The New Acropolis Museum: Ready to Take on the British Museum?

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  07.10.08 | 10:15 AM ET

imagePhoto of Elgin Marbles in London by InfoMofo via Flickr (Creative Commons).

There’s a new museum opening in Athens this year, but as the Times of London’s Mark Hodson writes, it’s not just another tourist attraction: It’s also “the latest gambit in a 200-year campaign for the return of the Elgin Marbles,” currently housed in the British Museum.

Hodson toured the New Acropolis Museum before its scheduled opening, and he was wowed by its centerpiece: a “160-metre-long frieze, with the Greek originals—coated in a soft brown patina—standing alongside white-plaster copies of the sections removed by Elgin,” he writes in his review. “The effect is awe-inspiring. For the first time, visitors can see for themselves the travesty of splitting the marbles.”

Tags: Architecture, Europe, Greece, Athens, News and Briefs

Eva Holland is the senior editor of World Hum. Her writing has also appeared in the National Post, the Montreal Gazette, the Ottawa Citizen and WestJet's Up! Magazine, among other publications. She's based in Ottawa, Canada.


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