Museum is inching ahead
The construction of the long-awaited New Acropolis Museum is likely to be completed this summer but visitors will probably not be allowed into the building until next year, Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis told a group of MPs yesterday. A year ago, Voulgarakis said that work on the museum would be finished by this month and visitors would be allowed in by the end of 2007 but the project, initially scheduled for completion before the 2004 Olympics, is slightly behind. Archaeologist Dimitris Pantermalis suggested that Athenians could be allowed in for two hours each day to see the exhibits being positioned before the museum opens to visitors. Voulgarakis told the group of visiting MPs that there are plans to tidy up the area around the museum after deputies complained that the ugliness of surrounding apartment blocks spoiled the view from the second-floor restaurant. Voulgarakis said there are plans to flank the museum with trees that will block any unseemly sights and allow visitors to enjoy the view of the Acropolis.
