LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.- The surviving Parthenon sculptures, one of the greatest artworks of all time, is scattered in fragments across Europe. However, there is now a way to view them together for the first time: a virtual reconstruction. The sculptures of the Parthenon were carved nearly 2,500 years ago but the fragments are spread across 10 museums in eight countries. The Greeks are eager to reunite these in a museum being built specially to house these treasures within sight of the ruined temple the frieze once adorned. But the British Museum, the guardian of the Elgin Marbles - which were cut from the Parthenon 200 years ago - is reluctant to let them go. Its argument is that half the Parthenon sculptures are lost forever, and the rest are so scattered and damaged that it is no longer possible to recreate them in any real sense. A better solution is a computer reconstruction, which will give a more complete sense of how the whole might once have looked. The University of Southern Californias Institute for Creative Technologies is at work on that project. It has produced 152 high-resolution models of the sculptures, and produced images which show each in its original position.
Work has also begun on a separate scheme to laser scan each piece of the scattered stones at the National Museums Liverpools conservation center. Sculpture department head John Larson hopes to use the scans to produce marble copies. All museums with parts of the sculptures have agreed to collaborate on the project, although it is not yet clear whether the Greek Ministry of Culture will take part. The work holds out the possibility of combining data from the surviving pieces, casts of fragments which have been destroyed, and expert reconstructions of those portions which have vanished. There are hopes that one day all 160m of the frieze, showing in life-like detail the men, women, horses and sacrificial animals which took part in the annual Panathenaic procession, may be depicted in images or 3-D replicas. Also able to be added in virtual reality are the metal attachments - harnesses, weapons, staffs and wreaths - which once adorned the originals.
