The Parthenon metopes, marble reliefs carved between 447 and 438 BC for the Acropolis in Athens, were removed in the early 19th century by Lord Elgin, then British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Their removal remains one of the most emblematic debates around the restitution of cultural heritage. Greece has long demanded the return of the Parthenon frieze, now held largely by the British Museum, arguing it was taken during Ottoman occupation, while Britain maintains it was legally acquired.

Today, as European nations begin returning artworks to formerly colonised countries, Greece’s case resonates strongly: although not formally colonised, it experienced foreign domination and cultural dispossession under Ottoman rule. At the same time, Greece sits at the centre of the Mediterranean migration crisis, enforcing increasingly restrictive policies against migrants fleeing regions shaped by colonial exploitation, economic precarity and conflict.

The Mediterranean thus becomes both a space of stolen objects and displaced bodies. The Parthenon metopes — figures locked in violent yet sensual movement— can be read not only as mythological scenes, but also as symbolic reflections of contemporary tensions: order and chaos, wealth and displacement, Europe and the migratory flows from the South and East.

Artist Sébastien Reuzé photographed these sculptures as bodies on Mediterranean beaches, focusing on beauty, sensuality and fragility. In the Acropolis Museum, however, many works appear fragmented or reconstructed: originals are dispersed across museums in London, Paris and elsewhere, while plaster casts remain in Athens. These incomplete bodies become metaphors for a fragmented Mediterranean identity shaped by loss, displacement and unequal power relations between North and South.

Photographed in Athens during the winter Alcyonides light of 2026, this work forms part of a broader project exploring the Mediterranean through themes of light, hedonism, ecstasy and violence.