Some Greek artefacts will be returned to Athens temporarily for the Olympics – The Elgin Marbles aren’t included on the list though.

From:
The Scotsman

Fri 13 Feb 2004
Greek art returning for the Olympics
LISA ORKIN IN ATHENS

THE world’s major museums, including the British Museum, will contribute parts of their ancient Greek art collections for display during the Olympic Games at Athens’s National Archaeological Museum.

Nikolaos Kaltsas, the museum’s director, said the exhibit, named agon – “contest” in ancient Greek – will feature 235 sculptures and vessels from 18 foreign and Greek museums, including the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan in New York City and the Vatican in Rome.

The exhibition “is special because it is not only about athletic games. It is about games in general, on all levels”, Mr Kaltsas said. “It is the athletic games, the musical games, the dramatic games of the theatre, the artistic games, the poetic games.”

The British Museum will provide pots from the classical period, while the Vatican will lend Roman copies of Greek originals – including a statue of Sophocles, one of the best-known playwrights of ancient Greece’s Golden Age.

From:
San Francisco Gate

Museums to lend art for exhibition in Athens
LISA ORKIN, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, February 12, 2004
(02-12) 09:47 PST ATHENS, Greece (AP) —

Some of the world’s most prestigious museums will contribute pieces of their ancient Greek art collections for display during the Athens Olympics.

“The works that are coming are significant,” Nikolaos Kaltsas, director at Athens’s National Archaeological Museum, told The Associated Press.

Kaltsas said the exhibit will be named agon, which means contest in ancient Greek. The exhibit opens in July, weeks before the games start on Aug. 13.

Agon will include 235 sculptures and vessels from 18 foreign and Greek museums, including the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan in New York City, the British Museum in London, and the Vatican.

Greek museums will contribute 164 of the works and the exhibit will span 6,000 years, from 6500 B.C. to the Roman first century.

The exhibition “is special because it is not only about athletic games. It is about games in general, on all levels,” Kaltsas said. “It is the athletic games, the musical games, the dramatic games of the theater, the artistic games, the poetic games.”

In addition to the Olympics, which were held starting 776 B.C., other competitions were held throughout ancient Greece to honor the 12 mythical gods of Olympus.

The exhibit will be separated in thematic categories that depict mythology, athletic games, spiritual games and victory.

“This is the uniqueness of the exhibition. Until now … there were many exhibitions for athletic games, but I do not think there has ever been an exhibition about all these games,” Kaltsas said.

The Metropolitan will lend the exhibit three vessels found in southern Italy, which depict ancient tragedies dating to the Classical period. The British Museum will provide pots from the same period, while the Vatican will lend the exhibit Roman copies of Greek originals — including a statue of Sophocles, one of the best known playwrights of ancient Greece’s Golden Age.

The National Archaeological Museum is a top tourist attraction and is considered the country’s most important showcase for ancient Greek artifacts.