The New Museum of Acropolis

The new museum of Acropolis is open at last to the public!!! It's been many years since the beginning of its construction and now, after an impressive grand opening, it is ready to welcome thousands of visitors from all over the world.

The ticket is only 1 euro for now, though by the Fall it will become 5 euros. It's still quite cheap if one takes into consideration how spectacular the exhibitions as well as the museum itself are.

However, objections about the post-modern architecture of the museum and how unfit it is in comparison to the other buildings around it and acropolis itself...unfortunately seem to have a point. Post-modern buildings have their own charm and their own virtue. Yet, this particular building is totally unfit to the surrounding environment as well as to the content of its collections, acquisitions, and exhibitions.

The most important objection is its location and the fact that the museum foundations are laid over ancient building complex of immense importance, since those underlying structures must be philosophical schools, even Aristotle's Lykaion itself (see Hellenic Ministry of Culture, The City beneath the City). The so-called "red zone", one of the most important areas of that excavation has been destroyed by the museum itself and only a few fragments of the entire ancient structure are preserved and can been seen through glass windows from the museum floor. It was always well-known that the area of Makriyianni, where the museum now stands at, is associated with ancient place names and buildings and it was always suspected for hiding great treasures of antiquity beneath it. So, it would be easy for one to choose another place for the museum. However, the thought that this location overlooks Acropolis prevailed, since the museum is primarily about the various artifacts of Acropolis and thus the Acropolis museum had to be located somewhere close to its sacred rock.

Whatever is the case, however, the New Museum of Acropolis is one of the best museums in the world, because of the great treasures it contains and also because of the state-of-the-art museum technology, its breath-taking interior, and its unique exhibition design. It is a jewel of museums and a jewel of Athens. It is an invaluable hope and an "oasis" for a country with many problems and especially in the public sector. Nobody can deny the great effort of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, its tremendous success, probably for the first time ever, and the most important of all: now nobody can really justify the stay of the Parthenon marbles at the British Museum.

The Parthenon marbles were stolen by Lord Elgin in the 19th century, after his request was approved by the local pasha or Turkish ruler of Athens, without the consent of the Greeks. Elgin literally "butchered" and chopped in pieces the beautiful sculptures from the Parthenon's metopes and he send them in crates, which were more than 40! Elgin had the marbles at his own place and exhibited them to his friends out of vanity and when he was facing bankruptcy, he sold them to the British government, in particular, to the British Museum. He didn't do it because he wanted to support art or Greece or to protect the marbles. Nevertheless, the British Museum has the audacity to present Elgin as the savior of the marbles and a benefactor of Greece!  At last, Greece succeeded in making a new home for the Parthenon marbles and the good news is that everyday more and more people from all over the world support the return of the Parthenon marbles to their home, which is Greece and only Greece.

Lord Elgin

Arguments that try to convince the public opinion that Greece is not the right place for the marbles, such as Athens' air pollution, lack of exhibition space or lack of trained personnel have all been proved wrong. In fact, the British Museum has been proven to be not less a vandal than Elgin himself! The reckless businessmen of the British Museum cannot lie anymore and hide the fact that the methods they used in the conservation of the marbles were quite unorthodox and in fact destroyed on purpose the external layers of the marbles in order to make them look...whiter! As a matter of fact, they made the sculptures thinner and actually weaker and more prone to breaking and fractures. And this is not another conspiracy theory, but, on the contrary, that's what some of the world's greatest scholars and archaeologists support, such as Anthony Snodgrass, who has examined the Parthenon marbles and who in fact, is British himself!

The British museum cares only about making money and if it loses the greatest of its acquisitions it will certainly get inflicted with a great loss of both money and prestige. Greece has plenty of young people who are very well-educated and ready to work and unfortunately they face a great deal of unemployment and misery. It's time for those semi-literate toasty curators of the British Museum to give the Parthenon marbles to the hands of people who really have a deep understanding and respect for them.

Let the new Museum of the Acropolis be a new hope for many people who want to work for such a great mission, not only for their country, but for the entire humanity. Let's all who go to Greece this summer visit the New Museum of Acropolis.

                References
The Museum of Acropolis Official Website (2012).

http://www.thenewmuseumofacropolis.gr/
http://www.greekalert.com/2009_06_01_archive.html

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