The Parthenon Marbles were taken from Athens illegally. Lord Elgin obtained a "firman" (document) from the Sultan in Constantinople that gave him permission to take plaster casts of the friezes.

He went to Athens, showed the local authorities and insisted that it meant he could take the entire thing. He then proceeded to use untrained local labour to crowbar the friezes off the Parthenon.

He loaded them onto two boats, bound for London. One of the boats sank off the coast of Italy.

London was originally not interested and so he kept them in his "back yard" at his stately home in Scotland. Eventually, the British Museum agreed to buy them (fence). In the 1930s they found that everything was badly damaged from being left outside in Scottish weather. So they used untrained labour to clean them.

They then found this "strange pink tint" and used untrained labour once more to get the tint off using scouring pads and caustic soda!

It turns out the pink tint was remnants from the original paint from 2000 years earlier.

This story blows the theory that the BM "protected" (and continues to "protect") Greece's heritage clean out of the water. One can only imagine what they have done with the treasures from other civilisations.