[MSN] A retired Swedish gym teacher is the toast of Greece after returning a piece of sculpted marble taken from the Acropolis more than a century ago.

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Swede gives back Acropolis marble 
By Malcolm Brabant 
BBC News, Athens  



A retired Swedish gym teacher is the toast of Greece after returning a piece
of sculpted marble taken from the Acropolis more than a century ago. 
Birgit Wiger-Angner's family held the marble for 110 years, but she decided
to return it to Athens after hearing about Greece's Elgin marbles campaign. 

The small fragment comes from the Acropolis's Erechtheion temple. 

The move has boosted the international campaign to persuade the British
Museum to return the Elgin marbles to Athens. 

London's reluctance 

It is only a small decorative piece of marble but it is highly symbolic. 

The fragment comes from the frieze of the Erechtheion, one of the ancient
buildings on top of the rock called the Acropolis. 


Surrounded by the original Parthenon marbles in the Acropolis Museum, Mrs
Wiger-Angner called on the British Museum in London to restore to Greece the
missing sculptures from this priceless collection. 

"I think that all people in the British Museum should also bring back all
the originals. They can make copies belonging to themselves," she said. 

This is the second piece of the Acropolis jigsaw to be returned in the past
two months. 

In September, Heidelberg University handed back a marble heel from the
Acropolis' Parthenon. 

Campaigners argue that tourists would much rather see the marbles in the
original location than in London. 

"I think it is really just a moral obligation to add and share in the
reunification of the Parthenon marbles which is a world monument," said
Eleni Korka, director of classical antiquities at the Greek ministry of
culture. 

But the British Museum is resisting growing international pressure to return
the sculptures prised from the ancient Greek temple by Lord Elgin. 

It insists that the sculptures were legally obtained from the authority
governing Greece when Lord Elgin supposedly saved the sculpted tablets for
Queen Victoria and a grateful nation. 

It does not seem troubled by the fact that the nationality of that authority
was Turkish, because until the mid-19th century, Greece was occupied by the
hated Ottoman empire. 

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6138214.stm

Published: 2006/11/10 22:50:32 GMT