In the News

Over the weekend, in the Athens across the Atlantic, a new museum opened at the foot of the Parthenon. The New Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece was inaugurated Saturday. This new museum replaces an older, much smaller Acropolis museum with a huge and stunning structure designed by the New York architect Bernard Tschumi.


The museum intends to protect, preserve and display the great art of classical Greek civilization, and its completion comes at a pivotal time for many of these pieces of art. After enduring a century of political instability and urbanization (many of these sculptures suffered damage from acid rain and other pollutants), this art now will have a safe, permanent home within the walls of the museum. However, one piece that is missing from the museum is generating quite an international controversy, explored in a wonderful article by Christopher Hitchens in Vanity Fair.


In the early 19th century, the British removed almost half of the frieze that decorates the Parthenon. Currently ensconced in the British Museum, this piece has long been a contentious issue between Britain and Greece. The Greeks claim that the work should be restored to its full form (at this time, there is a cast replica of the missing portion displayed in the New Acropolis Museum), to which the British counter that doing so would set a disastrous precedent in the art world, as museums the world over contain pieces obtained by not wholly legitimate means. The Greek government is hopeful that the opening of the museum will bring renewed interest to the controversy and place more pressure on the British government to allow the repatriation of the segments.