TheParthenonMarbles as icons of nationalism in nineteenth‐centuryBritain

Theories of nationalism place native culture at the core of national self‐fashioning. What explains a state's adoption of foreign objects to sustain national identity? In this paper, I argue that the incorporation of the P arthenon M arbles into B ritish public life is an early example of supranational nationalism. The nineteenth‐century ‘art race’ was a competitive field in which E uropean nation‐states vied for prestige. Of the thousands of art trophies that were brought to B ritain from M editerranean and N orth A frican countries, the P arthenon M arbles were uniquely iconicised. Using data from period newspapers and official documents, I assert that this was because they were assiduously presented as pre national by B ritish authorities. In this way, they belonged simultaneously to no nation, to every nation, and to B ritain. The case demonstrates the emergence of a particular form of national distinctiveness that transcended the smallness of particularity and rose to the level of universal civilisation.