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In repeated polls, Britons have voiced support for the repatriation of the carvings, controversially removed from the Parthenon in 1802 at the behest of Lord Elgin, London’s ambassador to the Sublime Porte.

Two of his books became American best-sellers and he the first Western scholar to be given access to the archives of the Sublime Porte in Istanbul.

At the time this particular scenic panoramic was created, Istanbul was in the news, thanks to the Russo-Ottoman War and Napoléon Bonaparte’s desire to bring the Sublime Porte into his orbit.

France is the old friend and ally of the Sublime Porte, the natural enemy of Russia.

Diplomats were driving home from the Sublime Porte in victorias.