Costas Karamanlis, the Greek Prime Minister has toured the (now nearly complete) New Acropolis Museum site in the run up to its official opening next month.

From:
Athens News Agency

05/18/2009
PM tours New Acropolis Museum

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Saturday toured the New Acropolis Museum a month before Greece’s newest and state-of-the-art museum opens to the public some 400 metres beneath the Acropolis Hill.

“We are in the final stretch towards the official inauguration,” Karamanlis told reporters following his tour with Culture Minister Antonis Samaras.
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The Skulpturhalle in Basel is hosting an exhibition about the New Acropolis Museum with the support of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture.

From:
Athens News Agency

11/5/9
Skulpturhalle Basel hosts Acropolis Museum exhibition

An exhibition promoting the New Acropolis Museum in Athens will open at Skulpturhalle Basel, Switzerland, on May 12, part of an initiative by the Hellenic Foundation for Culture (HFC).

The exhibition focuses on the excavations conducted on the spot where the new museum stands today, some 400 metres from the Acropolis, and serve as a pre-opening of the New Acropolis Museum next month. The exhibition is organised by the Organisation for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum (OANMA).
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As the Greek president’s visit to Finland continues, he has attended a seminar organised by the Finnish Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles. The diversity of support for the campaign continues to show that it is far from being just a Greek issue, despite attempts by Britain to portray it as such.

From:
Athens News Agency

05/07/2009
Helsinki event for return of Parthenon Marbles

HELSINKI (ANA-MPA) — President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias, on a state visit to Finland, expressed hope that the Parthenon Marbles, which are currently in the British Museum, will soon be placed “in the spot awaiting them”, a reference to the New Acropolis Museum that will be inaugurated next month.

The Greek president addressed a seminar on the Parthenon Marbles on Wednesday evening at the University of Helsinki, organised by the Finnish Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles, which was set up last year as part of the International Association for the reunification of the Parthenon friezes.
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Greece’s President is visiting Finland & met his counterpart over there. When questioned, he stated that he supports the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.

From:
Athens News Agency

05/06/2009
Papoulias meets Finnish President

Helsinki (ANA-MPA / N. Megadoukas) — Greek President Karolos Papoulias on Tuesday had a cordial meeting with his Finnish counterpart Tarja Halonen here, within the framework of his four-day state visit to Finland.

Presidents Papoulias and Halonen, old acquaintances and friends since their terms as foreign ministers, discussed the global economic crisis, bilateral, international and European issues and according to Papoulias they “shared the same positions”.
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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.
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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.
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More information on the plans for the opening of the New Acropolis Museum.

Due to the global financial crisis, a decision has been taken to reduce the scale of the opening event. Notice of the cancellation of the original tender to organise the opening is available here (in Greek)

From:
Athens News Agency

02/13/2009
Karamanlis confers with Culture Minister

Prime minister Costas Karamanlis met Friday with culture minister Antonis Samaras, in their first meeting since the latter’s assumption of the ministry helm after the January 7, government reshuffle.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Samaras said he had a “substantive and fruitful” discussion with the prime miniser.
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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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