Elgin Marbles

E and S are both Greek so many of our conversations are about Greece culture, history, politics. Apparently the British are not on the good side of the Greeks right now. Back in 1803 when Greece was under the control of the Turks a British duke, Sir Elgin, went to Athens and saw the Parthenon and realized the value and worth of the gorgeous ancient statues and wanted to take them back to the UK. The Turks didn't care whether or not Sir Elgin took the statues so they give him permission. Sir Elgin proceeded to send the statues back to London on three ships. One of the ships sank forever losing 1/3 of the statues. The remaining 2/3 are in the British Museum.
For the past 50-100 years Greece has been trying to get the statues back from London, claiming that they never really had authorization to take them in the first place and that their rightful place is in Greece. London has obiously said no for many reasons, one being that the pollution in Athens would completely destroy the statues if they were to go back to their original place.
Just this past weekend a huge state of the art gorgeous musuem was opened in Athens right next to the Parthenon and Greece is now demanding that the statues be returned so they can be in their rightful place.
The following link is a BBC report on the whole situation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_Wg_d1ZMaw