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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BBC reporter Malcolm Brabant has been shown round the New Acropolis Museum in Athens & reports on its progress & how it will act as a powerful argument for the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

You can watch the broadcast online here.

Following negotiations by the Greek Government, a lekythos or flask used for oil has now returned to Athens from a private collection in Switzerland.

From:
Athens News Agency

04/21/2008
Ancient lekythos returned

Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis on Monday officially presented an ancient marble oil flask or lekythos dating from the 4th century B.C. that was returned to Greece from a private collection in Switzerland, at a press conference held at the National Archaeological Museum.

The procedure to repatriate the ancient artifact was completed last Thursday and in a few days it will be taken to the museum’s conservation workshops, where it will remain for two months.

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One of the subjects of continual discussion during the construction of the New Acropolis Museum is how the Parthenon Frieze should be displayed in it. More specifically, people are concerned about how the representations of the sculptures in the British Museum are differentiated from the original sculptures that they are interspersed with.

From:
Time Magazine Blogs

March 24, 2008 9:19
Getting Plastered
Posted by Richard Lacayo

I was in Athens last October to get an early look at the New Acropolis Museum, which opens this fall. As you probably know, its chief purpose will be to display the surviving Parthenon marbles, roughly half of which are in Greece. The other half, the Elgin Marbles, are in London at the British Museum, and the Greeks, as you definitely know, want those back.

Last fall the organizers of the museum had an ingenious plan for displaying the Parthenon frieze, which is the scene of the Panathenaic procession that once wrapped around the perimeter of the temple. They would place the portions still in Greece beside plaster copies of the panels in London, but the plaster copies would be covered with a thin fabric scrim. That way it would be possible to suggest how the reunited marbles would appear if only the Brits would give back the Elgins. But the scrims would make it clear that visitors shouldn’t mistake the the copies for real marbles.

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The imminent opening of the New Acropolis Museum will strengthen the argument for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Athens.

From:
Newsday

Greece aims to regain Elgin Marbles with new museum
The Associated Press
April 6, 2008

A long-delayed new museum in Athens where Greece hopes to reunite its ancient Acropolis masterpieces with Britain’s Elgin Marbles will open in September, officials said.

Culture Minister Michalis Liapis said finishing the glass and concrete building was a “national challenge” and would boost Greece’s campaign to wrest the 5th century B.C. sculptures from the British Museum.

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Despite various other museums around the world returning artefacts to their rightful owners, the British Museum still insists that the Parthenon Sculptures should remain part of their collection, displaying mankind’s shared cultural heritage

From:
USA Today

Greece to Britain: Hand over artwork
By Jeffrey Stinson, USA TODAY

LONDON — Greece is stepping up the pressure on Britain to return one of the ancient world’s most valued treasures: the Elgin Marbles, sculptures removed from the Parthenon in the early 1800s and housed in the British Museum.

Greece announced earlier this month that, after years of delays, it would open its new Acropolis Museum in Athens in September. The modern structure would allow it to properly display and preserve the sculptures from the fifth century B.C.

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A decision was taken yesterday by the Greece’s Central Archaeological Council, voting 18:5 for the demolition of the two buildings on the New Acropolis Museum site.

It is thought that amongst other reasons, the requirement to excavate the archaeological remains believed to be underneath these buildings played a part in the eventual decision.

Note that these are not the two buildings in front of the museum that have stirred up significant controversy, but that they are on another part of the site. It is thought though that this decision will pave the way for the demolition of the two buildings at the front off the site.

Articles from the Greek pres detailing this decision are here & here (no English articles yet).

Athens has been undergoing a cultural renaissance in recent years, largely brought about by the 2004 Olympics. The opening of the New Acropolis Museum later this year is seen by many in the tourism industry as something that will help make the city more popular as a destination in its own right rather than a stop off on the way to the islands.

From:
Travel Weekly

Greece operators predict cultural tourism boost from New Acropolis Museum
(25 March 2008)

Specialist tour operators to Greece are considering increasing the number of properties they offer in Athens in anticipation of the opening of the New Acropolis Museum.

As cultural tourism becomes more popular, Planet Holidays managing director Mathilde Robert said the opening of the new museum in the autumn should increase the number of visits to the city where currently the operator features a “handful” of luxury properties.

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Following the opening of the Athens UNESCO conference on the Return of Stolen Artefacts to their Countries of Origin, Greek President Karolos Papoulias was taken on a tour of the New Acropolis Museum by Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis.

From:
Athens News Agency

03/20/2008
Return of cultural property con’f

An international 2-day conference on the timely issue of “Return of Cultural Property to its Country of Origin” began at the New Acropolis Museum of Athens on Monday.

Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis welcomed delegates — which include attorneys, museum curators, archaeologists, academics and art experts — to the conference, organised by the Greek culture ministry in cooperation with UNESCO.

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More coverage of the conference organised by UNESCO held in the New Acropolis Museum earlier this week. Many delegates who were speaking there on other restitution issues also used the conference as a platform to explain their own views why the Elgin Marbles should be returned. The conference was notable for many reasons, not least the fact that despite its location, it was attended by two representatives of the British Museum, one of who was speaking there about the return of a mask to Canadian First Nations people.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Tuesday March 18, 2008 - Archive
NEWS
Greek push for return of Marbles

Changes in museum policies and an increase in instances of cooperation between different countries for the repatriation of looted artifacts could pave the way for the return of the Parthenon Marbles, Culture Minister Michalis Liapis told an international conference in Athens yesterday.

“More and more museums are adopting tighter ethics codes and governments are promoting cooperation, so the ideal momentum is being created for clear solutions,” Liapis told the UNESCO event at the New Acropolis Museum.

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At the Athens UNESCO conference on the Return of Cultural Property to its country of Origin, The Greek Culture Minister used his opening speech to highlight the growing momentum behind the campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

From:
Reuters

Greece says momentum growing for Marbles’ return
Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:09am EDT
By Karolos Grohmann

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece said on Monday momentum was growing for the return of the prized Parthenon marbles, taken from the Athens Acropolis some 200 years ago by Britain’s Lord Elgin, as major museums handed back more ancient objects.

Museums around the world have in recent years started returning ancient artifacts to their countries of origin and have tightened checks on acquisitions to avoid buying objects that were illegally excavated or smuggled abroad.

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I’ve just returned from the Athens UNESCO conference on the return of cultural property, held in the New Acropolis Museum. A lot of different cases were covered, along with many conflicting viewpoints. There was a definite consensus there though that the Parthenon Marbles ought to be returned.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Saturday March 15, 2008 - Archive
International conference on cultural returns at the New Acropolis Museum
HELBI

Nobody can stop an idea whose time has finally come. This column has written on many occasions about how the issue of the return of the Parthenon Marbles has gone from being a national demand to an international imperative, supported by leading figures from around the world who want to see the parts of the UNESCO-listed monument reunited. But it will take more than being in the right to get back the marbles that Thomas Bruce, the seventh earl of Elgin, dismantled and took away in 1801, when Athens was under Ottoman rule. With the permission of the sultan, Lord Elgin, then the British ambassador to Constantinople, had the Parthenon friezes cut up and transported to England, where they were bought by the British government. It, in turn, donated them to the British Museum in London where they have remained since.

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