Showing results 13 - 24 of 77 for the tag: Acropolis.

September 13, 2013

Interested in the Acropolis? There are some old photos of it for auction (guide $30,000)

Posted at 12:46 pm in Acropolis

It would be amazing to see more images of the Acropolis before 1870, showing it free from many of the modern interventions that are now present on the site.

Unfortunately I don’t think many will be able to afford it with a guide price of USD $30-50,000. That said, they are originals from the very early days of photography – so their price is justifiable.

From:
Art Daily

Sotheby’s announces its bi-annual auction of Photographs in New York on 2nd October

NEW YORK, NY.- On 2nd October 2013 Sotheby’s will present its bi-annual auction of Photographs in New York. The sale will feature a range of imagery from the 19th to 21st centuries and is especially rich in masterworks from the first half of the 20th century, including several iconic American photographs by artists such as Alfred Stieglitz, Ansel Adams, and Paul Outerbridge. The sale is led by the intimate Georgia O’Keeffe: A Portrait—Torso, circa 1919, by Alfred Stieglitz, one of only three prints known and the only one in private hands (est. $300/500,000). The pre-sale exhibition opens on 28th September.

Ansel Adams is represented by a strong group of five mural-sized photographs, most notably his majestic Tetons and Snake River (est. $250/350,000) and the stark Winter Sunrise (est. $150,000/250,000). A brilliant color carbro Advertising Study created by Paul Outerbridge for ScotTissue, circa 1938, showcases the unique talent of one of the progenitors of modern color photography (est. $50/80,000).
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September 12, 2013

Greek tourist numbers rise

Posted at 1:48 pm in Acropolis, New Acropolis Museum

As an interesting postscript to the article about the decline in the number of visitors to the New Acropolis Museum. On the same day, many articles were published highlighting the increase in numbers to Greek archaeological sites.

Now, I have not seen the raw data for Either the New Acropolis Museum or the Acropolis & have no idea of the exact date ranges being used, but it looks as though things could be starting to increase again, with more tourists coming to Greece once more.

From:
Europe Online

Acropolis getting crowded as Greek tourist numbers rebound
By our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online
02.09.2013

Athens (dpa) – The good news for Greece‘s tourism industry – a record 11.5 million tourists are expected this year reports the country‘s National Tourism Organization – is bad news for the country‘s best-known landmark, the increasingly crowded Acropolis.

“It‘s leading to terrible crowding,” local archaeologist Eleni Stylianou told dpa on Monday. The crush gets worst in the morning, when hordes of tourists stream out of their cruise ships.
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August 16, 2013

Greek Archaeological sites open late for full moon on August 21

Posted at 2:48 pm in Acropolis, Greece Archaeology

Many Greek archaeological sites are open late because of the full moon on August 21st. Unfortunately, the Acropolis will close at 8pm, due to health & safety concerns. This has been the case since 2011 and there don’t seem to be any plans to revert to the previous late opening that it enjoyed.

From:
Capital.gr

Friday, 16 August 2013 – 11:47
Greece celebrates night of the full moon on August 21

The night of the full moon on August 21 will be celebrated with free events and open access to major sites, museums and monuments throughout Greece, with open-air performances of music, theatre and even guided tours offered by the culture and sports ministry.

In an announcement, Culture Minister Panos Panagiotopoulos publicly thanked the staff involved in ensuring that the “Under the Light of the Moon” programme is a success, such as archaeologists, museum curators or guards at sites and museums, as well as local authorities for their support.
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June 18, 2013

The Lego Acropolis at Sydney’s Nicholson Museum

Posted at 2:25 pm in Acropolis, Events

Sydney’s Nicholson Museum will be exhibiting a Lego reconstruction of the Athenian Acropolis on 6th – 7th July.

From:
Timeout Sydney

Lego Acropolis
06-07 Jul
Nicholson Museum’s next monumental (Lego) show

Having conquered the Lego Colosseum, the Nicholson Museum have engaged master builder Ryan McNaught (Australia’s only registered Lego builder) to recreate the 5th Century BC Acropolis of Athens, alongside the later Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a large stone amphitheatre built in 161AD. McNaught’s creations will be the centrepiece of this exhibition, which also features ancient Greek archaeological artefacts from the Nicholson Museum’s collection, including sculpture, pottery, and photographs of the Acropolis from the 1890s. There’s also (of course) a designated Lego construction site, for budding builders.
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March 11, 2013

Greek archaeological sites closed due to strikes – as tourism in the country is set increase

Posted at 1:59 pm in Acropolis

One of the most prominent signs to tourists, of the financial crisis affecting Greece, is the seemingly never-ending strikes that beleaguer the country.

While the strikers are striking for a reason, when one hears stories of people whose holidays have been ruined by them, one wonders about the effect that they have on tourism. As the second article points out, tourism is set to rise again – but everything must be done within Greece to promote this & show the tourists that they will have an enjoyable stay there.

One thing missed by many of these articles about strikes in Greece is that the New Acropolis Museum is run in a very different way to the majority of state owned archaeological sites in Greece – and as such, has never been closed due to strike action.

From:
Greek Reporter

Strike Closes Greek Museums, Sites
By Andy Dabilis on March 8, 2013

Once again, and as Greece has picked up its campaign to lure tourists back after a disappointing last year, archaeological sites and museums were closed because of a workers’ strike against more pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions being imposed by the government on the orders of international lenders.

A 24-hour strike on March 8 shut down the sites across the country. The workers said they were also protesting plans to cut back the Culture Ministry’s operations although it is essential to the tourism industry, the biggest revenue-producer for the country.
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November 9, 2012

The six women who support the roof of the Erechtheion’s porch

Posted at 2:16 pm in Acropolis, Elgin Marbles, New Acropolis Museum

Following on from the topic of the Caryatids from the last article I posted, this article looks at how the whole idea of the Caryatids originated from & how they have been perceived through the ages.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Six headstrong women confidently raise the roof
Monday October 8, 2012 (01:36)
By Camille Paglia*

When is the burden of the gods lighter than air? Six stately young women stand like sentinels on a marble parapet atop the Athenian Acropolis. They are gazing at the Parthenon, the great temple of Athena that, even in its present ruin, is one of the marvels of the world.

Casual and relaxed, the women balance a heavy stone roof on their heads. It is a remarkable display of female power: voluptuous curves combined with massive, muscular strength.
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November 6, 2012

Electronic ticketing for Greek archaeological sites

Posted at 1:39 pm in Acropolis, Greece Archaeology

For travellers who want to plan their trips in advance & have limited time, booking tickets online and skipping the queue has been a great way to maximise the time actually spent inside the museums, particularly those such as the Vatican Museum that are prone to lengthy queues. Greece has now announced that a similar service will be available for many of their archaeological sites. This is great news, although the benefits are probably not as great as somewhere like Rome, as in my experience, the queues to actually get into sites such as the Acropolis have never been as problematic as they are in some countries.

From:
Greek Reporter

E-tickets for Greek Museums, Archaeological Sites
By Christina Flora on November 3, 2012 in News

The Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, Culture and Sports has begun a special ticket issuing program for museums and archaeological sites using computers and mobile phones.

The e-ticket program is going to operate within the next few months and will include 30 frequent visited museums and archaeological sites such as Acropolis, Delphi, Ancient Olympia and the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Visitors will be able to get their ticket with a single click on the link which is going to be created soon.
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August 7, 2012

The true colours of the sculptures from the Acropolis

Posted at 1:12 pm in Elgin Marbles, Events, Greece Archaeology

A temporary exhibition at the New Acropolis Museum in Athens aims to give visitors a better idea of the colours that the sculptures on the Acropolis would originally have been, rather than the pristine while marble that we see today.

From:
Acropolis Museum

Archaic Colors

Commencing Tuesday 31 July 2012 and for the next twelve months, the Acropolis Museum wants to conduct research on its unique collection of archaic statues, which retain their colors to a small or large degree, and to open a very extensive discussion with the public and various experts on color, its technical issues, its detection using new technologies, its experimental use on marble surfaces, its digital reconstruction, its meaning, as well as the archaic period’s aesthetic perception of color. So far, scientific research into the color found on ancient sculpture has made great progress and reached surprising conclusions that to a large degree refute the stereotypical assumptions regarding ancient sculpture. It turns out that color, far from being just a simple decorative element, added to the sculpture’s aesthetic quality.
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April 18, 2012

Free admission to the New Acropolis Museum today for International Monuments Day

Posted at 8:06 am in Greece Archaeology, New Acropolis Museum

A reminder, that today, there will be free admission to most state owned museums & archaeological sites in Greece, because it is International Monuments Day. This is celebrated on April 18th every year.

There are also a number of other days on which admission is free – have a look at the list here.

April 16, 2012

Could Greece’s ancient treasures help to rescue its economy

Posted at 7:55 am in Acropolis, Greece Archaeology

Despite the dire state of Greece’s economy, one of its biggest tourist draws & most recognisable assets is its ancient heritage. Plans to try & monetise these site with commercial filming charges have however met with mixed reviews.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Thursday February 9, 2012 (18:32)
Ancient treasures to the rescue of Greece’s ruined economy?
By Margarita Pournara

Greece’s Culture and Tourism Ministry last month said it would slash the cost of permits for filming and photographic shoots at more than 100 of the country’s ancient monuments, including the world-famous Parthenon in Athens.

Some foreign reports reacted to the news by saying the Greek government was putting the Parthenon under the hammer. Culture Minister Pavlos Geroulanos tweeted that speculation that the sites would be “rented out” was totally unfounded.
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April 13, 2012

How Greece’s archaeological sites are weathering the financial crisis

Posted at 8:04 am in Acropolis, Greece Archaeology

There were many derogatory comments made, when Greece first announced that it was going to do more to encourage filming on the Acropolis by private companies (for a fee). At the end of the day though, it makes more sense to explore solutions to solve the problems of finding the funds to maintain the sites, than to sit back doing nothing. Greece’s finances are already stretched to the limit – so anything that can help the country in such a situation should be welcomed.

From:
Press Europ

Cultural heritage
How Europe hawks its monuments
8 February 2012
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Dieter Bartetzko

As Greece pimps its ancient monuments to bring in the tourists, lovers of cultural heritage are up in arms. But the country is only doing openly what the whole of Europe is: looting historic sites to drum up more ready cash.

Disparaging comments went to press practically before the Greek government spokesman had even reached the end of his declaration that the country’s ancient monuments would be used in future for commercial purposes. The Acropolis is thus to become a stage for advertisements and action movies; the Athens’ Agora, birthplace of parliamentary democracy, a playground for fashion shows and 007 stunts; and the Kerameikos, the nearly three-thousand-year-old cemetery, will become the backdrop for commercials featured perfumed sex maniacs touching themselves in their sleep. That’s more or less the future for Greece’s ancient cultural heritage in the looming shadow of the European financial crisis, as cultural pessimists paint it.
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April 4, 2012

Caveat emptor when buying looted artefacts

Posted at 1:11 pm in Acropolis, Greece Archaeology, New Acropolis Museum, Similar cases

Quite aside from all the other ethical issues about purchasing ancient artefacts on the black market at bargain prices, there is also a high chance, that you might not get exactly what you thought you were paying for. Quite why people think that someone who would loot ancient sites is likely to be true to their word, in what they claim something is is another matter.

One also has to ask, how someone expected to pass off as legitimate, exact copies of works from a major museum.

From:
BBC News

3 April 2012 Last updated at 16:23
‘Ancient’ Greek statue found in sheep pen is fake

An “ancient” Greek statue found in a sheep pen north-west of Athens last week has now been deemed a fake.

At first, archaeologists at Greece’s Culture ministry thought the figure of a woman dated from the 6th century BC.
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