The accession of the Townley Collection in 1805 made necessary the erection of a special building in the garden of the then existing Montague House, and also caused the creation of a separate Department under Taylor Combe, for the custody of the antiquities, which had been previously attached to the Library.
In 1814, the Phigaleian sculptures were purchased of the explorers[22] in a public auction at Zante, and the Museum thereby acquired its first series of sculptures from a Greek building. A fragment, which had been lost during the transportation of the marbles,[23] was presented by Mr. J. Spencer Stanhope in 1816.
Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of Elgin (1766-1841), whose collection was the next and greatest addition to the British Museum, had been appointed British Ambassador to the Porte in 1799. On his appointment, he resolved to make his time of office of service to the cause of art, and accordingly engaged a body of five architects, draughtsmen and formatori, under Lusieri, a Neapolitan portrait painter, to make casts, plans and drawings from the remains in Greece, and more particularly at Athens. While the work was in progress, Lord Elgin became aware of the rapid destruction that was taking place of the sculptures in Athens. The success of the British arms in Egypt having made the disposition of the Porte favourable to the British Ambassador, a firman was obtained which sanctioned the removal of the sculptures. The whole collection, formed by Lord Elgin's agents, was, after long negotiations, and an enquiry by a Select Committee of the House of Commons, purchased of Lord Elgin for £35,000 in 1816. It consists of sculptures and architectural fragments from the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, and other Athenian buildings; casts, which have now become of great value, from the Parthenon, the Theseion, and the Monument of Lysicrates; a considerable number of Greek reliefs, principally from Athens; fragments from Mycenae and elsewhere; drawings and plans.
The marbles and casts of the Parthenon acquired in the Elgin Collection, have since been supplemented, not only by casts of sculptures newly discovered at Athens, but also by the additions of fragments, removed from Athens by occasional travellers, and acquired for the Museum by donation or purchase. The gifts include a head of a Lapith,[24] from the Duke of Devonshire, and pieces of the frieze from Mr. C. R. Cockerell,[25] and Mr. J. H. Smith-Barry;[26] also from the Society of Dilettanti[27] and the Royal Academy.[28]
Lord Elgin was actively assisted in the East by his secretary, William Richard Hamilton (1777-1859), who afterwards became Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1809-1822). From Mr. Hamilton the Museum received a few sculptures, including a sepulchral relief from Tarentum.[29]
In 1824 the British Museum obtained by bequest the collections of Richard Payne Knight (1749-1824), a learned but fanciful antiquarian, and a leading member of the Society of Dilettanti. Payne Knight's collection was especially rich in bronzes, gems, and coins, but it also contained a series of marble portrait busts.
The next addition of importance was the collection of sculptures and casts brought at the public expense in 1842 from Xanthos and other sites in Lycia, discovered by Sir Charles Fellows (1799-1860), in the course of his journeys of 1838 and 1840.[30]
In 1846, permission was given by the Porte to the then British Ambassador, Sir Stratford Canning, afterwards Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe (1786-1880), to remove twelve slabs of the frieze of the Mausoleum from Halicarnassos. These sculptures, long known to travellers,[31] were taken from the walls of the castle of Budrum, and presented by the Ambassador to the British Museum.
Ten years later the influence of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe was exerted to support Sir Charles Newton in his explorations in Asia Minor. Sir Charles Newton exchanged his position at the British Museum, in 1856, for the post of British Vice-Consul at Mitylene, which he held till 1859, and in that capacity he was able, on behalf of the Trustees, to excavate the sites of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassos, and of the temple of Demeter at Cnidos. He also removed the archaic statues of Branchidae, and collected several minor pieces of sculpture. The excavations on the site of the Mausoleum added four slabs to the series presented by Lord Stratford de Redcliffe in 1840. One additional slab was purchased in 1865 of the Marchese Serra, of Genoa.
While the excavations of the Mausoleum were in progress, the Crimean campaign afforded an opportunity to Col. Westmacott to form a collection of sculptures from Kertch and the neighbourhood, illustrating the later stages of Greek art on the Euxine.