Letter by Philip Hunt describing the removal of sculptures from
the Parthenon temple
AD 1801
Athens, Greece
This document is a copy made by the Reverend
Philip Hunt of a letter he wrote to his patron, the Earl of Upper
Ossory of Ampthill Park, in August 1801. Hunt was then chaplain at
the British embassy in Constantinople (now Istanbul), capital of
the Ottoman Empire, which at the time, and for most of the previous
350 years, ruled Greece.
In his letter he describes the situation in
Athens when he arrived with the Ottoman official who
carried the firman (letter of permission) issued to the
British Ambassador, Lord Elgin, granting permission to remove ‘any
pieces of stone with inscriptions, and figures’ from the Acropolis.
He notes the difficulties in getting access to the Acropolis and
laments the damage being done to the sculptures of the Parthenon.
He describes how Lord Elgin’s firman secured access and how he was
able to remove two of the metope sculptures from the temple. He
ends with a description of the places in Greece he visited and
outlines his forthcoming tour of the Peloponnese.
In 1799, at the age of 27, Philip Hunt was
appointed chaplain to Lord Elgin’s embassy in Constantinople. He
was an energetic and highly intelligent man and, as well as the
usual duties of a personal chaplain, he became involved in
diplomatic affairs and the purpose of his second trip to Greece was
specifically to gather intelligence on the country’s readiness to
meet an expected French attack and to foster goodwill. This mission
was very important for both the Ottoman authorities and for the
British Foreign Office.
While in Athens, it was Hunt’s decision to begin the removal of
sculptures from the Parthenon. He seems to have been motivated by
the destruction of the ancient material. In his report of 31
July to Lord Elgin he sets out the bleak choice: ‘It would be well,
my Lord, to ask for all that is left, or else to do all that is
possible to prevent their going on in this fashion’. Hunt was not
in a position to prevent the destruction and so he began the
removals.