The new Acropolis Museum - open at last!

[Wanderer]

A new landmark in Athenian as well as international cultural life has finally opened its gates to the public today. After a number of setbacks and delays (mainly legal battles and in situ archaeological excavations) the new Acropolis Museum, designed specifically to house and exhibit the antiquities of the sacred hill of the Acropolis of Athens, was inaugurated yesterday by the Greek president and prime minister in the presence of numerous heads of state.

Official site

Some random newspaper articles:


http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/elgin-marbles-question-renewed-as-athens-museum-opens-1689481.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/5304133/Greek-government-unveils-new-home-for-Elgin-Marbles.html

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/06/19/arts/20090620-acropolis-slideshow_index.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/destinations/greece/article4937732.ece

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jV-NVZV8UFR6OU5x4iVmD9lNZVogD98V2ES00

[Dr. Dread]

Egad. The historical weight is overwhelming!

[DavidRoss]

Were I Greek, I'd almost certainly say yes.  As a cultured barbarian, I'm still inclined to say yes.  But if it were up to me I'd want to consider all of the arguments before deciding.

[knight66]

Tasos,

It looks like a great building.

I don't agree with museums handing things back. Where would it stop? Everything from Egypt goes back there, everything from Greece or Turkey back there.

So, then you have to travel half way across the world to see items that often, countries. Turkey, Egypt for example and just look at Iraq, would clearly have failed to maintain or protect.

Best not to keep all the golden eggs in one basket.

Mike

[Dr. Dread]

Put everything back the way it was after you're finished with it! 

[knight66]

Well, there you go, I am not finished with it. I frequently go to the BM and always pop in on the Elgin Marbles.

Mike

[Dr. Dread]

Well, there you go, I am not finished with it. I frequently go to the BM and always pop in on the Elgin Marbles.

Mike

I've been there. Only once, and it was quite overwhelming. I walked from the St. Martin's Lane hotel.

[knight66]

I don't want to rub this in, especially as I know it must be a touchy subject for Tassos. I have often popped in for the late opening. I like this especially in winter, then the carvings are lit as though by moonlight.

It is indeed odd that such detailed carvings were so high up, that only the very longsighted would be able to see more than a blur. I guess it was about honoring the godhead more than being about display to men and women.

Mike

[Dr. Dread]

"Hey you! Give my marbles back!"

[knight66]

Yes, entirely apposite  if the illustration is to be believed.

Your previous incarnation as I recall. The ancient ways calling you back Dave?

Mike

[Opus106]

So, then you have to travel half way across the world to see items that often, countries. Turkey, Egypt for example and just look at Iraq, would clearly have failed to maintain or protect.

That first part is a very UK-centric argument. And secondly, Greece right now isn't exactly Iraq, is it?

Mr Samaras is the successor to the late Melina Mercouri, whose strident claims for the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles made headlines more than 20 years ago.

The language today is more restrained, yet more confident. "I, along with every other Greek, wants the marbles reunited, just as Melina did," he said. "The argument against was that there was no deserving museum in Greece to house them. Now, this argument is off the table – it cannot stand anymore. The Acropolis Museum was Melina's dream, and now we see it standing."

[Dr. Dread]

Yes, entirely apposite  if the illustration is to be believed.

Your previous incarnation as I recall. The ancient ways calling you back Dave?

Mike

I'm one of those people who become dislocated around old objects.

[knight66]

Yes, this is often true '. I have seen one or two from up in the roofspaces and you see that there is carving on high with much detail.

opus 106....it is no more UK_centric, than if I was French and wanted to retain the Louvre as it is, or German if I wanted to keep the Berlin collection of ancient artifacts intact.

Then there is the USA. Here is an extract of something I wrote about a recent visit to New York, the Met. Museum.

I spent almost an entire day at the Met Museum. It is like the British Museum and the V&A all rolled into one. I do enjoy wandering and chancing across wonders....oh, I did not know that was here! In Paris and wandering the Louvre, I turned a corner and there was Winged Victory, like a stone prow for a stone ship, it took my breath away. I had several such moments here. Wandering the rooms of paintings, there were three Vermeer canvases, all together, each a jewel. Stillness, serenity, light expressed like a benediction across a room, upon a young woman. Perfect.

From a distance and through a wide corridor there was Canova's Perseus with the head of Medusa. As great in its way as Michelangelo's David. The back of the statue with its diagonal drape almost has an Art Deco look to it.

One wanders acres of European art, how could there be anything left in Europe! This must be the feeling when Greeks wander the great foreign galleries, so much transported across continents. Here, entire suites of 17th and 18th century rooms have been dismantled, shipped and put together in Manhattan. Both absurd and wonderful. But the collection seems strong in all departments. Egyptian artefacts like I have never seen, oriental collections from Japan wider than I imagined existed anywhere. During a break in the rain, they opened the roof-garden. My first real look at the city scape and across Central Park, a stunner. If they rented out bedrooms, I would stay there.

Mike

[Wanderer]

I don't agree with museums handing things back. Where would it stop?

I'm also not fond of the dogmatic idea that art and antiquities must only be displayed in their places of origin, no matter how this - at first glance -  would seem to benefit countries like Greece, Italy, China or Egypt. I believe there's even more benefit in having art and tokens of one's civilization scattered as a most potent cultural ambassador throughout the world than jealously keeping/hoarding everything in just one place.

Having said that, however, I must say that I consider the return of the Parthenon Marbles to be a different matter altogether. Lord Elgin did not remove the entire frieze of the Parthenon so as to think the exhibition of the sculptures in the British Museum is complete in any meaningful way; he only took what sections took his fancy, being shockingly inconsiderate towards the monument in doing so (his inept workers broke or partly destroyed several of the sculptures while hewing them off the slabs they were carved on out of haste or simply to carry them off more easily - there are numerous examples of sculpted figures thus separated between Athens and London – a head here, a torso there). The result is a grotesque situation in which a single work of monumental art (an inseparable part of one of the most seminal buildings of western civilization no less)  is presently violently divided between two places. This isn't an acceptable situation, especially now that the unification and display of the entirety of Parthenon's sculptures is possible under the most advantageous of circumstances, in direct relation to and view of the monument itself. Who would consider it normal for the Mona Lisa or Michelangelo's David to be displayed half in France and half in Italy? This is the problem the new museum addresses.

[Wanderer]

Although there is something to be said for walking around the room with the friezes just following the flow of all the horses and riders at nearly eye level -- something that would be hard to if they were replaced in the rafters of the acropolis...

There's no plan for any of the original sculptures to be replaced on the Parthenon itself - that's why the museum was made in the first place. Their display in the new museum is organized in such a way so as the visitor may walk around the topmost floor - a glass-walled, transparent simulacrum of the Parthenon itself -  and see at eye level and in perfect alignment with the monument its frieze, metopes and pediments the way they were atop the building, illuminated by natural light during the day and by the same gorgeous moonlight-like light the Parthenon is illuminated with during the night (making them visible from outside the museum through the glass walls); all the same affording panoramic views all around the city. Passing by the museum at night and being able to see the exhibits from the outside is indeed an exquisite sight.

It is indeed odd that such detailed carvings were so high up, that only the very longsighted would be able to see more than a blur. I guess it was about honoring the godhead more than being about display to men and women.

Indeed, Mike. They were meant to honour and be seen by the gods (they were symbolically elevated to their plane, after all) so they had to be perfect - the fact that mere mortals weren't able to see them up close and appreciate the intricate details was irrelevant.

I have often popped in for the late opening. I like this especially in winter, then the carvings are lit as though by moonlight.

Such illumination must really be gorgeous, Mike, I'd have done just the same.
Considering when it would be a good time to visit the new museum, I'm thinking of visiting during its late hours so as to see the sculptures in the light of the setting sun - watching the sunset standing in front of the western pediment should be memorable (to me at least:-).

[Wanderer]

Understood. My comment was in response to the comment about putting things back the way they were. Are the unabducted caryatids being brought indoors?'

Yes. They have been indoors for protection since 1979. From their new place, they overlook the entrance side-entrance (?) to the museum. (I haven't visited yet.)

[Wanderer]

Some pictures...

[Wanderer]

[Wanderer]

[Wanderer]