Charges filed over museum
Greece’s plans to build a new Acropolis Museum that might eventually host the Elgin, or Parthenon, Marbles, suffered a major legal blow yesterday. Athens prosecutor Dimitris Asproyerakas pressed charges of breach of duty against almost every official involved in the 94-million-euro project, from the architects who designed the building and the judges who picked the winning plans to the top Culture Ministry officials who issued the construction permit. The charges were linked with the alleged destruction of antiquities to allow preliminary construction work. In an ironic twist, the prosecution followed a complaint by Deputy Culture Minister Petros Tatoulis – lodged while he was still an opposition MP – that the museum would harm ancient building remains excavated on the site. «We must all realize that nobody stands above the law,» Tatoulis commented yesterday. Meanwhile, the Council of State was to discuss late yesterday a suit seeking the project’s cancellation on the grounds of its alleged threat to antiquities on the Makryianni plot.
