Chariots of Rubble

Antiquity trumps Art Deco, at least in Athens, where ancient glory is both identity and economy. Two buildings—a 1930s landmark and a house owned by “Chariots of Fire” theme composer Vangelis Papathanassiou—are scheduled to be razed in order to clear the view of the Parthenon for visitors at the New Acropolis Museum, says the AP. The plan has enraged Athenians who believe Greece spends too much time lingering over its antiquities instead of appreciating (and preserving) its modern treasures. Neighborhood residents and architects have begun a feverish Internet campaign to save both buildings. So far they’ve gotten a lot of attention and e-mail support from all over the world.

Built by Vassilis Kouremenos, a graduate of Paris’s Ecole des Beaux Arts, the art deco building has a pink marbled facade and a mosaic of Odeipus and the Sphinx on its top floor. “They’re trying to make us vanish,” said Elly Kouremenos, Vassilis’s 85-year-old great-niece. “It’s as though there’s nothing between. Neo neoclassicism, no Art Noveau,” she told Bloomberg News earlier this month.

Vangelis’s pad is also tony but there’s no word on what the iconic new age composer thinks of the whole brouhaha.

The long-delayed New Acropolis Museum, a sleekly modern glass and concrete structure designed by Swiss-born, US-based architect Bernard Tschumi, won’t open until early 2008. It’s designed to one day hold the Parthenon Marbles, which Lord Elgin hacked off and took to England in the early 19th century. They’re now in the British Museum.

As a very wise and skeptical colleague from Rome noted once she saw the planning: Why did the Greeks plan their massive new museum this way when they knew these very buildings were in the way?

Or did they not care? As you ponder that, cue the “Chariots of Fire” theme for maximum drama.

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