and took a personal interest in its completion. However, he would not live to see it finished.

He ordered the local architects Callicrates and Ictinus, and the local sculptor, Phidias, to complete the structures, including nearly all of the structures that are still at the Acropolis today. The Erechtheion, where the caryatids were situated, was not built until eight years after Pericles’ death by an architect named Mnesikles. It replaced the temple of Athena Polias, which had been ruined in the war. It was named for the Athenian king, Erechtheus, who frequented the temple and had various ancestral shrines situated in the western chamber of the temple alongside the shrine to Poseidon. The eastern chamber of the temple housed a shrine to Athena.

Mnesikles had a special task when he was asked to design the Erechtheion, as it would house multiple cults and he needed to find a reasonable way to create space for all of them. To make it more difficult, the ground the building needed to rest on was incredibly rocky and uneven, and the temple needed to tell a message in its construction style. The message needed to be centered around Athena and Poseidon’s contest for control over Athens, in which Athena came out victorious. The citizens were given a choice between the two gods as their city patrons based on what the god could offer the city. Poseidon provided a spring of salt water, and Athena provided an olive tree. The Athenians voted Athena to be the patron goddess of the city.

The temple’s exterior is decorated with frieze sculptures depicting various scenes from ancient Greek mythology. On the northern side of the temple is a covered porch held up by ionic columns. There are large cracks in the floor that legends say were caused by Poseidon when he used his trident to open a saltwater spring in the Earth. On the other side of the temple is the porch with the caryatids, designed and sculpted by Alcamenes.

The original caryatids were removed from the Erechtheion in 1979 so they were not exposed to increasing air pollution. They were brought into the old Acropolis Museum in Athens. However, when they brought them inside, they only brought five because the sixth caryatid was already located at the British Museum. But how did it get there?

Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, more often known as Lord Elgin, was the British diplomat in Constantinople from 1799-1803. At this point, Greece was under the oppressive control of the Ottoman Empire. Using his diplomatic connections in Turkey, Elgin secured permission from the government to remove cultural artifacts from classical antiquity in Greece under the pretense that he was concerned for the safety of the objects amidst the Greek struggle for independence. Local authorities reluctantly permitted Elgin to remove objects from the structures on the Acropolis so long as they did not change the integrity of the building.

Taking this as full permission to take anything he wanted, Elgin exceeded the authorized limits, even chipping marbles directly off the facade of the building. He then sent his looted possessions home to Britain. Some items were transported via government vessels, though Elgin also personally funded some of the shipments, due to his personal interest in classical antiquity.

The Ottomans had a reputation amongst the Greeks for destroying ancient Greek heritage. The Greeks were under Ottoman rule for roughly 400 years and resisted most of that time. In 1687, an explosion of Turkish gunpowder devastated the Parthenon, causing irreparable damage to the structure of the building. The Greeks gained their independence in 1822, less than a decade after Elgin had overstepped permissions and taken the Greek artifacts under the approval of their oppressors.

When Elgin returned to Britain, many people were already critical of his decision to bring so many cultural artifacts back from Greece, especially since they were given to him by an oppressive force controlling the culture those items came from. The collection that Elgin had brought back included a large number of the best sculptures from the Acropolis, sculptural remains from the pediments of the buildings, more than half of the frieze slabs, fourteen metopes with relief sculptures that were very well preserved compared to the ones left behind, various fragments of architectural structures, and other artifacts such as pottery.

Many of his critics, including the famous Lord Byron, called him a vandal for taking such precious objects. The manner in which he took the treasures from the Acropolis was also criticized. He hacked or sawed them off, sometimes in pieces, to reassemble at a later date, causing damage to the artifacts and the structures from which they came.

Despite the scandal surrounding Elgin and the artifacts he brought back from his diplomatic journeys, the British government decided to acquire artifacts from his collection, including the caryatid, and exhibit them at the British Museum with the goal of creating a global collection. The true goal was likely rooted in supremacy, due to the colonial and imperial mindset in Britain at the time. They aimed to show their imperial success and power throughout the world by claiming other cultures’ heritage in an attempt at dehumanization and, subsequently, dominance on the world stage. By purchasing Elgin’s collection, the British government indirectly approved what had occurred and legitimized his actions.

The Greek government requested a return of the artifacts in 1835, 1890, and 1983. The British Museum rejected all of these requests. One argument for the British Museum to keep artifacts belonging to other cultures is that there is often a lack of institutions with advanced enough capabilities to care for the artifacts properly. In an attempt to prevent this from coming up, the new Acropolis Museum was built and opened in 2009. The original caryatids from the 5th century BCE were placed on display, with one spot empty as the five korai wait for their sister, who remains across the continent in London. This was done purposefully in response to the British Museum’s refusals to return the caryatid to its home of origin upon the request of the now-independent Greek government and its people.

In a time when decolonization is becoming increasingly valued globally, even within the oppressing countries, the British Museum has tread carefully in its actions surrounding repatriation. The British Museum states on its website that the marbles, including the caryatid, taken by Elgin, were obtained legally due to permission being granted by the ruling government in Athens at the time, despite their harsh rulership over the culture to whom the artifacts belonged. It does not mention the oppression the Greeks endured during Ottoman rule, nor does it mention Elgin’s overstepping of permissions when he was told by local Greek officials to only take what would not harm the structures or their historical integrity. Not only did he take much more than he was supposed to, but he also caused damage to the buildings while trying to get his spoils.

Shortly after Elgin’s theft, when the Greeks won their independence, they asked for the marbles back. However, because their previous oppressors had authority over their cultural artifacts when Elgin took them, there were no legal grounds for Greece to stand on in their request for the return of their heritage. This is why the British Museum had the power to deny their request.

Today, the British Museum claims that Trustees have decided not to return the items because they offer the people of the United Kingdom a richer global collection, which is their overall goal for the institution. They claim that to return the items would put the integrity of the museum’s worldwide collection at risk. They also remind foreign governments that the British Museum is open to loaning cultural objects back to their countries of origin under standard loan agreements. This has been treated like an insult by some museum professionals, and the Greek government will not sign an agreement stating that the artifacts need to be legally returned to the British Museum if offered out on loan.

Due to the Greek government’s unwillingness to accept that their cultural artifacts are not Britain’s, despite never giving their permission for Elgin to take them, the British Museum says that all future negotiations are impossible, indicating their strong stance on the continued British Museum ownership of the caryatid and other Greek treasures. The Acropolis Museum’s display of the original caryatids will therefore continue to have an empty spot until the return of their cultural artifact.