Greece seeks return of Elgin Marbles with museum opening (Roundup)

By Christine Pirovolakis Jun 20, 2009, 19:04 GMT

Athens - After years of delay, Greece opened the new Acropolis Museum Saturday, boosting its decades-old campaign for the return of the priceless Elgin Marbles, artefacts which were stripped and sold to Britain nearly 200 years ago.

'All that you see around you ... symbolises ideas and values which were born here but are now the property of the whole world,' said Greek Culture Minister Antonis Samaras.

'The marbles of the Acropolis belong to us in order for us to share with the whole world. To share with you ... however, we cannot share the ownership of the marbles,' said Samaras.

The museum is at the centre of Greece's efforts for the return of the Parthenon sculptures, which were part of a 160-metre marble frieze of a religious procession that adorned the top of the temple built in honour of the city's patron goddess Athena.

More than half of the surviving Parthenon sculptures were removed from the temple by Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century, and sold to the British Museum. Greece was then under Turkish rule.

The British government maintains that the sculptures, known as the Elgin Marbles, which include depictions of religious and mythological scenes, legally belong to the British Museum and insists that they will not be returned.

Athens says the sculptures were stolen from a monument of such importance that its surviving pieces should all be united and exhibited together.

'We can cooperate with the British Museum. We can compensate the museum with other artefacts on loan. We can talk, we can come to an agreement - but the Parthenon Marbles will be reunited here at the Museum of the Acropolis,' added Samaras.

Greek officials intially wanted the museum to be ready in time for the 2004 Olympics but protests and bureaucratic delays, including regarding the remains of a millennia-old city unearthed during construction, pushed back the project.

'The return of the marbles is an issue of national pride in Greece, said Greek President Karolos Papoulias speaking before some 300 guests, among them UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsurra and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

The prime ministers of Finland, Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia Herzegovina, and the presidents of Bulgaria and the Republic of Cyprus were among those in attendance.

Following a centuries old Greek ritual symbolising good luck, Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis added a 3rd century wine goblet to a collection of the ancient objects on display in the glass floor of the museum's lobby.

Greek President Karolos Papoulias took the first step on behalf of the nation by walking over the ancient goblet - officially opening the museum.

Spreading across three levels, the 14,000-square-metre museum displays more than 4,000 artifacts and sculptures dating from the Archaic period. The pieces were previously held in a small museum atop the Acropolis or in other museums across Greece.

The museum makes use of natural light and is equipped with elevated ramps. Visitors enter large halls and walk up a wide staircase, reminiscent of the climb up to the monumental Propylaia entrance towards the Parthenon temple.

The British have long argued that Athens lacks a proper display space to ensure the safety and preservation of these priceless antiquities.

The Greeks, it appears, are set to finally prove them wrong.

Located at the top-floor gallery lies the museum's centrepiece and probably the Greek government's best leverage for the marbles' return.

Enclosed entirely in glass and rotated 23 degrees to be aligned parallel to the Parthenon, which is only 244 metres away, a gallery provides visitors with a direct view of the ancient temple.

The floor layout mimics the main temple whose 160-metre-long frieze has been mounted in an unbroken sequence, with the original blocks of the frieze coated in a soft brown patina standing alongside the white plaster copies of the pieces removed by Elgin.

In an effort to stress the marbles' separation, Samaras took an original bust of Hra, the goddess of peace, during the museum's inauguration and attempted to attach it to the plaster copy of the frieze.

The museum is expected to host over 10,000 visitors a day. Admission was set at 1 euro (1.4 dollars), the same price as a bus ticket in Athens.