Athens New Museum Acropolis

Saturday 20 June 2009, Opening of the New Museum of the Acropolis, Athens.

A few months ago Will and I were in Athens and we decided to take a tour of the new 21,000 square meter Museum of the Acropolis, it was still an empty space but it allowed us to see the wonderful modern architecture of this new museum. An idea of the wonderful Melina Merkouri, actress, singer and Greek Minister of Culture, conceived this project 30 years ago. We also saw on display an exhibit of stolen Greek artifacts which have been returned by various museums.

The Acropolis is a rock 150 meters above sea level, a hill in the centre of Athens, from far away in antiquity, it was a citadel to protect the city and defend it. The rock face is vertical and impossible to climb and it dominates the whole area and from the top allows you to see as far way as Athens’s sea port of Piraeus.

In time the Acropolis became sacred, the home of Athena Parthenos (virgin), Protector of Athens and Athena Nike, goddess of Victory, the Parthenon, we see today was rebuilt during the time of Pericles in 430 BC, it was and remains the sacred home of Athena, made of beautiful pentelic marble, (white as milk when new and golden like corn when aged). This spectacular temple has been undergoing a renovation for the past 25 years and the plan is to restore it to its former self, as it was before the accidental gunpowder explosion of 1687 when a Venetian captain fired upon the Turkish troops occupying the temple. I have had the very good fortune of seeing this work in progress in the last 15 years and it is breathtaking.

Below the Acropolis and all around the hill was a sacred precinct of smaller temples, sacred wells, divinity schools, theatres, agoras and religious souvenir shops. The faithful would come to Athens and visit this area first and then climb the Acropolis steps to the great gate Propylaea to enter the sacred precinct itself. All around the hill, trees, mostly olive trees, sacred to Athena for they’re life giving properties and as a symbol of Peace and pine trees representing eternity because they remain green in all seasons. The new Acropolis museum is built in the area next to the Plaka at the foot of the Acropolis. The Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi excavated the whole area so that when you visit the new museum you can see through the glass floor what the ancient area looked like. It has a magical effect, below you and around you the treasures of ancient Greece. The walls of the museum are also built in such a way as to allow indirect sunlight through, giving a natural light to the ancient objects on display.

Of course one of the masterpiece is missing, the famous Elgin Marbles. In 1799 Thomas Bruce, Lord Elgin, Ambassador of Great Britain to the Sublime Porte (Ottoman Court at Istanbul) convinced the Ottoman Sultan that he should sell of bits of old statues, after all it was of no importance to Muslims and represented idols from a pagan past. He was more than willing to pay to remove these objects. The Sultan was not at all convinced at first that he should sell off what obviously belonged to the Greeks, though his troops occupied Greece. But Elgin was a speculator and saw in those marbles from the Parthenon frieze all 160 meters of it, a handsome profit. After much discussion and back and forth, the Sultan agreed to sell off the marbles. With a crow bar and a hammer, Elgin sent his team to hack away at the frieze of the temple, in the crudest manner these ancient statues representing scenes of Greek mythology were wrenched off and carted away to London. Elgin was certain that someone would want to buy them from him for a handsome price. This is where Fate stepped in, no one was interested, Lord Elgin was stuck with marble statues no one wanted. Finally in despair and ruined, he sold them off to the British museum for a fraction of what it had cost him to buy them and cart them to Britain.

With Greek independence 188 years ago, the new Greek nation wanted its 90 marble statues back and this is where Britain, though acknowledging that they were stolen refuses to return them. At first the reason was that the old Acropolis museum was too small and these objects to precious for the Greeks to look after properly. But now with this splendid new museum that argument is gone. The British Government is now saying that in 2012 for the Olympic Games in London, they hope to be able to give back to Greece the marbles stolen by Lord Elgin.
The Museum web site http://www.theacropolismuseum.gr/