A professor from the University of Crete has called into question the sole document that the British Museum has found in recent years to support its legal ownership of the Elgin Marbles, it was recently revealed. 
 According to the museum, the 1801 document is an Italian translation of an Ottoman firman, or license, in which the Sultan's grand vizier was authorized to permit the Earl of Elgin to take the sculptures. Elgin took the marbles between 1801 and 1805, and Britain's argument has long been that the move was legal, because he asked for permission from the Turks, whose empire ruled Greece at the time. They also say that he saved the sculptures from likely damage and deterioration during the Greek-Turk conflict.
”The original firman on which the translation is based, could not have been legal, because it is missing the Sultan's emblem and signature, and an invocation to God,” said Professor Vassilis Dimitriathis, a specialist in Ottoman law.  “By law, only the Sultan could issue a valid firman.”