Michalis Liapis, the new Greek Minister of Culture has met in Athens with David Hill, the chair of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.

From:
Athens News Agency

11/07/2007
Liapis meets chairman of ‘Parthenon Int’l’

Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis on Friday morning met the chairman of the International Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures David Hill, who told reporters he had been impressed by the new Acropolis Museum that is now nearing completion and the high priority given by Liapis to the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.

According to Liapis, the transfer of the sculptures currently held in the old museum on the Acropolis citadel to the new Acropolis Museum created a new hopeful, prospect regarding the return of the sculptures now held by the British Museum in London, while stressing that this was “a lasting historic debt”.

More details of the transfer of artefacts to the New Acropolis Museum, planned to commence on the 14th October.

From:
Athens News Agency

10/04/2007
Dry run for artifacts’ transfer to new Acropolis Museum next week

The Greek government on Wednesday announced that a dry run for the transfer of antiquities from the old museum atop the Acropolis to the new ultra-modern Acropolis Museum, several hundred metres below the hill on Makrygianni Street, will take place on Oct. 11.

“For all of us, our primary concern is the safe transfer of the artifacts,” Greek Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis said on Wednesday regarding the exercise, following an inspection of the conservation work and packaging of the exhibits, a process now entering the final stages.
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Preparations are now almost complete for the move of the Parthenon Sculptures from the existing Acropolis Museum to the New Acropolis Museum. It is important to remember, that as some of the sculptures were carved in-situ, it is the first time time that they will every have left the Acropolis, after over 2500 years there.

From:
MSNBC

AP – Associated Press
Acropolis statues ready for new museum
Sculptural masterpieces await biggest airlift of antiquities in Greek history
Updated: 2:27 p.m. ET Oct. 3, 2007

ATHENS, Greece – Swaddled in white drop cloths, hundreds of sculptural masterpieces from the Acropolis are waiting to be delicately lifted by crane to a new, glass and concrete museum nearing completion at the foot of the ancient citadel.

In just a few days, officials plan to start whisking some 4,500 artifacts from the old, cramped Acropolis museum. It will be the first time the artifacts — some of which are considered among the most important works of antiquity — have been moved from the site.
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