Showing results 241 - 247 of 247 for the category: Greece Archaeology.

December 23, 2003

Old photos from the Acropolis

Posted at 12:36 pm in Acropolis, Greece Archaeology

The photographer Nelly is famous for the photos she took of the dancer Mona Paiva nude at the Acropolis. A new book expands our knowledge of her work – & explores her fascination with the Acropolis.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Monday December 22, 2003
Contrasting coexisting images
Two photography albums show Greece through the eyes of two very different photographers
By Alexandra Koroxenidis – Kathimerini English Edition

Timeless values and a dignified respect for life and the past emanate from the work of two completely different renowned Greek photographers and their images of Greece as presented in two separate photographic albums. “Kostas Balafas: Epirus” released by Potamos Publications in cooperation with the Benaki Museum, and “Antiquities: Greece 1925-1939: Nelly’s,” published by Melissa again jointly with the Benaki, record two contrasting worlds of Greek culture — the one rural and poor, a world of nature and its people, the other classical, refined, unspoiled and devoid of human presence — yet with a somewhat similar idealized view and quest for the eternal.
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November 22, 2003

Are the Parthenon Marbles more about politics than archaeology

Posted at 1:43 pm in Elgin Marbles, Greece Archaeology

The reality of the dispute over the Parthenon Marbles is that it has progressively become more politically oriented as time has elapsed since they were first removed from Greece. This is not to say though that there aren’t also good archaeological reasons supporting their return.

From:
The Guardian

Arts and humanities | Comment
Moving the marbles
The case for the Parthenon frieze is more about about politics than archaeology or public access, writes Mike Pitts
Saturday November 22, 2003

Whatever side you take on the case for moving the fragmentary 5th century BC Parthenon frieze from London to Athens, recent events show that the arguments are more about politics than archaeology or public access.

In 2001, MP Edward O’Hara proposed that the Elgin Marbles should be returned to Athens for the Olympic games next year, to fill the otherwise empty museum being built by Greece at a reported cost of £29m (in case anyone missed the hint, the Greek culture minister, Evangelos Venizelos, presented the UK with a virtual tour of the marbles in the new museum). The prime minister, Tony Blair, told Greece the art belonged to the British Museum, a view recently echoed, in refreshingly diplomatic language, by the museum’s present director, Neil MacGregor.
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August 19, 2003

Controversy surrounds the New Acropolis Museum

Posted at 8:34 am in Elgin Marbles, Greece Archaeology, New Acropolis Museum

The New Acropolis Museum represents the best possible location for reuniting the surviving Elgin Marbles, but has also stirred up a lot of controversy. It is worth noting though, that a lot of the issues are more politically motivated, rather than stemming from the actual project itself.

From:
BBC News

Last Updated: Monday, 18 August, 2003, 11:47 GMT 12:47 UK
Acropolis building site stirs up storm
By Richard Galpin
BBC, Athens

If visitors to the Acropolis in central Athens were to cast their eyes across the city to the south-east, they would soon spot a large gap in the densely populated neighbourhood of Markryianni, just a stone’s-throw away.

It is a building site for a controversial new Acropolis museum.
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July 2, 2003

Makriyianni site is ideal location for New Acropolis Museum

Posted at 8:01 am in Greece Archaeology, New Acropolis Museum

After pressure by various organisations trying to stop the building of the New Acropolis Museum, Greece’s Central Archaeological Council has ruled that the Makriyianni site is the best location for the new building.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Date: 7-2-2003
Agreement on the new Acropolis Museum
The Central Archaeological Council reconfirmed in unison that the Makriyiannis Estate below the rock is the ideal location
Antiquities will suffer no damage, although some will have to be transfered for the installation of supporting pillars.
By Iota Sykka – Kathimerini

Shortly before the publication of the Council of State’s decision on the legality of the study for the new Acropolis Museum, the Ministry of Culture confirmed that the procedures were in the final stages before assigning the project to a contractor. At a meeting last week of the Central Archaeological Council (KAS), held to examine two studies about the location of supporting pillars and a reduction of their number, the entire council agreed that the Makriyiannis Estate was the ideal location for the new museum. Even the toughest-to-convince members of the council, like Professor Haralambos Bouras, agreed that the antiquities would suffer no damage. Vassilios Labrinoudakis claimed that this solution was by far the best and Dimitrios Constantios added that the Makriyiannis Estate is the most appropriate place.

Although there has been disagreement in the past about the museum being located so close to the Acropolis rock, no objection was raised at this most recent meeting. “If we built an industrial shelter, it would look ugly,” claimed Bouras, while another member of the council added that even more supporting pillars would be needed were that to happen.
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June 17, 2003

Scaffolding to remain on Acropolis during the Olympics

Posted at 8:15 am in Acropolis, Greece Archaeology

It was originally planned that the restoration works on the Acropolis would be completed in time for the Olympics – the huge amount of work still to be completed means that this is now unlikely to happen.

From:
NZoom

Acropolis may miss Olympics
Tuesday, Jun 17, 2003

Greek archaeologists are working overtime to finish the restoration of the Athens Acropolis before the 2004 Olympics, but warn that not all the scaffolding may have been dismantled by August next year, when the Games kick off.

“We are undertaking an immense effort to make the Acropolis as beautiful as possible for the Olympics, but I can’t guarantee that will happen — the deadlines are very tight,” Maria Ioannidou, restoration director for the renowned ancient temple complex overlooking downtown Athens, told AFP.
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December 13, 2002

Italy plans to lend Parthenon sculpture fragment to Greece

Posted at 12:53 pm in British Museum, Elgin Marbles, Greece Archaeology, Similar cases

Italy has made the brave move, of being the first country to commit to returning a fragment from the Parthenon Sculptures. It might be a small fragment, but it is a start, and will increase the pressure on other institutions to follow suit.

From:
Guardian

Italian loan puts marbles pressure on British Museum
Fiachra Gibbons, arts correspondent
Friday December 13, 2002
The Guardian

Italy yesterday put further pressure on the British Museum to hand back the Elgin Marbles to Greece by returning a fragment of the contested 4th century BC frieze they themselves looted.

The choice of a piece of a statue of Peitho, the goddess of persuasion and seduction, on a long-term loan back to Athens could not have been more diplomatically powerful. A similar deal offered to Britain last month in an attempt to get the marbles back in time for the 2004 Olympics was rebuffed.
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August 2, 2002

Why has the New Acropolis Museum become so controversial

Posted at 1:12 pm in Elgin Marbles, Greece Archaeology, New Acropolis Museum

The New Acropolis Museum was redesigned specifically to avoid creating problems with the archaeological site that it sits over. Many people in Greece (I suspect largely for political reasons) are continuing to raise objections to it, seemingly glossing over everything that it does to avoid damaging the site & instead talking about the potential for destruction. The reality is than anywhere you build in central Athens, you will be on archaeological remains. The building surrounding the Acropolis Museum doubtless damaged large areas of remains when they themselves were built. Far more than most buildings in Greece, this one is deliberately designed around the ruins that it shares the plot of land with, yet people continue to obstruct it construction. Surely though, looking at it pragmatically, it is better to have the building constructed as it is proposed, than to have no building at all? If the objections carry on in this way, a great opportunity for Greece will end up being lost.

From:
Washington Post

Marbles Lost and Found
In the Parthenon’s Shadow, an Old Grievance Gets Put on a Pedestal
By Kirstin Downey Grimsley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 29, 2002; Page C01

ATHENS — A $100 million museum being built here in hopes of shaming the British government into giving back sculptures taken two centuries ago is creating controversy in Greece, where a growing number of critics say the government is damaging other antiquities in a rush to make the museum ready in time for the 2004 Olympics.

They charge that excavation at the museum’s site at the foot of the great Acropolis citadel has uncovered substantial Roman, Byzantine and Stone Age ruins that provide vivid archaeological snapshots of ancient Athens, and that development should be delayed while the remains are studied.
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