Tatoulis defends complaint
Dodging a flurry of criticism over his link with a damaging judicial investigation into the long-delayed project for a new Acropolis museum, Deputy Culture Minister Petros Tatoulis said yesterday he had only done his duty. Just a couple of days after the new government was sworn in, court sources revealed on Thursday that nearly all the officials involved in the 94-million-euro museum project would face criminal charges for breach of duty in awarding the contract and approving the museum plans. The probe, by Supreme Court deputy prosecutor Anastasios Kapollas, followed a complaint Tatoulis had made, while still an opposition MP, that work for the museum would destroy ancient building remains found on the plot earmarked for the new building. Yesterday, Tatoulis said his complaint «was within the framework of my basic obligations to scrutinize the work of the previous government.» Former Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos had accused Tatoulis of «undermining a great objective.» Greece would like to display the Elgin, or Parthenon, Marbles in the new museum.
