The Collector was not able to carry out his plan of exhibition, in any part of it, to the full extent which he had contemplated.
He was anxious that casts of the whole of the extant sculptures of the Parthenon should be exhibited, in the same relative situation to the eye of the viewer which they had originally occupied in the Temple at Athens. He was also desirous that a public competition of sculptors should be provided for, in order to a series of comparative restorations of the perfect work, based upon other casts of its surviving portions, and wrought in presence of the remains of the authentic sculpture itself.
Continuance of the labours of Lusieri at Athens, until 1816.
Meanwhile, the chief of the artists employed in the work of drawing and modelling continued his labours at Athens, and in its vicinity, for more than twelve years after Lord Elgin’s departure from Constantinople. Between the years 1811 and 1816, inclusive, eighty cases containing sculpture, casts, drawings, and other works of art, were added to the Elgin Collection in London.
In the year last named, when the question of artistic value had already been very effectively determined by the cumulative force of enlightened opinion, a Select Committee of the House of Commons was at length appointed, to inquire whether it were expedient that Lord Elgin’s Collection ‘should be purchased on behalf of the Public, and, if so, what price it may be reasonable to allow for the same.’
Report on Earl of Elgin’s Collection (1816), p. 8.
By this Committee it was reported to the House that ‘several of the most eminent artists in this kingdom rate these marbles in the very first class of ancient art; ... speak of them with admiration and enthusiasm; and, notwithstanding their manifold injuries, ... and mutilations, ... consider them as among the finest models and most exquisite monuments of antiquity.’ It was also reported that their removal to England had been explicitly authorised by the Turkish Government. |Ib., p. 16.| The Committee further recommended their purchase for the Public at the sum of thirty-five thousand pounds; and that the Earl of Elgin and his heirs (being Earls of Elgin) should be perpetual Trustees of the British Museum. |Ib., p. 27.| And the Committee expressed, in conclusion, its hope that the Elgin Marbles might long serve as models and examples to those who, by knowing how to revere and appreciate them, may first learn to imitate, and ultimately to rival them. On the 1st of July, 1816, the Act for effecting the purchase was passed by the Legislature. I do not know that any one member of the Society of Dilettanti really regretted the fact. But it is certain that by a very eminent connoisseur on the Continent it was much regretted. The King of Bavaria had already lodged a sum of thirty thousand pounds in an English banking house, by way of securing a pre-emption, should the controversy amongst the connoisseurs on this side of the Channel, of which so much had been heard, lead the British Parliament eventually to decline the purchase.
The nearest estimate that could be formed in 1816 of Lord Elgin’s outlay, from first to last, amounted to upwards of fifty thousand pounds. And the interest on that outlay, at subsisting rates, amounted to about twenty-four thousand pounds. Upon merely commercial principles, therefore, the mark of honour affixed by Parliament to the Earldom of Elgin was abundantly earned. By every other estimate, Lord Elgin had done more than enough to keep his name, for ever, in the roll of British worthies. And, as all men know, he had a worthy successor in that honoured title. The name of Elgin, instead of ranking, according to Byron’s prophecy, with that of Erostratus, has already become a name not less revered in the Indies, and in America, than in Britain itself.
For nearly half a century, Lord Elgin was one of the Representative Peers of Scotland. After his great achievement was completed, he took but little part in public life. The most curious incident of his later years was his election as a Member of the Society of Dilettanti, twenty-five years after his return from the Levant. The election was made without his knowledge. When the fact was intimated to him, he wrote to the Secretary to decline the honour. After a brief and dignified allusion to his efforts in Greece, he went on to say:—‘Had it been thought—twenty-five years ago, or at any reasonable time afterwards—that the same energy would be considered useful to the Dilettanti Society, most happy should I have been to contribute every aid in my power; but such expectation has long since past. I do not apprehend that I shall be thought fastidious, if I decline the honour now proposed to me at this my eleventh hour.’
The Collector of the Elgin Marbles died in England on the fourteenth of October, 1841.