Although the article title says that it is the Parthenon, it should say Propylaea - which still represents a hugej step forward in the overall Acropolis restoration programme.

From:
Athens News Agency

04/12/2008
Parthenon restoration completed

Scaffolding will be removed from the Parthenon Facade during the next few days and visitors will be able to view the restored largest part of the marble roof with its friezes that made the monument, the work of the architect Mnisiklis, renowned in ancient times.

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Three academics who have helped in the restitution of Parthenon fragments to Greece have been honoured at a ceremony at the New Acropolis Museum.

From:
Athens News Agency

02/12/2008
Parthenon Marbles

Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis on Tuesday addressed an event held at the new Acropolis Museum in honour of three academics who have made great contributions to the effort for the return of the Parthenon Marbles currently held at the British Museum in London.

The three are Prof. Tonio Holscher, professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, Prof. Louis Godart, advisor to the Italian President for the Conservation of Artistic Patrimony and professor of Mycenean Philology at Federico II University of Naples, and Prof. Antonia Sofikitou, who is chair of the Italian Committee for the Return of the Parthenon Marbles and teaches Modern Greek Literature at the University of Palermo.

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The Vatican have so far only returned one piece of the Parthenon Marbles from their collection - this article however hints that another of the two remaining ones will be on its way to Greece in the coming months.

From:
Athens News Agency

11/06/2008
Vatican returns Parthenon fragment

A fragment of a Parthenon frieze returned to Greece by the Vatican’s Museum Gregoriano Etrusco was presented by Culture Minister Michalis Liapis stressing that “this gesture by one of the most important museums in Europe sets an example for others to follow and eventually restore the unity of the Parthenon Marbles”.

The special event on Wednesday was held at the New Museum of the Acropolis in the presence of Vatican’s ambassador to Greece Patrick Coveney, Greece’s ambassador to the Vatican M. Hiskakis, head of the Vatican museum’s classical antiquities department Giandomenico Spinola and Organization for the Construction of the New Museum of the Acropolis President Prof. Dimitris Pantermalis.

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Some parts of the restoration works on the Acropolis will be completed in the coming months, allowing visitors their first sight of parts of the building for some years without scaffolding in the foreground. As part of the project, a virtual reality presentation on the history of the restoration work is planned for the New Acropolis Museum, so that visitors can get a better understanding of what is one of the most complex projects of its kind ever undertaken.

From:
Athens News Agency

10/31/2008
Acropolis restoration works

Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis on Thursday inspected works for the restoration of the Athens Acropolis, after which he praised the effort underway.

“The work to preserve and highlight the monuments provides a unique experience for visitors to the Sacred Rock, since a more comprehensive image of the Acropolis is formed that allows the monuments to be better recognised and understood,” he said.

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Dora Bakoyanni, Greece’s Foreign Minister, has spoken about the Elgin Marbles at an important conference & highlighted how resolution of the issue might bring about increased cooperation between Britain & Greece.

From:
Athens News Agency

10/13/2008
Modern History of Greece con’f

Foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis noted on Friday the historic ties between Greece and Britain, which celebrate this year their 175th anniversary of diplomatic relations, and stressed as their modern-day “mature and precious” bilateral cooperation, as well as their cooperation as EU partners and NATO allies “in a turbulent and uncertain world”, while she also called for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to be housed in the state-of-the-art New Acropolis Museum.

Addressing representatives of the British intellectural elite at a conference titled “The Study of the Modern History of Greece: An Oxford Perspective”, held at the Old Parliament building in central Athens, she said: “I am fully aware that I am touching on a sensitive chord for everyone. The return of the Marbles is a just demand for the culture of the City of Athens”.

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Further coverage of the return of the Palermo fragment from the Parthenon Sculptures. The move to repatriate the piece ties in with the opening of the Nostoi exhibition in the New Acropolis Museum, displaying looted artefacts that Italy has recovered in recent years.

It is also worth mentioning that tow more fragments (both currently in the Vatican) are also expected to return to Athens shortly.

From:
Sydney Morning Herald

Italy returns long lost Parthenon fragment to Greece
September 24, 2008 - 2:05AM

Italy has returned to Greece the ‘Palermo fragment’, a marble piece of the Athens Parthenon missing for nearly 200 years, officials said Tuesday.

The sculpted fragment of the ancient Greek hunt goddess Artemis, part of the eastern Parthenon frieze depicting the twelve gods of Olympus, had been in the collection of the Antonio Salinas Archaeological Museum of Palermo.

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Greek president Karolos Papoulias has met with his Italian counterpart. What is relevant about this though, is that for the first time in any English language press (it has previously been covered in the Greek media) it notes that the Palermo fragment of the Parthenon frieze is going to be returned.

From:
Athens News Agency

09/23/2008
Papoulias meets Italian president

President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias on Tuesday met with his visiting Italian counterpart Giorgio Napolitano.

Papoulias particularly thanked Napolitano for the gesture of the return of a fragment of the Parthenon frieze from Palermo, which he said acquired particular gravity at a time when Greece was seeking the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum.

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The Nostoi exhibition that has been on display in Italy is moving to the New Acropolis Museum. This exhibition shows looted artefacts that have been recovered by Italy in recent years. Greece & Italy have now agreed to work together in their attempts to retrieve looted artefacts from abroad.

From:
Athens News Agency

09/16/2008
Exhibition at Acropolis museum

The Culture ministry will be organising the “Nostoi” exhibition at the New Acropolis Museum in the framework of the Italian President’s visit to Athens.

The exhibition includes the “Nostoi Capolavori Ritrovati” exhibition which was organised by the Presidency of the Italian Republic and was initially presented in Rome (Palazzo del Quirinale, December 2, 2007-March 30, 2008) and then at the Palazzo Poli a Fontana di Trevi and focused on 74 repatriated antiquities from various Museums in the United States.

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As in previous years, the Acropolis site will be open late during summer full moon evenings.

From:
Athens News Agency

16/08/08
August Full Moon

The Culture Ministry will open 72 archaeological sites, monuments and museums all over the country on Saturday night, the night of the August Full Moon.

The development is taking place as part of efforts to familiarise the public with archaeological sites and with the country’s cultural heritage in general.

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Predictably (for any who follow Greek politics) the KKE (Greece’s Communist Party) has criticised plans that the New Acropolis Museum should be run any differently to every other museum in Greece - that is to say, they would prefer that there was never any progress, beyond the current self-serving culture of regular strike action that currently holds back development of the country’s museums.

For the New Acropolis Museum to be a truly world class museum though & achieve its goals, things have to change - conceptually is not the same as other Greek state run museums, so why should it have to operate in exactly the same way?

From:
Athens News Agency

07/12/2008
KKE rejects PM’s proposal

[...]

KKE leader meets archaeologists

In another development, KKE [The Communist Party of Greece] Secretary General Aleka Papariga met on Tuesday with the Greek Archaeologists Society saying afterwards that her party supported the archaeologists’ protest and stands by their side in light of the bill that will be tabled in Parliament and “which, in essence, passes a form of privatisation to the new museum which is being disengaged from the Acropolis.”

Papariga added that in general the sector of excavations and of archaeological monuments “is literally in danger from the most extreme privatisation because, unfortunately, archaeological treasure is also considered in Greece a means of obtaining wealth, a means of tourism and this is unacceptable.”

A proposal to reunite the Parthenon sculptures has been tabled in West Australia’s State Legislative Assembly. This follows on from last year’s expressions of support by both the Premier of New South Wales & by John Howard, Australia’s then Prime Minister.

From:
Athens News Agency

06/23/2008
Parthenon marbles repatriation

A proposal for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece was tabled in the State Legislative Assembly of Western Australia by governing Labor Party (ALP) member John Biase D’ Orazio.

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A new free exhibition has opened at Athen’s Eleftherios Venizelos Airport, to publicise the New Acropolis Museum. I actually stumbled on the exhibition by chance whilst passing through the airport before it officially opened. It tells enough to get visitors interested & to make them want to find out more, but unfortunately it is located in the area on an area where few people are likely to accidentally pass it. This is already the problem with the permanent exhibition about the archaeological finds made during the construction of the airport.

From:
Athens News Agency

05/29/2008
Exhibition on new Acropolis Museum

An exhibition on the construction and exhibits of the new Acropolis Museum was inaugurated at Athens international airport on Tuesday by Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis and Transport Minister Kostis Hatzidakis.

Entitled “The New Museum of the Acropolis - Soon a new destination” the exhibition gives visitors from every country a foretaste of the new museum that is expected to open its doors to the public in the autumn.

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