Mr Lino Bugeja's article on the Elgin Marbles in Malta (The Sunday Times, September 10) was very interesting. It might therefore be of interest to know how the marbles reached Malta.

Lord Elgin, when ambassador to Constantinople, did pay for the marbles when he removed them from Greece when that country was still part of the Ottoman Empire.

When he transported the marbles on board the Mentor, the vessel sank off the island of Kyther, Greece, in a storm in 1802. Lord Elgin had to pay the sponge divers to recover the marbles, a task which took nearly two years.

However once the marbles were recovered, Lord Elgin had to ask Sir Alexander Ball at Malta to send a ship to collect the cargo for transportation to England.

Sir Alexander, before he could comply, first had to request permission from Lord Nelson who, in a letter dated September 2, 1804, on board HMS Victory, authorised a small transport to go to Cerigo in Greece and transport the marbles to Malta.

The Napoleonic wars by then had resumed. Therefore, the Elgin Marbles were kept at Malta until they could be shipped in a convoy to England which, as Mr Bugeja mentions in his article, was in 1812.

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