Elgin was a Scottish Lord who hoped to do well in politics. At the beginning of the 19th century, Lord Elgin was appointed ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. The capital of the Ottoman Empire was in Constantinople in what is now called Turkey. At that time, relations between Britain and Turkey were very good. Why? Egypt had been part of the Ottoman Empire until Napoleon, the French general, defeated the Turks and occupied Egypt. The British defeated Napoleon and the French left Egypt. As a result, the Turks were very grateful to the British.

Lord Elgin wanted some ancient Greek statues to decorate his house in Scotland, so he travelled to Greece, looking for things to send back to Britain. In Greece, he asked an artist to make drawings of Greek statues and buildings. In the end, he decided to take the statues of the Parthenon frieze and send them to England. This frieze was actually part of the building. It wasn't stuck on. So in order to take the frieze, Elgin had to get workmen to saw the frieze off the building. This also involved destroying parts of the building in order to lower the sculptures to the ground. Elgin did a lot of damage to the Parthenon building.

Check that you understand what these words mean in this document
To appoint: to give a position.
Ambassador: a person in a foreign country who speaks or represents his government.
Capital: the politically most important city of a country, e.g. Athens for Greece, London for Great Britain etc.
Empire: a number of territories or peoples under one rule.
To defeat: to win (the war).
To occupy: to take over.
Grateful: very thankful.
Frieze: an area of decoration along a wall.
To saw: to cut wood with a metal tool which has “teeth”.