premise: The debate over the British Museums Parthenon sculptures, also called the Elgin Marbles, has run for nearly two centuries. Marble statues were removed with official permission from the ruins of the Parthenon in 1801 by Lord Elgin, the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. He sold these ancient Greek treasures to the British Museum in 1816, where they have been housed ever since. Today, five million visitors from around the world visit the sculptures, free of charge, at the British Museum. Since gaining independence in 1830, however, the Greek government has argued for their return to Athens. Historically, the Hellenic position centred on ownership, claiming that Lord Elgin bribed authorities to acquire the marbles illegally. The counterargument is that Lord Elgin saved these classical treasures from neglect. Greece no longer disputes the British Museums ownership, but states that the sculptures should be loaned to the New Acropolis Museum in Athens, where they would be reunited with other surviving sculptures and displayed in their proper geographic and cultural context. Despite public sympathy for the return of the Elgin marbles, the British Museum believes that the Parthenon marbles are part of shared world heritage and thus should be widely accessible. Furthermore, returning the Parthenon statues would set a precedent for returning other artefacts to their land of origin.
hypothesis: Prior to 1830, Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire.