STONES OF CONTENTION

The British Museum faces accusations of cultural theft-and actual theft.

- REBECCA MEAD

Charles Townley, one of Britain's first great collectors of antiquities, was born in Lancashire in 1737. A distaff descendant of the aristocratic Howard family, he was educated mostly in France a common path for a well-born Catholic Englishman. Elegant and intelligent, Townley was, according to an early biographical sketch, eagerly welcomed into Continental society, "from the dissipations of which it would be incorrect to say that he wholly escaped." As a young adult, he returned to England and installed himself at the family estate, having come into a lavish inheritance. But before long he set off for Italy, in what would be the first of three visits. In a dozen years, he amassed more than two hundred ancient sculptures, along with other objects.