The Parthenon Marbles are widely acclaimed as the most magnificent and significant work of the Greek sculptor Phidias and his team of renown craftsmen, among them Agorakritos, Alkamenes and Kolotis. It is a group of many hundred sculptures, made of Pentelic marble between 446 and 432 BCE, that once adorned the walls, the entablatures and both the pediments of the Parthenon, on the Acropolis of Athens. The Acropolis rebuilding project was commissioned under the leadership of Pericles and approved by the Ecclesia (general assembly) of Athens. Thanks to Greek geographer Pausanias, we know that the eastern pediment of the Parthenon, adorning the main façade of the Parthenon, depicted the birth of goddess Athena, and the western - the one facing Propylaea - the entrance building of the Acropolis - the victory of Athena over Poseidon for the patronage of the City.  

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In 1801 Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and his agents, having obtained an official permission from the Sublime Porte, the central government of the Ottoman Empire that ruled Greece at the time, set up scaffolding to initially make moldings of the sculptures in plaster and gypsum. Then removed the majority of the surviving sculptures of the Parthenon and numerous sculptures and architectural components of other ancient buildings, including the Erechtheum, and shipped them to Britain.

Following a public debate in the British Parliament, the marbles were sold to the British government in 1816 and passed into the trusteeship of the British Museum.

The Parthenon Marbles are now on display at the Duveen Gallery of the British Museum.