Those of you who know me, know about my travels to Greece and how I fell in LOVE with the country. I can't wait to go back. Recently after years of debate, the Acropolis Museum has opened and it is absolutely gorgeous! I wish I was there to witness it. I went to the smaller one that was there at the time and saw most of the artifacts up close which is very exciting. A
t the opening of the Acropolis Museum, Mr Papoulias said it was "time to heal the wounds" of the ancient temple. The new museum, opened five years behind schedule, houses sculptures from the golden age of Athens. Britain has repeatedly refused to return dozens of 2,500-year-old marble friezes housed in the British Museum. "Today the whole world can see the most important sculptures of the Parthenon assembled, but some are missing," said Mr Papoulias. "It's time to heal the wounds of the monument with the return of the marbles which belong to it." The sculptures, also known as the Elgin Marbles, originally decorated the Parthenon temple and have been in London since they were sold to the museum in 1817 by Lord Elgin. He had them removed from the temple when he was visiting Greece, then under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. The British Museum long argued that Greece had no proper place to put them - an argument the Greek government hopes the Acropolis Museum addresses. The opening ceremony was attended by heads of state and government and cultural envoys from about 30 countries, the UN and the EU.
There were no government officials from Britain, but the most senior British guest, Bonnie Greer, the deputy head of the board of trustees of the British Museum, said she believed more strongly than ever that the marbles should remain in London. She argued that in London they are displayed in an international cultural context. She said a loan was possible, but that would require Greece to acknowledge British ownership, something Greece refuses. The British Museum holds 75m of the original 160m of the frieze that ran round the inner core of the building.
'Act of barbarism'
Their reconstruction in the Acropolis Museum is based on several elements that remain in Athens, as well as copies of the marbles in London. The modern glass and concrete building, at the foot of the Acropolis, holds about 350 artifacts and sculptures from the golden age of Athens that were previously held in a small museum on top of the Acropolis. The £110m ($182m; 130m euros) structure, set out over three levels, also offers panoramic views of the stone citadel where they came from. The third floor features the reconstruction of the Parthenon Marbles. The copies are diff
erentiated by their white color - because they are plaster casts, contrasting with the weathered marble of the originals. Museum director Prof Dimitris Pandermalis said the opening of the museum provides an opportunity to correct "an act of barbarism" in the sculptures' removal. "Tragic fate has forced them apart but their creators meant them to be together," he said. Bernard Tschumi, the building's US-based architect, said: "It is a beautiful space that shows the frieze itself as a narrative - even with the plaster copies of what is in the British Museum - in the context of the Parthenon itself."
Story from BBC News
