The Greeks reacted as soon as Lord  Elgin undertook his catastrophic endeavor on the Acropolis. However, their reactions only took the form of silent discontent and unbearable pain. Suffering under the intolerable tyranny of the Ottoman yoke, the Greeks could not prevent Elgin from pillaging the monuments.

Athanassios  Psalidas  from Yiannena told a British traveler:      “You, Englishmen, who take away the artifacts of our ancestors, should take good care of them because there will come a time when we, Greeks, will ask them back.”

E.F.