elgin marbles

Acropolis Museum Finished But Will It Get Its Marbles?

Greece's new landmark, the Acropolis museum,which is located below the Parthenon in Athens is finally set to open on June 20. The modern museum designed by Bernard Tschumi has three levels and it was originally going to open to coincide with the 2004 hosting of the summer Olympics in Athens. Also the economy has doomed plans for a fancy grand opening and promotional launch which would have cost six million euros.

The museum is still hoping for one exhibit it doesn't have yet, the Parthenon Marbles which are currently at the British Museum in London. Also known as the Elgin Marbles, they were taken from Greece in 1806 by Lord Elgin when Greece was occupied by the Ottoman Empire and the Parthenon was being used as a military fort. The way in which Elgin obtained the marbles has been a subject of controversy since the beginning. The British Museum has refused to repatriate the pieces from the Parthenon and one of their longstanding arguments has been that Greece didn't have the proper facilities to display and protect the huge pieces. That is certainly no longer the case. And the British Museum itself also damaged the pieces while attempting to clean them some years back. But it's also hard to argue with a museum which has owned the art for such a long time and which has become famous for these pieces. The matter has compelling arguments on both sides.