An Elgin Marble replica – carved from the same material used on the originals 2,500 years ago – has gone on display in London for the first time.
The 3D replica’s creation reopens the conversation on a long-running dispute between the UK and Greece.
The Marbles – a set of sculptures that decorated the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple at the Acropolis in Greece – were taken by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century when he was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
The pieces – also known as the Parthenon Marbles – are currently located in the British Museum, despite Athens repeatedly requesting for the UK to relinquish them.
In a bid to find a new way to settle the dispute, the Oxford-based Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA) used 3D cameras and a giant robot to carve a horse’s head into marble provided by Greece, thus creating a near-exact replica of one of the Marbles.
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