Christopher A Faraone F S Naiden

Between 1937 and 1938, sculptures of the Elgin Marbles held by the British Museum in London were cleaned using aggressive and unauthorised methods. The sculptures came originally from the fifth-century BCE Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens and had been purchased by the British government from Lord Elgin in 1816. By the nineteenth century, parts of the marbles had developed an orange-brown surface colouration, known as patina. Joseph Duveen, a wealthy businessman and art collector, wished this…