In this Interview, the architect of the New Acropolis Museum [1], Bernard Tschumi [2] talks about his intentions for the building.
From:
Christian Science Monitor [3]
Acropolis Museum: missing the marbles
The Parthenon, or Elgin, Marbles are in Britain. Greeks see the new museum as further reason for their return.
By Nicole Itano | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the October 16, 2007 edition“I’m probably one of the only architects who realized that they are a narrative, a story,” says Mr. Tschumi. “My hope and probably my goal is that one day the marbles will be reunited and people can know the story all at once, in one single place, within the architecture.”
The British Museum says that there is still an important reason to keep some of the marbles in England. Only there, it argues, can the marbles be shown in a global context, next to artifacts from other contemporary civilizations as well as those that were inspired by Athenian democracy and Greek civilization.
“The very purpose of the British Museum is to present a unique overview of world civilization, and the Parthenon Marbles are an integral part of that,” says Hannah Boulton, a spokesperson for the museum.But supporters of the return now believe that the question now is when, not if, the marbles will be returned.
“If you ask people, will they have them back in 100 years, they would say for sure. In 50 years? I would have thought that overwhelmingly likely. Twenty years? That’s more doubtful,” says Snodgrass. “The problem at the moment is that there’s not yet a really serious dialogue going on.”