A date has now been set for the transfer of the artefacts currently held in the existing Acropolis Museum to the New Acropolis Museum which is rapidly nearing completion.

From:
Athens News Agency

05/29/2007
Transfer of old Acropolis artifacts begins in Sept.

The delicate process of transporting the exhibits and artifacts currently housed in a small museum atop the Acropolis in central Athens to a new state-of-the-art Acropolis Museum facing the celebrated hill’s south side will begin in September.

Archaeology service officials in the Greek capital on Tuesday said that 340 priceless artifacts, loaded into special metallic crates, will be lowered by three large-scale construction cranes from atop the Acropolis for a short 400-metre journey to the new museum — a modern glass-&-steel structure that Greek officials and philhellenes around the world hope will soon host part or all of the Parthenon Marbles.

The entire operation is expected to last until the end of the year, as the new Acropolis museum is scheduled to open in early 2008.

Exhibits housed in the current, cramped and outdated museum atop the Acropolis will be joined by numerous detached pieces of the Parthenon’s spectacular friezes that remain out-of-sight in various museum warehouses due to insufficient and lackluster exhibition space in the Greek capital.

According to Culture Minister George Voulgarakis, the entire task of transporting the artifacts down from the Acropolis will cost 2.5 million euros.