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Message:: [QUOTE="DonnaML, post: 8057248, member: 110350"]The fundamental point that you're eliding is that your "I" comprises two very distinct actors: the "I" who gave permission to mutilate the Parthenon by hacking pieces off was the Ottomans, who couldn't have cared less about ancient Greek monuments; the "I" who wants it back, and long has, is an independent Greece.  Of course the British acquired the marbles "legally" -- they were always happy to recognize the Ottoman conquests when convenient -- and nobody's arguing that Greece could win a lawsuit compelling the marbles' return. Rather, it's a moral and ethical issue, both as concerns whether the Ottomans' permission should still bind the Greeks, and whether Britain should continue to rely on that permission now, given that the practical excuses made in the past for keeping the marbles have largely gone out the window. If the Nazis had conquered the USA and given permission to some third country to hack off the head of the Statue of Liberty and take it away, and 100 years later the US regained independence and demanded the head back, I suspect that most Americans wouldn't accept as a valid excuse that the head was taken legally.[/QUOTE]