The Elgin Marbles—17 fi gures and 56 panels that once decorated the Parthenon, on the Acropolis in Athens—were taken from the Parthenon in 1801 by Thomas Bruce, the seventh Earl of Elgin, and brought to the British Museum, in London. The Greeks say that he stole them; the British say that they were properly acquired, by purchase. Some Britons urged that the Marbles be returned to Greece in time for the Olympic Games to be held in Athens in 2004. Said one of the leaders of the Labor Party: “The Parthenon without the Elgin Marbles is like a smile missing a tooth.”