Jun 28th, 2009 · The Parthenon is a national symbol in Greece, but many of the marble sculptures that adorned the temple are in London. The British Museum houses the ancient relics, famously called the Elgin Marbles, claiming it's better equipped to care for them. But now, the Greek government has built a state of the art museum — at a price tag of $200 million — and it wants those sculptures back.
Jun 18th, 2009 · More than 200 years after a British diplomat arranged to have large sculptures from the Parthenon shipped to Britain, author Christopher Hitchens says the objects should now be returned. A new state-of-the-art museum in Athens wants them, but officials at the British Museum plan to hold on to one of their most famous collections.
Dec 5th, 2008 · A piece of the Parthenon has come home. During theWorld War Two occupation of Greece, an Austrian soldier took a marble fragment from a frieze in the ancient temple above Athens. His granddaughter, who inherited the stolen treasure, returned it this week. Greece is fighting to get back more of the Parthenon — the Elgin Marbles — from the British Museum. Still, it welcomed this small piece as a symbolic return.
Oct 20th, 2007 · A man hopped over a security barrier in the British Museum this week and tied surgical masks on the faces of two of China's ancient terra-cotta warriors. The man was protesting against China's pollution problems.
Feb 4th, 2005 · An unfinished piano concerto by the 18-year-old Beethoven was found in the British Museum last year. Reconstructed by Dutch musicologist Cees Nieuwenhuizen, the work premiered Feb. 1 in Rotterdam.
Sep 5th, 2004 · There's a new biography of Mary Nesbit, whose divorce from Lord Elgin contributed to the current fate of the Elgin Marbles. The sculptures were taken from the Parthenon in the early 19th century. Greece seeks their return, but they remain in the British Museum. Hear biographer Susan Nagel and NPR's Jennifer Ludden.