John Forsdyke

Sir Edgar John Forsdyke KCB (12 September 1883 – 3 December 1979) was Director and Principal Librarian of the British Museum from 1936 to 1950. Under his tenure, an attempt was made to clean the Elgin Marbles in 1937, which lasted until 1938 and resulted in damage to the collection due to the "misguided efforts" of the restoration team to whitewash certain marbles under the belief they were originally white in colour.^[1]^[2]

^ Oddy, Andrew (2002). "The Conservation of Marble Sculptures in the British Museum before 1975". Studies in Conservation. 47 (3). London: Taylor & Francis: 149. doi:10.1179/sic.2002.47.3.145. S2CID 194054364.
^ British damage to Elgin marbles 'irreparable' Archived 5 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian.

[oddy149-1] Oddy, Andrew (2002). "The Conservation of Marble Sculptures in the British Museum before 1975". Studies in Conservation. 47 (3). London: Taylor & Francis: 149. doi:10.1179/sic.2002.47.3.145. S2CID 194054364.

[guardian-2] British damage to Elgin marbles 'irreparable' Archived 5 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine, The Guardian.

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