Museum nearly ready
The task of transferring antiquities from the old museum on the Acropolis to the new Acropolis Museum starts on October 14. Though the official opening has been scheduled, the new museum venue is not far from completion and we can expect many celebrations in the interim. We will see official openings at every phase of the project. In any case, as repeatedly pointed out by Organization for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum President Dimitris Pantermalis, the new museum must be accessible to the public. And the best way to attract them is to bring them in while the exhibition spaces are still being prepared. Empty as it was on Monday during the visit of newly appointed Culture Minister Michalis Liapis, the museum looked vast, but also friendly to the visitors who will file in, as well as to the thousands of exhibits that will no longer be crammed into a tiny space as they are in the old location. The glass floors on the ground floor that highlight the antiquities discovered in recent years are the first thing that strikes the visitor, not only because the finds were not destroyed but because they are showcased so effectively. That impression is enhanced by the rest of the museum, where glass walls seem to lengthen the distance to the ground, with almost dizzying effect. The greatest emotional impact comes at the point where the ramp rises to a view of the pediment with the lions (more than 18 meters in length), with the display cases in niches next to it and behind them one of the Caryatids, impressive, even if it is a copy. There are many viewing areas, as Acropolis Ephor Alexandros Mantis showed the minister, which will encourage visitors to view the exhibits from different angles. In the last hall, which will play a key role in the museum as it will house the Parthenon sculptures, a huge opening through which the antiquities will be brought indicates meticulous planning down to the last detail. Liapis heard from Pantermalis and archaeologists from the Ephorate how the Parthenon frieze would be displayed and a net would indicate the parts that Lord Elgin took and are now in the British Museum. The transfer of the antiquities will be finished in three months, with cranes making three or four trips a day. «Do such large cranes exit?» asked the minister. In fact the bases for the specially modified cranes are visible from a distance. Liapis declared he was not so interested in the official opening as in what the public would see, and he asked for the work to be expedited, Later he spoke for the television cameras about «a great vision being realized» and about the next step, the return of the sculptures from the British Museum.
