Elgin procured the services of a Neapolitan painter, Lusieri, and of several skilful draughtsmen and modellers. These artists were dispatched to Athens in the summer of 1800, and were principally employed in making drawings of the ancient monuments. Elgin stated that about the middle of the summer of 1801, he had received a firman from the Sublime Porte which allowed his agents not only to "fix scaffolding round the ancient Temple of the Idols [the Parthenon], and to mould the ornamental sculpture and visible figures thereon in plaster and gypsum," but also "to take away any pieces of stone with old inscriptions or figures thereon". The document exists in an Italian translation made by the British Embassy in Constantinople and now held by the British Museum, but no official copy of it has yet been found in the Turkish government archives from the imperial era. There is debate over the legal status of the document.
Elgin procured the services of a Neapolitan painter Lusieri and of several skilful draughtsmen and modellers These artists were dispatched to Athens in the summer of 1800 and were principally employed in making drawings of the ancient monuments Elgin stated that about the middle of the summer of 1801 he had received a firman from the Sublime Porte which allowed his agents not only to "fix scaffolding round the ancient Temple of the Idols [the Parthenon] and to mould the ornamental sculpture and visible figures thereon in plaster and gypsum" but also "to take away any pieces of stone with old inscriptions or figures thereon" The document exists in an Italian translation made by the British Embassy in Constantinople and now held by the British Museum but no official copy of it has yet been found in the Turkish government archives from the imperial era There is debate over the legal status of the document