A follow-up article to Malcolm Brabant’s broadcast about the New Acropolis Museum. The museum has been & in the minds of many people, always will be controversial, due to its proximity to one of the worlds most iconic archaeological sites. Once the building opens however, many perceptions will change & evolve as people finally get a chance to experience the building themselves.

From:
BBC News

Page last updated at 01:05 GMT, Wednesday, 7 May 2008 02:05 UK
New home for Greece’s holy grail
By Malcolm Brabant
BBC News, in Athens

The Acropolis Museum is now just months away from entering service in Greece’s struggle with its most implacable cultural adversary.

Its priceless treasures lie in marble halls, hidden from view in giant removal boxes.

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Nashville Tennessee is home to the most accurate replica of the Parthenon. Despite the accuracy of parts of it however, anyone who has seen the real Parthenon in Athens will understand that without its surrounding context, it can never even come close to recreating the experience.

From:
Home & Away magazine (American Automobile Association)

The Temple in Tennessee
Nashville’s Parthenon stands as a tribute to ancient Grecian culture.
By Andrea Gross

The Parthenon is one of the world’s most renowned buildings, an artistic and architectural wonder that serves as a reminder of the glories of ancient Greece. And, as we all know, it sits atop the Acropolis, one of the highest hills in Athens.

To the surprise of many, it also sits atop a small hill in Nashville.

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More information on the remaining sculptures still on the Parthenon. Their potential removal constitutes an ethical issue with strong opinions on both sides of the archaeological world on the best route forward.

From:
Agence France Presse

Last Parthenon marbles threatened by pollution: archaeologist
4 days ago

ATHENS (AFP) — A senior Greek archaeologist warned this week that the last original sculptures still adorning the Parthenon, Athens’ iconic ancient temple, face a major pollution threat and must be removed to a museum.

“There are still 17 original metopes (sculpted plaques) which must be protected because they can no longer endure atmospheric conditions,” Acropolis site supervisor Alexandros Mantis told AFP on Friday.

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The restoration project on the Parthenon is proceeding, with removal of more parts of the building for cleaning.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Thursday April 10, 2008
Parthenon restoration up a gear

The restoration of the pollution-ravaged friezes of the Parthenon is set to gather pace, with the removal of a further 17 metopes from the Athens landmark for cleaning, the Culture Ministry’s Central Archaeological Council (KAS) said yesterday.

Of these 17 metopes, 14 will be from the west side of the Parthenon which, experts say, is in a “lamentable state.” Another metope – depicting a Centauromachy – will be taken down from the south side and two more from the north side.

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Apparently, some part of the Parthenon is for sale online. What part this is & how it was obtained remains unclear at this point in time. The one thing that is clear is that this would appear to be happening in complete disregard of various laws that are designed to prevent the unauthorised sale of ancient artefacts.

From:
Balkan Travellers

Balkan Travellers
7 April 2008
A marble from the Parthenon in Athens is being sold on the Internet, Greek media reported.

The starting price in the bid is 50,000 US dollars, according to the Antena television station. As proof of the antique object’s authenticity, it was reported, a recording of its being stolen was offered.

The report added that while the marble’s seller is anonymous, there is information on his identity and Greek authorities were informed.

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I had often wondered (& never had a clear answer) what would happen to the existing (old) Acropolis Museum once the New Acropolis Museum opened. It appear now that it may be used jointly as an exhibition gallery & café serving drinks. The latter feature will definitely be welcomed by anyone who has visited the Acropolis during the day in the middle of summer.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Thursday February 21, 2008
Old Acropolis Museum as cafe?

The old Acropolis Museum, located next to the Parthenon, may be converted into a snack bar, Culture Ministry officials heard yesterday.

Government officials and Culture Ministry representatives discussed the possibility of the renovated museum staging a photographic exhibition, outlining the history of the Acropolis, as well as a cafe of some sort. The idea of an exhibition was embraced by everyone. But reservations were expressed over the possibility of a snack bar due to fears that chairs and tables would be scattered around under the Parthenon. According to the ministry’s museums department, the old museum should only serve water and soft drinks.

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New research combined with the latest technology continues to reveal previously forgotten aspects of the Parthenon.

From:
Smithsonian Magazine

Unlocking Mysteries of the Parthenon
Efforts to restore the ancient temple of Athena are yielding new insights
By Evan Hadingham
Smithsonian magazine, February 2008

During the past 2,500 years, the Parthenon—the apotheosis of ancient Greek architecture—has been rocked by earthquakes, set on fire, shattered by exploding gunpowder, looted for its stunning sculptures and defaced by misguided preservation efforts. Amazingly, the ancient Athenians built the Parthenon in just eight or nine years. Repairing it is taking a bit longer.

A restoration project funded by the Greek government and the European Union is now entering its 33rd year, as archaeologists, architects, civil engineers and craftsmen strive not simply to imitate the workmanship of the ancient Greeks but to re-create it. They have had to become forensic architects, reconstructing long-lost techniques to answer questions that archaeologists and classical scholars have debated for centuries. How did the Athenians construct their mighty temple, an icon of Western civilization, in less than a decade—apparently without an overall building plan? How did they manage to incorporate subtle visual elements into the Parthenon’s layout and achieve such faultless proportions and balance? And how were the Parthenon’s builders able to work at a level of precision (in some cases accurate to within a fraction of a millimeter) without the benefit of modern tools? “We’re not as good as they were,” Lena Lambrinou, an architect on the restoration project, observes with a sigh.

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The History Blog has an interesting piece on the College of Staten Island’s restoration of their plaster copy of the Parthenon Frieze.

From:
The History Blog

Sunday, January 6th, 2008
Parthenon frieze turns up in Staten Island

Not the original, of course — much of that was butchered and stolen by Lord Elgin 200 years ago and the rest remains in place under assault by Athenian pollution — but castings made from the original 19th century molds were rescued from the library of the Staten Island Academy in 1960 by two College of Staten Island professors.

“It’s a 19th-century footprint long before air pollution and anything else that would change the surface,” said Katherine Schwab, an associate professor of art history at Fairfield University in Connecticut, which also has plaster slabs depicting the frieze. “They can look at the plaster casts and in some cases see details no longer there.”

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Despite the successful move of sculptures to the New Acropolis Museum, controversy continues over the proposed demolition of buildings that block the view in front of the building.

From:
Reuters

Greece hoists Parthenon sculptures to new home
Sun Oct 14, 2007 6:00pm BST
By Renee Maltezou

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece on Sunday began moving the ancient sculptures from the temples of the Athens Acropolis to a new museum, designed specifically to prod the British Museum into returning its own prized collection of Parthenon marbles.

Dozens of bystanders, some in tears, watched as three cranes relayed a massive stone slab from the 2,500-year-old Parthenon. It was carved with four youths leading bulls to sacrifice to the goddess Athena.

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As the opening of the New Acropolis Museum draws closer, more attention is focussing on Greece’s attempts to secure the return of artefacts held abroad. This highlights one of the key roles of the new museum - to bring about the return of the Elgin Marbles by the British Museum.

From:
Washington Post

Greeks Go for All the Marbles In Effort to Get Back Artifacts
A New Museum’s Goal: To Press the British to Return Parthenon Sculptures
By Philip Kennicott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 7, 2007; Page R12

ATHENS — On Saturday, huge cranes will begin lifting ancient statues, carvings and architectural fragments off the Acropolis, down to a new museum built at the base of the most famous citadel in the world. For the vast majority of these stone remnants of the great age of Athens, it will be the first time they have ever left this rocky summit.

Even as the forces of history washed over this city for millennia, making and unmaking it according to the dictates of three major religions and at least a half-dozen empires, these stone gods and heroes, which once decorated its temples and public spaces, have remained close to their original home. That makes them the lucky ones.

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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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