Gradually more information is becoming available on the nature of the opening events planned for the New Acropolis Museum. Various dignitaries visiting Greece have also already been given a preview of the site.

From:
Agence France Presse

Acropolis museum to open in June: minister
26-04-09

ATHENS (AFP) — The ultra-modern Acropolis museum, situated below the ancient landmark that defines the Greek capital Athens, will belatedly open in June, Greek Culture Minister Antonis Samaras said Sunday.

“We are preparing a jewel of a museum whose opening on June 20 will be a major, global event,” said Samaras after giving European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso a guided tour of the venue.
Read the rest of this entry »

Greece is continuing to try & put a permanent stop to the strikes that have plagued the Acropolis during the last year.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Saturday March 14, 2009 – Archive
Attempt to end Acropolis row

An ongoing dispute between Culture Ministry contract workers and the government, which has led to the Acropolis being shut five times in the last two weeks, could be on the way to being solved but at a cost of more than 9 million euros.

The government tabled an amendment in Parliament yesterday that seeks to address at least in part the grievances of the ministry employees who work at the Acropolis and other ancient sites as well as museums.
Read the rest of this entry »

Following a plea by Greece’s president, the Acropolis has now re-opened following strikes that have closed it for the last week.

From:
Athens News Agency

03/12/2009
Acropolis opens to public

Culture Ministry’s employees on Thursday cancelled their 24-hour strike and opened the archaelogical site of the Acropolis for visitors, in an act of good will after reassurances by Culture Minister Antonis Samaras for resolving the problem of paying contract staff working at the culture ministry through a bill to be tabled in Parliament within days.
Read the rest of this entry »

Greece’s president Karolos Papoulias has now called for an end to the strikes that are currently closing Athens’s Acropolis to visitors. Whilst there is sympathy for the strikers, their actions have the potential to cause major damage to the Greece’s tourist trade.

From:
Associated Press

Greece: Strikers close Acropolis for back pay
1 day ago

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Striking Culture Ministry employees closed the Acropolis to visitors Wednesday for the fifth time in two weeks, turning hundreds of tourists away from the ancient site.

The protesters are mostly contract workers demanding permanent jobs and back pay. Hundreds of visitors stood outside the entrance as strikers handed out fliers detailing their demands.
Read the rest of this entry »

Strikes continue on the Acropolis – an issue that needs to be resolved for the New Acropolis Museum, so that it can start as a reliably functioning entity.

From:
Balkan Travellers

27 February 2009
New Acropolis Museum strikes

Tourists hoping to visit one of Greece’s, and indeed the world’s, most famous cultural sites – the Acropolis, are disappointed for a second day in a row, as access to the site has been shut down by striking Ministry of Culture staff.

Demanding permanent positions and the payment of wages that are past due, the workers began their protest on Thursday, when they blocked the entrance to the monument and handed out flyers in different languages explaining the closure, international media reported. The strike is expected to last for three days.
Read the rest of this entry »

The New Acropolis Museum needs to exist within an operating framework where it is not constantly threatened by the strikes that regularly close many of Greece’s archaeological sites.

From:
Easy Bourse (France)

Protest Shuts Down Athens Acropolis – Culture Ministry
Thursday February 26th, 2009 / 14h38

ATHENS (AFP)–Protesting workers Thursday shut down the Athens Acropolis and planned to keep up their demonstration until the weekend, the culture ministry said.
About 20 axed contract workers blocked the entrance to the monument Thursday morning, ministry spokesman George Mouroutis told AFP.
“The gates were blocked this morning,” Mouroutis said. “The protest is supposed to continue until Saturday.” Read the rest of this entry »

A couple more articles on the plans for the formal inauguration of the New Acropolis Museum.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Saturday February 14, 2009 – Archive
NEWS
Grand opening in June

Much-awaited launch of New Acropolis Museum finally to go ahead, minister says

The long-awaited opening of Athens’s New Acropolis Museum, a controversial glass-and-concrete construction that has been designed to accommodate the missing Parthenon Marbles, is to take place on June 20, the culture minister revealed yesterday.
Read the rest of this entry »

This is not the first time that strikes have caused the closure of Greek archaeological sites such as the Acropolis. It does however in some news sources seem to have been caught up into the (entirely separate stories) of riots in the city. The site has now re-opened. If anything, such strikes serve to re-enforce the need for the New Acropolis Museum to operate in a new way to that currently used for Greece’s other state run institutions, to try & allow it to run more smoothly.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Friday December 12, 2008 – Archive
Sacred Rock shut due to temporal demands

The ancient site of the Acropolis and the Parthenon remained closed to visitors for the third consecutive day yesterday as Culture Ministry staff continued their strike over pay and benefits.

Protesting workers are complaining that a 150-euro bonus reportedly promised to them by Minister Michalis Liapis has not been included in the government’s budget for next year.
Read the rest of this entry »

More coverage on the return of a religious icon to Greece – after a thirty year battle. As expected, the British Museum feels the need to disassociate any return from the Elgin Marbles debate.

From:
The Guardian

After 30 years, Greece welcomes back stolen icon
Detective work and British judges close case of missing Byzantine masterpiece
Helena Smith in Athens
guardian.co.uk, Thursday November 20 2008 00.01 GMT
The Guardian, Thursday November 20 2008

A stolen icon, considered one of the finest examples of Byzantine art, was back in Greece yesterday after decades of police work, diplomacy and, finally, a key ruling by the high court in London.

The recovery of the piece, believed to have been painted by a master iconographer in the 14th century and depicting the removal of Christ’s body from the cross, came 30 years after it was stolen from a monastery in northern Greece.
Read the rest of this entry »

It appears that the electronic guides to some of Greece’s key archaeological sites are unfortunately no longer going to go ahead. It is a shame that this project is likely to be cancelled, as it would have provided an opportunity for the country to lead the way in defining how a major archaeology site should operate in the twenty-first century.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Monday July 7, 2008
Hand-held guides for site visitors unlikely

A plan to make hand-held electronic guides available this year to visitors at 15 of the most significant archaeological sites around Greece are likely to be scrapped because of Culture Ministry delays that would require an agreement with the provider of the gadgets, a consortium that includes Siemens, to be extended.

The arrival of the battery-powered, touchscreen devices that weigh just 270 grams was heralded in March 2007 as improving the experience visitors would have at sites including the Acropolis and National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Delphi, Ancient Olympia, Mycenae, Vergina, Epidaurus and Knossos in Crete.
Read the rest of this entry »

A new twist in the story of the buildings facing demolition because there are obstructing the view from the lower levels of the New Acropolis Museum. This new initiative involves an invitation for proposals on how the uninteresting rear elevations of the building could be made more aesthetically pleasing, in a hope that this will save them from destruction.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Monday June 2, 2008 – Archive
Facelift could save landmarks

Dozens of Greek and foreign architects have responded to a bid by local experts to provide a “facelift” to two historic buildings on Dionysiou Areopagitou Street which face demolition as they partially obstruct the view of the Parthenon from the New Acropolis Museum.

Some 172 participants have already registered their interest in “aesthetically enhancing” the rears of the two listed buildings. These include eminent professionals, such as Stephen Antonakos and Francois Loyer.
Read the rest of this entry »

Following the news that the bill for the foundation of the New Acropolis Museum is being drafted, other people are starting to think about what exactly they want the museum to be.

From:
Kathimerini (English edition)

Saturday May 24, 2008 – Archive
COMMENTARIES
New museum more than just a building

Organizers must make sure that the New Acropolis Museum does not get tainted by the chronic problems and sloppiness that traditionally dog Greece’s public sector.

The museum needs a modern operational framework and the freedom of extensive administrative independence. For one thing, opening times must suit the museum’s visitors, not the staff.
Read the rest of this entry »