The book follows the marbles through iconoclastic Christian vandalism, Venetian bombardment, and Ottoman neglect.
Lewis McNaught:
His achievements The Parthenon Marbles Dispute lie in contextualising the different elements of the dispute and probing possible areas for a resolution.
This book is about the conditions that existed at the time of their removal and the legal status of the Marbles in today’s legal environment. This removes attention from one of the debate’s biggest distractions: Lord Elgin, ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, who wasn’t even in Athens when the sculptures were hacked off the temple walls or collected from the huge amount of rubble that surrounded the temple site.
In case there’s any doubt, the chapter title, A Firman By Any Other Name, makes it clear where Herman stands on the issue whether Elgin’s agents had the legal authority to remove the Marbles, or whether they were, as many still contend, looted or removed unlawfully.
Although no official licence to remove the stones, signed by the Grand Vizier, has ever been recovered (called a firman), Herman believes there’s no reason to dispute the legality of the permission Elgin’s men did receive.
They must have acted on an order issued by the Ottoman Court (a buyurulda), an order that carried sufficient authority it had to be obeyed. They would have acted differently had it meant anything less.
