The Elgin Marbles are a collection of classical Greek marble sculptures that were originally park of the Parthenon and other building on the Acropolis of Athens. Today they are housed in the British Museum in London, United Kingdom.

The marbles are named after Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin who was the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1799 to 1803. He obtained permission to take the marbles from the Ottoman authorities and transported them back to Britain from 1801 to 1812.

The marbles now represent a controversy in that Greece and UNESCO would like the marbles to be returned to Athens, but the British Museum maintains that the sculptures are too fragile to transport and represent a part of a worldwide cultural collection housed in one place.